San Bernardino Valley College President Gloria Fisher, whose selection to head that college in 2013 descended into controversy when it was learned that she did not have the requisite academic credentials, has opted out of her position a year early. While her resignation will draw an early curtain on the discredit of having the college headed by an individual whose educational bona fides were subject to question, the college will still pay her all of the money due her under the contract she was given prior to her academic shortcomings becoming public.
Fisher announced her retirement in November and will step down from her position on June 30. She’ll be replaced by Diana Rodriguez, the vice president of Student Services at Las Positas College in Livermore near San Francisco.
Nevertheless, Fisher will continue to draw her salary as specified in her contract. San Bernardino Community College District Chancellor Bruce Baron said that the college would honor Fisher’s employment contract, which runs through June 30, 2017. He disclosed that Fisher had signed a waiver of claims against the college in return for the payment of her final year’s salary, $186,768, which is being paid to her as a condition of her “voluntary resignation a full year before her contract expired.”
Fisher has affixed “Dr.” before her name. In 2013, after having taught administration of justice at San Bernardino Community College for 22 years, she was elevated to the position of interim college president. A year later, when Fisher was appointed full college president in November 2014, charges that her claim to a doctorate was suspect, which had previously surfaced, were resurrected.
Fisher obtained her juris doctor degree in 1986 from the San Joaquin College of Law, an unaccredited institution. Her claim to being a doctor was problematic for two reasons, one of which was San Joaquin’s lack of accreditation. The other is that law degrees are referred to as juris doctors, but are not doctorates in the conventional academic sense.
A juris doctor degree is roughly the equivalent of a master’s degree, which is generally considered a six year degree awarded after two years of study that follow the awarding of a four-year bachelor’s degree. A juris doctor degree carries with it no requirement for the submission of a dissertation, as is required with a Ph.D.
Upon Fisher’s appointment as a full college president in November 2014, the college district board conferred upon her a doctorate stipend in addition to her annual salary of $186,000.