Harper, COD, and Maricopa Community College – Common Denominator?

DuPage Co. (ECWd) –

I’m not one to put a lot of stock into coincidences, since more often than not there are in fact connections.  For the sake of this article, we will take the safe position and just assume that this puzzle is just a coincidence.

• Catherine Brod served as Vice President, Chief Advancement Officer and Executive Director of the foundation at Harper College from 1997 to 2012.
• Robert Breuder was president of Harper College from 1998 to 2008.
• Breuder takes the helm at COD in 2009.
• Brod joins him at COD in 2012 as the college’s new Vice President for development and Director of the college’s foundation with a starting salary of $169,000, which Breuder elevated without board notice to $193,643.33 only two years later.  (Click here for article covering that pay raise)
• November 2014 the Maricopa Community College Foundation CEO announces his retirement.
• January 20, 2015 Breuder turns in his retirement letter
• January 2015 Catherine Brod makes the short list for Maricopa Community College Foundation CEO. (Click here for that article)
  
• Maricopa Community College just happens to be 35 miles from Robert Breuders 2nd home in Scottsdale, AZ.  (Click here for County Tax assessor information on that property)

History has shown that the Breuder & Brod team have raised significant cash reserves at both colleges, all while students paid more.

Now look at the minutes from Maricopa and pay particular attention to this statement:  “Dr. Glasper noted they are revamping the way the Foundation does business. He has been visiting with community partners as part of the Foundation’s current $50M capital campaign and has discovered that community colleges are not thought of at the same level as universities. He proposes to restructure it with more of a focus on individual colleges as they are more face-to-face with their communities. They are working to find a model that will work for Maricopa. He intends to scale the current mechanism to a $75-100M campaign.” (Click here to read MCC minutes)

Does Breuder have plans on establishing yet another golden goose egg with the help of Catherine Brod, a person he has clearly taken care of during his past two positions?  It may all be just one big coincidence as it appears Breuder purchased his property as early as 1996 and possibly prior to that.  Tax records did not go back further in the online access portal.  It could be nothing more than a home for his mother.

It will be most telling to find out where Breuder ends up after leaving COD in March of 2016.