Tarrant County College announced a unanimous vote by its board of trustees to fire Chancellor Eugene Giovannini.
According to the announcement made on the night of March 17, the decision to fire Giovannini is to take effect immediately.
Giovannini was accused of unlawful retaliation against an employee, Kristen Bennett. In February, Kristen Bennett, the former executive vice president of advancement who led the TCC Foundation, filed a lawsuit against Giovannini.
According to Bennett, she took disciplinary action against a female employee who was causing problems in her team. Giovannini then took action against her in retaliation for the employee’s discipline with whom she said Giovannini was having an affair.
Bennett complained that Giovannini punished her for speech he did not deem offensive when said by men.
Due to the accusations, the Board of Trustees brought in an independent investigator to investigate the matter. Meanwhile, Giovannini, who has been the district’s chancellor for about six years, was put on administrative leave. Now, the district is firing him.
“Today, the attending Board of Trustees decided to commence the formal process of terminating Chancellor Eugene Giovannini’s contract for good cause,” Board President Teresa Ayala said. “We believe this action is in the college’s best long-term interests.”
Ayala further announced that Elva LeBlan would stand as Acting Chancellor upon Giovannini’s departure.
“As this process gets underway,” Ayala said, “we are confident that the operations of the College are in good hands under the strong, capable leadership of Acting Chancellor Elva LeBlanc.”
Ayala further expressed confidence that nothing will distract LeBlanc or the district’s faculty, staff, and students or deter them from “the outstanding work they are currently doing in their work together each day.”
