Gupta Desperate; Looks to GCC to Save Her from JCC

Word on the street is that Alfred State College president Uma Gupta is rounding up an entourage and preparing to hit the road in hopes of finding an ally to help fend off the incursions of Jamestown Community College.

According to rumors shared with us, Gupta is hoping that a charm offensive will put Genesee Community College firmly on the side of Alfred State and keep JCC from getting a toehold in Allegany County.

For over a year, Gupta has acted like JCC was a polecat sniffing around the henhouse and treated JCC's president (and anyone else from there) as if they were varmints that needed a dose of buckshot when sighted crossing the Allegany County line.

While folks at the vice presidential level spent months trying to build a working relationship with JCC, Gupta's bizarre behavior sabotaged their efforts and irritated and alienated plenty of folks at JCC and beyond.

Gupta's distain for Allegany County's legislators irritated and alienated the very people Alfred States needs to be building solid, positive relationships with. Things came to a head when the legislators, in what amounted to a vote of no confidence in Gupta, approved unanimously a resolution to welcome JCC in opening a facility in the county. Gupta raised a fuss and asked the legislators to come to ASC to discuss the matter. She was told (rather bluntly) that the legislators were not coming to her. Rather, they made it clear that if she wanted to talk, she would have to go to them.

Gupta thought she had a trump card in Albany, but when she went there looking for help in keeping JCC out of the county, SUNY told her she was on her own.

That brings us to GCC.

Gupta is floundering. Her incompetence is killing Alfred State. She's managed to get rid of almost all of the college's competent senior leaders and replace them with a President's Cabinet stuffed full of unqualified and incompetent sycophants. She's managed to alienate the community to the point where people refuse to eat in the same room with her. (See our post "What If You Gave A Party..." for details.) Gupta is desperate.

Given the borderline personality disorder from which we believe she suffers (see earlier posts for details), we also believe Gupta is out to get revenge against JCC for "attacking" her. In Gupta's mind, nobody treats her the way JCC and the county legislators did -- and she has made it a point of stating that.

We believe that Gupta figures she can use GCC to scare off JCC or, if they do set up shop here, set up a competitive situation that will essential drive JCC out of business.

To us, it sounds like Gupta has absolutely no idea what she is doing.

From what we've heard about GCC President Stuart Steiner, the usual Gupta nonsense will be met politely. But he is sharp and he'll be looking out for the best interests of GCC -- which is to be expected -- and will have figured out exactly how to use the situation to GCC's advantage.

We suspect Gupta plans to try to control any alliance with GCC. However, we believe Gupta is so incompetent that all she will succeed in doing is inviting a second community college to set up shop in the county. When it all goes wrong for Alfred State and she figures out what happened, it will be too late to undo the damage. Gupta will be reduced (again) to blaming someone else for her failures.

While we believe strong relationships with the area's community colleges are important, Gupta's desperation and incompetence in pursuing an alliance with GCC is just plain stupid. She is looking for a partnership from a position of weakness rather than one of strength -- and worse, everybody knows it.

This issue, like so many others, is an example of how completely unsuited Gupta is in the role of a college president. It's time we got rid of Gupta and the ship of fools she calls a president's cabinet before they drive this college onto the rocks.