At a Student Government Association meeting on Tuesday, ETSU President Brian Noland provided new info on former university Police Chief Nicole Collins’ departure.
While addressing the senators, Noland said the “cultural imbalance” Collins referenced in her Aug. 19 resignation letter wasn’t related to Collins’ race or gender but rather her style of leadership.
“The ‘cultural imbalance’ is not a racial imbalance – now that’s not to say that being the first female chief of police didn’t play through some things, that being the first African-American chief of police didn’t play through some things,” Noland said.
Noland went on to say that the true meaning of the cultural imbalance was referring to the organizational change instituted when Collins took over for former chief Jack Cotrel, who retired in 2018. Noland said during the last few years of his tenure Cotrel had a very “laissez-faire” style of running the department and that ETSU Public Safety officers set their own hours and schedules.
“Chief Collins comes in with a military background, and the department went” through a significant change, Noland said, adding that it’s a “pretty firm shift in the manner of how you operate.”
At one point, there were multiple complaints coming out of the department from officers about Collins’ leadership and that around October or November 2018, about “half the force was threatening to resign,” according to Noland.
He also added there were questions about “intimidation,” “bullying” and “mismanagement of funds.” Noland also said there were unpaid bills to the Johnson City Police Department but didn’t mention specifics.
In November or December of that year, the university held several meetings with Collins, and she reportedly said she’d stop pursuing accreditation and that she’d scale back some of the measures she’d put in place.
Prior to the beginning of the 2018-19 academic year, however, Noland said “two-thirds” of the public safety officers were threatening to resign and take other jobs in surrounding counties even if it necessitated a pay cut.
Noland also said that he and the university have “not been in a hurry” to provide documents pertaining to Collins’ departure to local media organizations requested through the Freedom of Information Act.
“We’ve had multiple Freedom of Information Act requests for every document that we have pertaining to Chief Collins, pertaining to culture, pertaining to budgets – pertaining to a whole range of things,” Noland said. “For as long as we possibly can, we’ve attempted to withhold – that’s not the right way of phrasing it – but I’ve not been in a hurry to provide that information to the press.”
Noland told the East Tennessean after the meeting that those documents were still in the process of being delivered to the press, and that they would comply with those requests “soon” and that they didn’t want those documents to get to the press because it could jeopardize Chief Collins’ future job prospects and that it would “do a lot of damage to someone I like and respect’s career.”
Noland also reportedly met with SGA leadership and shared “a little bit more detail,” but SGA President Aamir Shaikh declined to comment, saying he has to “respect the fact [Noland] wants Chief Collins to find a job.”
