By Simon Van Zullen-Wood
The first and only time I sat down with Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., the former president of Stockton University, he was very much the current president of Stockton University. A few weeks later, an avalanche of disastrous business decisions and horrific PR blunders would tarnish the school’s reputation, help bring an end to Saatkamp’s career there, and, for good measure, plunge the zombie metropolis that is Atlantic City into ever deeper chaos. But on that late afternoon in early March, all seemed fairly peachy.
[…]It seems puzzling, given his questionable interpersonal skills and massive ego, that Saatkamp lasted as long as he did. As one member of the school’s Foundation Board put it to me, “I dare you to find someone in South Jersey who says, ‘I like Herman Saat-kamp.’” That may or may not be true, but as Anne Pomeroy, an associate professor of philosophy and head of the school’s teachers union, says, having a pain-in-the-ass president was a small price to pay for the success he brought the university. “We have always thought, okay, you know, he’s a bit of a blowhard,” she says. But he also did “a lot of things that we desperately needed. We had [virtually] no foundation, no alumni association, really, to speak of.”
[…]Over the course of Saatkamp’s tenure, his autocratic decision-making had often paid off, but it seems in this instance to have seriously damaged the university’s reputation. “ … [T]he inept, disrespectful, and seemingly incompetent behavior of President Saatkamp and the Board of Trustees compels me [to] speak up,” wrote Tim Haresign, a faculty member and the president of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals, in an email to Saatkamp and the entire university staff and faculty. He added, “It is unacceptable to enter into secret deals that have the potential to dramatically change the course of our beloved home without the full involvement of faculty, staff, and students.” The faculty would eventually vote “no confidence” in Saatkamp.
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