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September, 2003 Volume 14, Issue 1 - Perpetrator as Victim |
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By Carl Gettleman
The administration’s misguided efforts to achieve a balanced budget at SMC demonstrate how deeply out of touch President Robertson is with the fundamental values and objectives of the College. Initially, the administration decided to eliminate a number of classified positions, primarily in maintenance and operations. That “strategy” was tabled by the Board. The administration’s second gambit, the elimination of several vocational education programs, unfortunately “succeeded.”
Program cuts are among the worst possible approaches to deficit reduction because they violate the very purpose of a community college to provide affordable vocational and academic education to a wide spectrum of students. While the College’s staff and faculty worked long and hard to present less damaging alternatives to the administration and the Board, their efforts were rebuffed without any cogent explanation. That sort of behavior runs contrary to every precept of modern management theory and practice.
If it was the administration’s intent to pit faculty against classified in the deficit reduction process, the attempt failed miserably. The unprecedented dual vote of no confidence in the President demonstrated overwhelmingly that both faculty and classified are in substantial agreement that the administration has demonstrated its incapability and/or its unwillingness to deal with the College’s fiscal issues in a responsible and collaborative fashion.
The Board’s subsequent vote of confidence in President Robertson prompted a response from both classified and faculty. For the first time in the college’s history a joint communiqué was released by both unions and both senates. This letter was printed in the Santa Monica Mirror, and the Argonaut. The President of the Faculty Association and the President of CSEA Chapter 36 appeared together on a KPFK radio program to publicize the situation at the college. We have discovered through this process that we are not just a community college; we are a community as well.
Classified has incurred losses as a result of the program cuts. Five members of our staff have lost their positions at the College. Four of those individuals were employed in the tool room of the Transportation Technology Department and the other employee worked in the Office Information Systems (OIS) Computer Lab. CSEA has not been quiescent about these layoffs. We have challenged the process that Human Resources employed in laying off our members.
During the impeachment trial of President Clinton, it was pointed out that Henry Hyde, the Chair of the House Committee investigating Clinton’s improper behavior with one of SMC’s most famous alumnae, had himself romanced another man’s wife in an earlier phase of his life. As it is generally agreed that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Hyde was forced to respond to the allegations of his own transgressions. Hyde pontificated that in an imperfect world, imperfect people sit in judgment of other imperfect people. Nowhere is this statement truer than at Santa Monica College.
The Human Resources Department of SMC essentially serves as the enforcement arm of the administration in regard to personnel issues and passes judgment on the employees of the College. HR decides who shall stay and who shall go. But our HR administration is a Klerical Keystone Kops. They simply cannot get anything right, even accidentally. Yet they are charged with disciplining, dismissing, and laying off of employees.
In the case of the Tool Room Four, HR switched the addresses of two of the employees, failed to send the layoff notification by certified mail, failed to notify the benefits coordinator of the layoffs, failed to properly notify the Association of the layoffs, failed to get the fiscal year right, or to spell names correctly. And of course HR neglected to finish the negotiations on the effect of layoffs prior to making the layoffs. That was for openers.
One little detail that HR left out of its downsizing plans was the somewhat obvious fact that the automotive department, during its five decades of operations, accumulated a fair amount of parts, tools, manuals, videos, etc. Well, no one had bothered to inventory this Hearst Castle worth of paraphernalia and the employees capable of doing so were no longer in the College’s employ.
CSEA Chapter 36 has filed a first level and second level grievance against the District’s ineptitude in mishandling the layoff notification procedure. The case is now a third level grievance, meaning it is subject to arbitration under the terms of the Contract.
The OIS employee was out on medical leave due to complications with her first pregnancy when she received her layoff notification. CSEA requested that she be retained by the College at least until her child is born. We justified that request by pointing out that a significant number of OIS courses are being taught through the current semester, and that the OIS lab continues to experience essentially the same rate of use as before the layoff. The Chief Job Steward had lengthy discussions with several Board members on behalf of the employee, but the district refused to accommodate her, despite four years of nearly flawless service as a support technician for the OIS Lab. Ironically the OIS Lab has recently been entirely refurbished with new carrels. So be it.
President Robertson portrays herself as a victim in the budget debacle. Indeed she has been subjected to withering attacks in public Board meetings and even in meetings at the College. Both President Robertson and the Board apparently feel that there is something heroic about withstanding the outrage and anger prompted by the “tough” decisions that the administration has made to balance the budget. But being embattled does not equate to being heroic. Heroism is about altruism. Heroism is about sacrificing one’s personal interests for the benefit of others. Heroism is not about victimizing the powerless for your own benefit.
On opening day of the current semester President Robertson compared the behavior of the employees of the College towards her with the behavior of bigots in Florida who burned anti-Cuban slogans on her family’s lawn. This comparison is pure demagoguery.
Piedad Ferrer Robertson came to this country seeking political asylum from the Castro regime in Cuba. America has been good to her. She has had positions of responsibility in no less than three community colleges and was Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Little has been denied to her at Santa Monica College. She has received raise after raise, perk after perk. The Board has spent taxpayer money to buy her tax deferred annuities. She has a retirement plan that would make Jack Welsh blush. And how does she repay the kindness that this nation has bestowed upon her? By imposing autocratic rule on a prestigious institution of higher education in the progressive community of Santa Monica. By undermining the job security of the employees of this College. By damaging the long term viability of the college. By destroying the morale and community spirit of the work force. By dismantling outstanding education programs that were created and sustained by the efforts of faculty and staff at SMC. By attacking the democratically run unions representing the employees of this organization.
You would think that after three no confidence votes in two states, she would get the picture that true educators have no use for self-aggrandizing petty tyrants. But this simple and transparent truth continues to elude her and the college Board. President Robertson owes the community, the employees and the students of SMC an apology and a resignation.
Irrespective of the arguments regarding deficit reduction, it is a fundamental principle of a democratic society and a fundamental tenet of management theory that the ability to govern is predicated on the consent of the governed. The reputation of Santa Monica College rests on the quality of its faculty. If that faculty and the support staff that maintains the College’s infrastructure have withdrawn their consent to be governed by President Robertson, then it is incumbent upon the President to relinquish her authority for the sake of the institution, rather than continue to impose her will upon that institution. This is what responsible individuals in positions of power in the public domain do in situations like this. Apparently, it’s too much to expect at SMC.
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