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Date: 8/3/2023
LONGMEADOW — For most people in the field of higher education, becoming the head of a college might seem like the pinnacle of their professional journey. For Longmeadow resident Nicole Esposito, it was the beginning of a journey that led her through discrimination, vindication and finding a new purpose.
In May 2020, Esposito was chosen to be the CEO of Manchester Community College in Manchester, Connecticut. Shortly thereafter, she brought concerns about the college’s finances to her immediate supervisors in the Board of Regents of Higher Education. She asked them where money from COVID-19 aid had been spent and about the use of taxpayer money. She said that her position came with a fiduciary duty which she was trying to uphold.
Esposito reported to Robert Steinmetz, Capital-East Region president, a position that was created as part of the Office of Higher Education’s efforts to bring the state’s 12 community colleges under a single umbrella entity. Steinmetz and others in the state’s Board of Regents of Higher Education brushed off her concerns, but Esposito said she continued to question financial decisions, as well as issues around equitable treatment of male and female employees.
In one instance, Esposito said her higher ups refused to allow her to hire a qualified first-generation immigrant woman from Egypt as a dean, making her second in command in the leadership structure at the college. Esposito was told the woman “talked too much” and “didn’t pick up on context clues,” both of which Esposito felt were stereotypes about foreign women.
Over the year Esposito worked for Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, she documented comments and incidents in which she was mistreated. She also secured documentation through the Freedom of Information Act. She said she was told that she was “playing a dangerous game” and her job was threatened.
After a “very successful year,” in which Esposito said she improved the college’s financial position and boosted morale, she said Connecticut State Colleges and Universities officials offered her a new title and significant monetary compensation in exchange for her silence about her concerns and a false statement that she intended to resign.
"It was because all year I’d been pushing back on certain things,” she said.
Esposito declined the offer. Instead, she sued the Board of Regents of Higher Education.
“It was a pretty massive lawsuit,” she said of Esposito v. Regents of Higher Education et al., the federal suit she brought against Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, Board of Regents of Higher Education, and three individuals who were her superiors in Connecticut’s higher education system. The goal of the lawsuit was to force changes in the higher education system, specifically around gender and harassment issues.
Esposito was later removed from her position as CEO of Manchester Community College and CSCU officials informed her of their intention to terminate her employment.
“I thought for sure I was committing career suicide, but it was the right thing,” she said.
Once the lawsuit became public, women Esposito had never met sent letters, cards and gifts to her home. “It motivated me to keep going,” she said. Another reason Esposito kept going was her two daughters. She said, “I have to be able to look them in the face.”
Esposito said the Board of Regents of Higher Education kept attempting to give her money to appease her, but she was not interested. Luckily, she said, the law firm that she worked with believed in what she was trying to accomplish.
Esposito considers herself a “disruptor.” She said, “From the moment I had to make the decision, ‘Am I going to go quietly into the night?’” Esposito paraphrased the poet, Dylan Thomas. She said she knew there would be slander and that it would be “a long road.” However, she said she believed that if she went into the conflict with the right intentions, “Things will eventually work out in the right direction.” She added, “I also believe change happens generationally. I am setting up change that I may not see in my lifetime.”
However, Esposito is seeing some of the change that her suit generated. “In higher education, we have a saying, ‘Never waste a good crisis.’” She explained crises are opportunities for change. Since the lawsuit was settled in September 2022, she said, “More people are looking at every aspect of higher ed.”
The settlement forced the CSCU to reverse its decision to terminate Esposito, who was also awarded of $775,000 in damages, attorney’s fees and other costs. As a result, Esposito remained and is still currently the CEO of Manchester Community College. Gender equity training has been mandated for the Board of Regents of Higher Education and the CSCU was additionally required to provide training to all executive and managerial employees regarding discrimination, retaliation, implicit bias and microaggression, as well as whistleblower and employee free speech rights and protections.
The agreement also said that she would no longer work under Steinmetz. Steinmetz is now the CSCU’s executive vice president of college services and student affairs.
Esposito said she sees more changes on the horizon, as well.
Esposito said she believed that she was placed in a position in which she was not expected to succeed, but rather to keep her head down. She reflected, “I absolutely think that plays a role in our system. When I made a good faith effort, I was hit with resistance and retaliation.” While Esposito thinks the problem exists throughout the American higher education system, she said, “Connecticut’s an 11 on the [1-10] scale.”
The answer is not simply to hire more women and people of color into leadership roles, Esposito said, noting that she brought her concerns to a woman at the Board of Regents of Higher Education and said that person was just as culpable in the attempt to silence her as the men who were more direct in their actions. Esposito said some women buy into systems of oppression. She quoted “The Ethics of Ambiguity,” by Simone de Beauvoir, saying, “The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed.”
After achieving a leadership role and finding corruption, Esposito said, “Women either make themselves smaller or you meaningfully dissent.” She said many people are afraid they will be blacklisted, “and yeah, those risks are real.” The answer is putting women in leadership in a position to succeed.”
To change the situation, Esposito said, the system as a whole must be changed. “We are underrepresented and don’t have enough of a voice at the table,” she said. “More women need to speak up in a meaningful way. That’s what I’m doing nationally.” Esposito now works with professionals in higher education nationwide to call attention to equity issues and is “teaching women how to lead,” she said. She has launched “Lead Like a Woman,” a monthly panel in which women are invited to speak about issues they face in their industry.
Esposito was named the 2022 Mildred Bulpitt Woman of the Year by the American Association for Women in Community Colleges. She now occupies a seat on the board of that organization.
When asked if a position in a white-collar profession allowed her the financial privilege to stick to her convictions, Esposito, a first-generation college graduate, said she came from a background with a single mother who escaped domestic violence and earned a certificate. “It taught me valuable lessons,” she said. Earlier in her own career, Esposito worked as a clinician with at-risk youth. She said that while, at that time, she was not in a financial situation to lose a job, “I was still a bear about advocacy. You can always make more money. You can always survive. You can’t sell your soul.”
With the lawsuit behind her, Esposito has a new vantage point on women in positions of leadership. “Women, just by being a woman, are disadvantaged,” she said. “We teach our kids, ‘When you see something wrong, say something.’ If you’re in a leadership role, it’s even more important to uphold your values. I wish more people would.”