|
News  |
|
|
|
Tentative faculty layoffs rescinded
The Advocate
Mt. Hood Community College President John Sygielski revoked a full-time faculty layoff list Thursday, removing the “tentative 16” from consideration of cuts to balance the 2009-2010 budget.
In a Thursday morning e-mail, Sygielski said, “As each constituency group is exploring ways to minimize proposed draconian budget reductions, I am pleased to inform you that the management and faculty association bargaining teams reached agreement late yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon on ways the Full-time Faculty Association will assist the College in addressing its impending fiscal shortfall without terminating full-time faculty positions. Therefore, the college rescinds the 16 tentative lay-off notices.”
Sygielski was not available for comment Thursday before press time. However, Faculty Association President Gary DeRoest said the agreement made Wednesday had to do entirely with the appendices listed in the full-time faculty contract that was finalized Jan. 14.
“Preparations (for a budget shortfall) were put into the contract,” he said.
These “preparations” came in the form of two appendices: one that allows positions being vacated by a retiring full-time faculty member to be filled by a part-time instructor or retiree (up to 10 positions,) and another that, if necessary, would give the management the authority to ask all faculty to give up as many as four workdays per academic year.
“It would be essentially like working four days for free. If the college needs to, they can take all four days,” said DeRoest.
DeRoest said the main reason why the list of 16 was originally formulated was because the administration was given a deadline and very little time to make decisions. They were warned “that they needed to be prepared” for a budget shortfall. When the word came in, “they literally had four days to react, because they had to abide by the deadline in the faculty contract for layoffs, that they have to be informed by the beginning of the previous term,” he said. “It wasn’t just a lack of understanding. They were trying to keep their options open. President Ski and his supporters did not have enough time to adequately look at other options.”
Prior to the list being released, DeRoest said the Faculty Association began meeting “continuously” after the state informed the college about the potential budget shortfall. Once the association received word about the list of 16, they worked even harder to come reach a solution.
“When quick decisions are made, it can hurt – it can hurt a lot. All the full-time faculty members took that decision personally,” he said. “I think it gave us more energy to try and get rid of the list as quickly as possible.”
One of the 16, astronomy instructor and planetarium director Doug McCarty said in an e-mail Thursday, “I am pleased and relieved that these dedicated faculty members can continue to contribute their talent, creativity and passion to their fields of expertise. This can only benefit the college and the community as a whole. Also, I am delighted to be able to represent the college and continue to offer my astronomy classes and presentations to both students and the general public. I want to extend my sincere thanks to the faculty association and Dr. Ski for working so diligently.”
Another member of the chosen 16, physical education instructor and track and field coach Matt Hart said in an e-mail Thursday, “At first, I was worried about potentially ending my career at Mt. Hood but I was confident that our college would find other creative ways to endure this economic hardship we are facing.
“In my life, I have endured more stress and uncertainty than this, so I just continued to do what I love doing,” Hart said. “I am relieved but I never broke stride. I have been teaching, coaching, hosting top-of-line meets and recruiting. I was never upset; rather I used this as an opportunity to focus on refining my craft and demonstrate increased proficiency in my profession.”
Though the 16 faculty members were notified by e-mail about the rescission of their layoff notices, they will still meet with Sygielski personally and be given a rescission letter. With the threat of job loss now in the past, DeRoest thinks it will take some time for those on the list to heal.
“Some of these faculty may have been planning future options, whether that means getting another job or leaving the state or whatever,” he said. “I don’t think the faculty or the college wants to see them go. Knowing this will give them more stability and that’s why we were working so hard on this since the beginning of spring term,” he said.
“It’s going to take a lot of time, a different amount of time for different people. There wasn’t a single person on that list of 16 that doesn’t love the college and the students.”
Although DeRoest says there is no way of knowing how bad the budget deficit may be until the summer and possibly longer, the suggestions that have been made at the town hall meetings held over the last month have been very helpful and are now being reviewed by the Joint Leadership Council.
“The state of Oregon is in a place it’s never been before and everyone is going to be deeply impacted by this. No one is going to be able to escape without being deeply impacted one way or the other,” he said.
“I am certainly happy that we managed to get the layoff notices rescinded and I hope that I will be working with all of them for a long time to come. (I also hope) that the state financial situation won’t get us to a point where the college has to make these types of decisions again,” he said.