\n<\/p>\n
Mott Community College is mired in conflict over claims that its president, Shaunda Richardson-Snell, proselytized on campus on multiple occasions, including asking a Native American visitor to campus whether he accepted Jesus as his savior.<\/p>\n
The Michigan college\u2019s Board of Trustees held a special meeting on Wednesday to address the issue, attracting community members who came out in full force for two hours of heated public comment. Some argued Richardson-Snell exercised her right to religious expression while others insisted she crossed the line as the head of a public college. Richardson-Snell wasn\u2019t present at the meeting because of a conference, according to board chair Jeffrey Swanson.<\/p>\n
After coming out of closed session, the board delayed taking any action but agreed to revisit a motion to make a public statement, drafted by trustee Santino Guerra, at a regular meeting on Monday.<\/p>\n
The statement under consideration says the college \u201caffirms the constitutional right to freedom of religion and respects the deeply held beliefs of all individuals.\u201d At the same time, it notes, \u201cas a public institution, the college also has a responsibility to maintain an environment that is inclusive and welcoming to people of all faiths and those with no religious affiliations. Of course, we expect all members of the campus community to exercise their rights in a manner that respects the diversity of beliefs represented at Mott.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s special meeting follows a December letter to Richardson-Snell from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in which the nonprofit said it had received a complaint \u201cregarding several occasions\u201d on which she \u201cmade proselytizing religious comments in her capacity as President of Mott Community College.\u201d The letter, obtained by Inside Higher Ed<\/em>, asked for a response within 30 days.<\/p>\n \u201cAllowing any College employee\u2014but especially an employee as high profile as the President\u2014to use their positions to religiously proselytize students, employees, or visitors conveys disrespect for the beliefs of the community and sends the message that those who do not practice the officially favored faith are unwelcome outsiders who do not belong,\u201d Ian Smith, staff attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, wrote in the letter. \u201cThe College has a constitutional duty to ensure that this behavior ends. Please do so.\u201d<\/p>\n Celia Perez Booth, a retired Mott Community College professor and a local Native American community advocate, raised concerns about the president proselytizing at an October meeting.<\/p>\n She told the board that Richardson-Snell asked her son, a Native American visitor to campus who was participating in a peace and dignity ceremony on Indigenous People\u2019s Day, \u201cif he had been saved and accepted by Jesus as his lord and savior.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOther people heard you and were shocked by your repugnant question,\u201d Booth said. \u201cHow can we trust you or have respect for you when you use your position to disrespect us?\u201d <\/p>\n A student also reported having a conversation with Richardson-Snell that had religious undertones, regarding students\u2019 use of artificial intelligence, trustee Art Reyes shared at the October meeting. Reyes told the board the president reportedly asked the student \u201cif he was aware of the \u2018one truth\u2019 and that there was only one truth.\u201d<\/p>\n She \u201cthen started espousing her beliefs as it pertained to what that one truth is and then further went on and indicated that there\u2019s a struggle for the world and that the devil was involved in trying to take this over,\u201d Reyes said at the meeting.<\/p>\n The college\u2019s faculty union, the Mott Community College Education Association, raised similar concerns in an Oct. 16 message to human resources. <\/em>Brian Littleton, president of the union, wrote that some faculty members \u201cfelt uncomfortable with President Richardson-Snell\u2019s outward expression of religious faith during workplace interactions.\u201d He also cited an instance in which Richardson-Snell told him \u201cGod was on her side\u201d regarding grievances the union raised over its collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very off-putting because I had no response for that,\u201d Littleton told Inside Higher Ed<\/em>. \u201cThis is not a religious issue.\u201d<\/p>\n He emphasized that Richardson-Snell\u2019s personal faith isn\u2019t the problem. <\/p>\n \u201cWe believe people have their right to their beliefs,\u201d he said, and diversity, including religious diversity, is prized at Mott. But \u201cthere\u2019s a line when you have a position of authority that you have to be careful that you don\u2019t unduly influence others when you have that leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n The college\u2019s general counsel, John Gadola, responded to the faculty union in a November message, obtained by Inside Higher Ed<\/em>, that the U.S. Constitution \u201cprotects religious expression\u201d and the college\u2019s employment policies \u201cuphold freedom of speech and expression for all employees.\u201d<\/p>\n Prompted by the worries others raised, Kathleen Watchorn, an alum of the college whose son ran for a Mott board seat in 2024, filed the complaint with Americans United for Separation of Church and State out of concern for the direction of the college. <\/p>\n \u201cTo criticize religion in any way or to bring it up is almost taboo,\u201d Watchorn told Inside Higher Ed<\/em>. \u201cBut this is a public college. It\u2019s not a Christian university, and the president has no business asking people about religious beliefs in her job as president.\u201d<\/p>\n At this week\u2019s special board meeting, community members came down on both sides of the issue. Members of local churches argued Richardson-Snell shouldn\u2019t be penalized for expressing religious convictions. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is no separation of faith and self,\u201d Miosha Robinson, a leader of Good Church in Flint, Mich., told the board. \u201cWhat was done was an expression of who she is. There is no way that she could go through life and not share her faith.\u201d<\/p>\n Board attorney Carey DeWitt said at the Wednesday meeting that he investigated complaints about the president \u201cvery carefully\u201d when concerns first surfaced in October. <\/p>\n He provided guidance to the board, \u201cdecisions were made about the issue, and they were implemented by the board in December,\u201d he said\u2014before it received the Americans United letter. He didn\u2019t share what decisions the board made or what the resolution of the investigation was. <\/p>\n DeWitt wrote in a statement to Inside Higher Ed <\/em>that he \u201cused as a guide\u201d the U.S. Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, in which the court sided with a high school football coach who prayed with his students on the field, arguing in part that students were not required to participate and he was acting in his capacity as a private citizen. <\/p>\n \u201cWe asked whether either a First Amendment establishment clause or free exercise clause violation was presented and concluded that neither was present,\u201d DeWitt said. \u201cNonetheless, we chose to re-emphasize the applicable principles of Bremerton so as to ensure future compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n Trustee Kenyetta Dotson raised concerns that no memo went out to the public regarding an investigation and argued that some form of statement from the board was \u201cwell overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n Littleton similarly expressed disappointment that this Wednesday was the first faculty heard of an investigation, which he believes should have been conducted by a neutral third party. He described the ordeal as an example of broader transparency issues on the board.<\/p>\n Trustee John H. Daly, who initially called for the special meeting, said he plans to propose the board undertake an independent investigation on Monday. He regrets that the board didn\u2019t respond more quickly and clearly to complaints. <\/p>\n \u201cAn investigatory process, from my perspective, is not punitive,\u201d he said. It\u2019s to determine \u201cwhat happened and was that a conflict with either the law or the college bylaws.\u201d He stressed that it\u2019s \u201cnot about religion,\u201d but about ensuring a higher ed leadership role isn\u2019t being used \u201cto promulgate a personal bias or opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n The conflict over Richardson-Snell\u2019s religious comments builds on existing tensions at the college surrounding her tenure. The board sparked controversy when a faction voted her in as interim president in July 2024, despite critiques that she lacked higher ed experience. Its decision to permanently hire her six months later without a national search process prompted further backlash. At the time, a local pastor, Christopher Thoma, and other Christian community members came to her defense in board meetings, arguing that Richardson-Snell had valuable corporate leadership experience and was under fire because of her beliefs.<\/p>\n Watchorn said, beyond her concerns about proselytization, she\u2019s been disturbed by the \u201cpartisan\u201d tone of board infighting in recent years and worries the public\u2019s concerns about campus leadership aren\u2019t being sufficiently and transparently addressed. <\/p>\n \u201cWe need some answers,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy are you behaving the way you\u2019re behaving?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mott Community College is mired in conflict over claims that its president, Shaunda Richardson-Snell, proselytized on campus on multiple occasions, including asking a Native American visitor to campus whether he accepted Jesus as his savior. The Michigan college\u2019s Board of Trustees held a special meeting on Wednesday to address the issue, attracting community members who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[2124,535,534,23204,1059,23205],"class_list":{"0":"post-44837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-accused","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-mott","12":"tag-president","13":"tag-proselytizing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Concerns<\/h2>\n
Compounding Conflict<\/h2>\n