How a Nagging Detail Plays Out in a Presidential Search

Shirley M. Collado’s no-contest plea to a charge of sexual abuse 17 years ago is a matter of public record, and the charge was known to the search committee and Board of Trustees that hired her to take over last year as president of Ithaca College (NY). But an article in the campus newspaper that made the case known to the wider college community landed like a bombshell and ignited a public controversy.