Rowan College at Burlington County President Paul Drayton stepping down, cites medical reasons

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<span class="icon icon--xs icon__camera"> </span><span class="credit font--s-m upper black"><b>STEVEN M. FALK</b> </span> <div class="caption space-half--right font--s-m gray--med db">Rowan College at Burlington County’ president Paul Drayton Jr., has resigned, effective Sept. 1 for medical reasons.</div>
STEVEN M. FALK
Rowan College at Burlington County’ president Paul Drayton Jr., has resigned, effective Sept. 1 for medical reasons.

Rowan College at Burlington County President Paul Drayton, who was placed on leave in August amid an investigation into a discrimination lawsuit, has resigned.

At a special meeting Friday, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to allow Drayton to step down from his post and placed him on medical leave. The college will continue to pay his $203,206 annual salary and benefits until Sept. 1

“The board wishes Mr. Drayton a speedy recovery and best wishes for his future endeavors,” board chairman George Nyikita said in a statement. “As this is a personnel matter, we cannot comment further.”

Drayton, 58, of Mount Laurel, was placed on paid administrative leave in August after the college launched an internal investigation into the discrimination complaint filed by an employee with the  U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Details about the nature of the complaint or specific allegations have not been disclosed. The federal agency enforces civil rights laws against discrimination in the workplace, including age, disability, race, religion, sex, and sexual harassment.

There was no indication whether the discrimination complaint has been resolved. A college spokesman declined to comment Saturday. Last summer, the trustee board hired Michael D. Shaller, a criminal defense attorney in an Ocean County law firm, to conduct an internal investigation into the complaint.

<span class="icon icon--xs icon__camera"> </span> <span class="credit font--s-m upper black"> <b>ROWAN COLLEGE AT BURLINGTON COUNTY</b> </span> <div class="caption space-half--right font--s-m gray--med db">Mike Cioce, acting president of Rowan College at Burlington County.</div>
ROWAN COLLEGE AT BURLINGTON COUNTY
Mike Cioce, acting president of Rowan College at Burlington County.

After Drayton was placed on leave last summer, Michael Cioce, vice president of enrollment management and student success, was named as acting president.

Drayton, a longtime South Jersey political figure, said he was proud of his career spanning 35 years in public service. He said health concerns, which he declined to specify, forced him to resign.

“It’s a job I love. I’ll miss the students and the faculty,” Drayton said in an interview Saturday. “I’m very proud of the record that I’ve had at the college.”

Drayton became president in March 2015, the fifth in the college’s history and the first African-American to hold the position.  The two-year community college has main campuses in Mount Laurel and Pemberton Township and enrolls more than 10,200 students.

During his tenure, Drayton oversaw shifting the college’s main campus to Mount Laurel, a more popular satellite location that underwent a $50 million renovation. The Pemberton campus eventually will be closed. The former Burlington County College changed its name in 2015 under a partnership with Rowan University.

In an attempt to compete with its peers in the region, the college reached an agreement with Rowan University to offer a “3-plus-1” program that allows undergraduates to complete the first three years of a bachelor’s program at the community college, saving students thousands of dollars in tuition costs.

Previously, Drayton was the Burlington County administrator for five years. Prior to that, he headed the Delaware River Port Authority. He resigned from the bistate agency in 2003 after resisting commissioners’ attempts to oust him.

Before working in county government, Drayton was an administrator at Temple University. He also worked as a lawyer in the office of former New Jersey Gov. James J. Florio and, before that, for a U.S. Senate committee.

Under a separation agreement with Drayton, Rowan agreed to pay his life insurance and COBRA health benefits from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31, college officials said. It also includes a mutual “non-disparagement clause that bars Drayton from taking any legal action against the college.

The son of a Baptist preacher who grew up in the segregated South, Drayton, said the discrimination complaint lodged against him at Rowan should not blemish his contributions to civil rights. In 2013, he received the Roosevelt Nesmith NAACP Impact Award in Burlington County for creating an office that focuses on diversity and cultural differences.

“I’ve lived my life on opening doors,” he said. “The last thing I would do is discriminate against anyone.”

Drayton grew up in Willingboro and earned a bachelor’s from the University of Delaware and a law degree from Villanova University. He taught as an adjunct from 1998 to 2008 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels School of Government.

Over the years, Drayton has been dogged by controversy. He has been the subject of news stories involving his failure to pay child support, his default on a business loan, a lawsuit against a previous employer, and his ouster from the DRPA after a political power struggle.

 

 

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