NICC Board of Trustees takes action on President

At its Monday, November 20 meeting, the Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Board of Trustees held its annual organizational meeting to elect members to officer positions. The board also held a closed session to discuss personnel and welcomed a new Trustee.

Members elected Jim Anderson to board chair, Kathy Gunderson to vice chair, Lexi Wagner, NICC executive director of finance, to treasurer and Heather Groth, executive assistant to the president, to continue her service as board secretary.

The board then held a closed session to discuss performance-related concerns of President Dr. Herbert Riedel, and members took action to move forward with possible termination of Dr. Riedel’s contract. The Trustees motioned to proceed with termination procedures for cause for Dr. Herbert Riedel pursuant to Iowa Code 279.24; by unanimous vote the Trustees will move forward with the process of terminating the employment contract of Dr. Riedel.

NICC continues to consider this a confidential personnel matter and declines to provide further comment about Dr. Riedel’s employment at this time. Dr. Riedel was placed on paid administrative leave October 9 of this year.

David Dahms, NICC vice president for administration and finance, has been serving as acting president since then. Under his leadership, the College continues to serve its mission to provide higher education and career programming.