Tensions grow over possible program cuts at Green River

Students, faculty and community members packed the Green River College Board of Trustees meeting Thursday with concerns about potential program cuts and lack of communication from college leaders.

College officials notified faculty in April that four programs could be eliminated as a result of a budget shortfall, citing low enrollment in auto body technology and geographic information systems, and the high cost of offering carpentry and parent-child education.

Faculty members claim the potential cuts target members of the Union Faculty and are an act of retaliation.

Per contract stipulations, faculty members have until June 8 to come up with a solution to save the programs.

Faculty spared the parent-child education program in early May by reducing the number of course sections and faculty while still serving the same number of students.

Faculty and college representative have been in unsuccessful contract negotiations for more than a year.

Earlier this month, faculty filed an Unfair Labor Practice complaint with the Washington State Public Employees Relations Commission and presented the Board of Trustees with a Vote of No Confidence in college President Eileen Ely. Jamie Fitzgerald, an English instructor at Green River, said 92 percent of the college’s 114 tenured faculty voted in favor of the no confidence vote. College officials said this equates to 29 percent of all faculty, including nontenured and adjunct. Faculty also presented a Vote of No Confidence to Ely in 2013.

“In the history of this college there has never been this level of unrest and bad morale …,” Mark Millbauer, president of the college’s faculty union and head of the auto body technology program, said during the board meeting. “It is so bad that not only have we had to give a second Vote of No Confidence and serious letter of concern about our president, we are to the point of where are faculty are considering strong actions up to and including a strike – a stop of labor.”

Fitzgerald said on Friday the union’s executive board had asked union members for an authorization to strike. Votes were being tallied but no decisions had been made, he said.

“We are trying to give the administration every opportunity to avoid this,” he said. “We are hoping they come to their senses.”

He said the union also hopes to have some faculty travel to Olympia to let lawmakers know what is going on at the college.

Board of Trustees chair Pete Lewis said he hopes to improve communication with faculty.

“There is a frustration that was caused more by outside influences, and I’m talking about finance in the Legislature,” Lewis said after Thursday’s board meeting. “That really needs to be addressed. These teachers need to be paid and I would really like to see that take place. That is really going to be my priority and open communications, bringing the faculty to the table in the process provided.”

Lewis said the board doesn’t have any plans to take action on the Vote of No Confidence.

The board released a statement in support of Ely Friday afternoon.

“Most importantly, we wish to make it clear that we as a Board support the efforts of President Ely and her Administrative team,” the statement said.

Tension at board meeting

The crowd at Thursday’s meeting filled the board meeting room and spilled into the hallway of the college’s administration building. At the beginning of the meeting, Millbauer asked Lewis to move the meeting to a larger room on campus that faculty had reserved. Faculty also requested the meeting location be moved prior to the gathering.

Lewis declined the offer. Board member Linda Cowan told the audience the meeting could not be moved because of state regulations.

“The board just can’t move locations because of the statutes of the state of Washington requiring the 20-day notice (of meeting time and location),” she said.

This prompted chants of “please move the meeting” and “stop denying access” from students and faculty. At one point, the chanting became so disrupting that Lewis called a five-minute recess.

Tension and chanting picked up again during the public comment section of the meeting, when Assistant Attorney General John Clark, who serves as the board’s legal counsel, said he did not think the board should hear testimony about the potential program cuts given procedure outlined in the faculty contract.

Clark said following the 30-day comment period after the announcement of possible program reductions, the college president will make a decision on whether to cut the programs. Faculty would then have the opportunity to request a hearing in front of a hearing officer appointed by the Board of Trustees.

The hearing officer and a dismissal review committee, composed primarily of faculty members, would make recommendations to the board.

“The board then makes the college’s final decision on whether the reduction occurs,” Clark said. “So the board sits in a quasi-judicial manner, essentially as a judge, administrative judge. The board will make the final decision. It can be appealed but it’s the board that makes the final decision, not the president. For that reason, the board really should not be hearing, in a board meeting, the merits of a potential reduction. You should remain impartial on this issue. You should not be receiving comments.”

Lewis said if a decision is made to cut the programs, students and faculty would have opportunities to speak on behalf of the programs.

“From the board’s perspective, we are at the very beginning of a long process that is going to come through a lot public testimony and then come back to us before anything takes place,” Lewis said. “There is a review committee that is set up with a preponderance of faculty on it and a student and someone from administration.”

Following about 15 minutes of discussion, Lewis decided to allow students to share their experiences at the college as long as they did not try to persuade the board to keep the programs.

About 30 students, faculty and community members spent more than an hour addressing the board.

John Martin, a student in the carpentry program, told the board he comes from a family with ties to the carpentry industry.

“I chose this program because of its reputation for quality and the unparalleled hands-on work it does with student and serving the community at large,” he said.

Martin also was drawn to the program because it is the only one in the area to offer night courses. He said it would be difficult to find another program to finish his certification.

“The differences in curriculum and class structure would put Green River students in the position to forfeit their progress thus far, accept time and money loss and have to start over completely,” he said. “As a paying customer, allowing students to enter a program they can’t finish is false advertising.”

Donny Hallstone, who has taught math at the college for more than 30 years, spoke to the board about the contentious environment on campus.

“I’ve seen bad times and good times, but they have never been like this,” he said. “Morale, at this point, is by far the worst ever. In talking to others today about that, it occurred to us in the conversation that a lot of the board members are newer. You may have the feeling that faculty are always angry, always complaining, but this couldn’t be further from the truth for most of the time that I have been here. We have been pushed to the brink.”