Peninsula College Head Steps Down Under Fire

Peninsula College President Joyce Helens has resigned after two years of turmoil that pitted faculty members against administrators and prompted the governor to appoint a task force to examine the campus uproar.

Helens stepped down at a board-of-trustees meeting Thursday. The board agreed to pay Helens $189,000 for the rest of her contract, which runs through June 1996. She was paid a $91,155 annual salary.

Helens would not comment on her resignation.

The board appointed Wally Sigmar, dean of education services, as interim president of the Port Angeles college. Yesterday, Sigmar held a campuswide meeting with faculty members, administrators and students to announce the news and calm frayed nerves.

The meeting was a welcome contrast to the constant and paralyzing battles between Helens and the faculty, said Stan Compton, president of the Peninsula College Faculty Association. The dispute had ripped apart long friendships among the faculty and administrators, Compton said.

"We're very, very relieved," he said. "It's been so tense this whole year. It appears we can put this conflict behind us."

The board met in several executive sessions to evaluate Helens' performance before deciding to terminate her contract.

Helens, a former administrator at Collin County Community College in McKinney, Texas, arrived in summer 1992.

No one can say exactly when her troubles began, but everyone recounts the simmering disputes with the faculty and the Friends of Peninsula College, a community group that was created for and dedicated to removing her from the campus of 2,300 students.

Although Helens blamed sexism for her troubles, her detractors said otherwise. She reassigned long-term administrators, hired her husband as a part-time consultant and favored dropping the school mascot, a peg-legged pirate named Pete.

Gov. Mike Lowry stepped in when dozens of Peninsula College faculty members, alumni and students flooded his office with letters asking for help. He established a three-person task force to find out what was wrong.

Task-force Chairman Max Snyder recalled the campus was full of pressure and paranoia.

"The situation appears serious at Peninsula," a task-force report said. "Hurt, fear and a lack of trust permeate the campus."