The board of trustees of Green River College in Auburn, Washington, recently fired President Suzanne Johnson following a major financial deficit that led to widespread budget cuts, according to a report from KUOW.
Dr. Johnson assumed the presidency of Green River College on July 1, 2017. Like many other higher education institutions, Green River College experienced many financial challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Years later, members of the community college’s faculty said President Johnson did not do enough to address those struggles.
According to Green River’s faculty union president Dave Norberg, hiring and other expenditures continued until the college’s deficit peaked at $14.2 million in 2025. At that time, Dr. Johnson called for 5 percent cuts in every division of the college for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. She also instituted a hiring freeze.
“Growing the college and expanding the budget, despite the fact that we had a budget deficit that went unspoken and unacknowledged, to me is just incomprehensible and indefensible,” Norberg told KUOW. “We should have been having hard conversations three, four years ago about sustainability and managing our budget. Instead, it was just radio silence.”
Prior to taking the helm of Green River College, Dr. Johnson was vice president for academic affairs at Suffolk County Community College in New York. Earlier, she was dean of Dowling College in Oakdale, New York. A graduate of Ithaca College, Dr. Johnson holds a master’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Stony Brook University, a campus of the State University of New York System.