This article has been updated.
After a rocky year-long tenure, San Antonio College President Naydeen González-De Jesús is transitioning into a district-wide role for the Alamo Colleges District effective immediately.
Students and faculty recently called for the leader’s removal after a “Teach-in for Palestine” event was abruptly canceled in October, drawing criticism from national freedom of speech organizations and prompting an investigation by the Alamo Colleges District.
District officials did not comment on whether the reassignment resulted from the investigation and said no updates were available Monday.
According to a statement shared Monday, González-De Jesús will take on a new role within the Alamo Colleges District as the presidential project executive.
The role will focus on district-wide initiatives to address the needs of target populations within the colleges and communities served by the district, with initiatives like expanding services for incarcerated individuals, enhancing resources for bilingual and Spanish-speaking families and identifying partnership opportunities. Francisco Solis, who retired last year, will serve as the interim president.
Solis most recently held the role of interim vice president for academic success at SAC.
Teach-in for Palestine canceled
More than 100 students arrived at the “Teach-in for Palestine” event at the San Antonio College Nursing and Allied Health Building on Oct. 24, just weeks after war broke out in the Middle East following the invasion of Israel by Hamas and the capture of hundreds of hostages. The ensuing war has prompted fierce debate and discussion on college campuses across the U.S.
However, upon arrival, students were met by faculty and Vice President for Academic Success Cassandra Rincones, who announced that the event would no longer occur, according to interviews with students present at the time.
That day, students were given multiple explanations for the cancellation in a back-and-forth with administrators after most of the students left. One was that students had complained about the event’s intent and meaning. Another was that the name teach-in “for” Palestine made it seem as if a side was being taken.
Mike Valdez, the vice president of SAC’s Student Government Association, said the abrupt notice was jarring and confusing.
“Students were … furious because we had this event planned and then you are going to come in and stop it,” he said.
The event was rescheduled to Oct. 30 and renamed “Palestine 101.”
In December, the Alamo Colleges announced hiring an outside firm to examine the incident and recommend actions.
Few details have been provided in the months since.
“Alamo Colleges administration is partnering with an external firm to ensure an impartial and thorough determination of pertinent facts,” the statement read. “This will result in an action plan to address findings and implement necessary improvements.”
The district also partnered with a facilitator to “guide meaningful convenings within the SAC community to enhance trust and foster pathways to empowering our communities and aid in student success.”
In an email to students after the event, González-De Jesús apologized for what she called “misunderstandings” and gave yet another explanation for the cancellation — a legal requirement for contracts to be drawn up before speakers can be paid.
According to a report by Texas Public Radio, the guest speaker, San Antonio for Justice in Palestine founder Moureen Kaki, was eventually paid an honorarium directly from the faculty.
“Our college embraces academic freedom and freedom of speech. We will not tolerate infringement of these freedoms,” González-De Jesús said. “Therefore, it was never our intention to interfere with this forum. Instead, we sought to follow Alamo Colleges District policy and procedure as it pertains to the request to compensate a speaker.”
But the fallout of the response and handling of the event was swift and far-reaching.
A large contingent of the president’s executive team signed a letter of no confidence on Nov. 1 and sent it to Chancellor Mike Flores, while the student government association condemned the handling of the incident and took a vote of no confidence all within weeks of the event being canceled.
Alexandra Klein, a civil engineering student at the college and a member of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance at SAC, said the campus environment changed in the subsequent weeks.
“It is a very intense environment right now,” she said in December.
The GSA helped get the word out about the teach-in, and has faced more hateful interactions in the months since, Klein said.
“There has been a lot more hatred on campus that feels like it trickled down from the top,” she said.
Not the first sign of issues
González-De Jesús entered the role with an eye toward patching up trust issues that developed over the past administration. In a report following her first 100 days, González-De Jesús said she heard during listening tours that faculty were concerned about integrity and accountability.
In response, she said her team would refocus on those principles.
“This refocus must include addressing issues, some of them uncomfortable, that have lingered from SAC’s past,” she said in the report. “Doing so isn’t easy. The conversations can be uncomfortable, but they are necessary.” Both González-De Jesús and Solis, the now-interim president, also came under fire last May as the mortuary science program lost multiple professors halfway through the semester, drawing the ire of dozens of students.
As reported by the San Antonio Report at the time, guidance counselors routed students into the wrong classes, and students missed weeks of lab time while the college scrambled to fill holes created when they dismissed two faculty members.
González-De Jesús also apologized to students then and promised that the college would do better.
“I know that we need to build our trust again,” she said. “And for that, I need to partner with you but I also need you to partner with me. I don’t have all the answers that you seek right now. But with your assistance, with your help, together we’ll continue to explore options to ensure that you have the resources that you need.”
