SWIC board votes to terminate PSOP executive director

Sept. 18--Southwestern Illinois College trustees voted unanimously Wednesday night to terminate the contract of Elizabeth Zurliene, who served for 21/2 years as the executive director of the school's Programs and Services for Older Persons agency.

SWIC spokesman Mike Fleming said he could not comment on the reasons Zurliene was terminated because it was a personnel issue. He said only that she has worked for the college since 2012 and the termination was effective immediately.

The decision to terminate her contract was unanimous by the SWIC board after a closed session meeting of about 20 minutes.

Zurliene was not at the meeting. She said from her Edwardsville home that she was aware school leaders planned to terminate her at their Wednesday meeting. She said she couldn't comment about the circumstances but that she has hired an attorney in relation to the situation.

"Maybe at some point," Zurliene said when asked if she could explain her dispute with SWIC. "But I can't say anything at this time."

In other business, SWIC trustees voted Wednesday to:

--Raise course fees for its Health Information Technology, Medical Assistant and Sign Language Technology Programs.

Fleming said the fee increases were directly related to increased costs to SWIC to provide the classes. He said the school leaders believe it is most fair to charge fees tied directly to the cost of courses than to charge a blanket fee to all students.

"SWIC continues to view individual course fees as preferable to typically much larger collegewide fees charged by many other institutions," Fleming said. "Some courses, from food service to welding, require instruction materials beyond textbooks."

The fee for the capstone course for the Health Information Technology went from $30 to $290 to cover increased membership and licensure examination fees. The Medical Assistant program raised its fee for medical lab orientation classes from $50 to $100 to cover program accreditation and the introduction to principles and practices course of Sign Language Technology will go from $25 to $80 to cover an increase in certification fees."

--Lease a Ford Fusion Hybrid and a Chevrolet Volt electric car for two years at a cost of $57,600 as part of a Car Share pilot program.

"The Car Share program allows SWIC to use more environmentally friendly vehicles without having to own them," Fleming said of the decision was made to lease instead of purchase the vehicles. "The lease agreement includes the cost of insurance and maintenance."

Contact reporter Scott Wuerz at [email protected] or call 239-2626.

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