POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

Walkouts Held at 3 Seattle Community Colleges to Protest Funding Crisis

Faculty, staff and students at South Seattle College, Seattle Central College and North Seattle College participated in walkouts on their campuses from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday [April 16].

They say state funding has dropped, causing tuition to rise to pay for the gap.

They’re pushing for new statewide legislation that would fully fund community and technical colleges because of the state Legislature’s failure to adequately fund programs, salaries, and student support, according to South Seattle College.

With current budget proposals, the Seattle colleges are facing a $2 million shortfall next year that will force them to make reductions.

Since 2013, the legislature has covered only 65 percent of salary for staff pay increases they approved, forcing the colleges to cover the remaining 35 percent.

“The response is people saying they are for education, but there’s no money. But if they want higher education, they need to fund it,” Chris Conley, faculty senate president of Seattle Central College said.

They’ve also been rallying in Olympia, asking for the passage of HB 1300, that would provide more money for technical and community colleges by taking money from the state’s general fund.

The complete article from KIRO 7 in Seattle is available at: https://mynorthwest.com/1349918/seattle-community-college-walkout/.

 

Faculty Says CWI Administration Uses ‘Culture of Fear’

College of Western Idaho Faculty Senate Chairwoman Stephanie Ritchie Breach said the majority of CWI’s 146 full-time faculty no longer have confidence in college president Bert Glandon, interim provost John King or the rest of CWI’s administration.

“It has been a very difficult year for faculty,” Ritchie Breach said in a letter read to CWI’s board of trustees Tuesday. . . .

In her letter, Ritchie Breach said faculty feel as though CWI’s administration cares more about making money than caring for the students or faculty. She called out King for coming from a for-profit institution background.

In the announcement of King’s appointment in December, CWI reports he is a previous business owner with “a very unique perspective of understanding the fiscal aspects of funding and operating an educational enterprise.”

“Everything is about money,” Ritchie Breach said in the letter.

One example of this is the promotion of eight-week courses at CWI, she said. Ritchie Breach said students and faculty were not consulted about the decision, and the shorter courses may not be best for all students.

“Some students may excel in condensed courses, but for so many of our students, it will present additional challenges and barriers to them receiving an education,” Ritchie Breach said in the letter.

The complete article written by Erin Bamer for the Idaho Press is available at: https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/faculty-says-cwi-administration-uses-culture-of-fear/article_9df1d9ee-a18d-5129-b02d-9abe34884042.html.

 

Bid to Organize Pitt Faculty Falls Short, But Union Contests Ruling

A yearlong drive to unionize 3,500 University of Pittsburgh faculty appears to have failed—at least for now—with word Thursday that the state found too few employees signed cards of support to justify a hearing on a proposed election.

Both Pitt and the United Steelworkers Thursday confirmed that a letter delivered by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board stated as such, but they offered sharply different explanations for why the union’s election petition was rejected.

“They didn’t meet the 30 percent threshold,” Pitt spokesman Joseph Miksch said, alluding to a requirement that at least 30% of the potential bargaining unit sign cards.

However, a statement from the United Steelworkers, the union with which faculty organizers want to affiliate, accused Pitt of attempting to derail the union drive by exaggerating its number of employees. It indicated plans to appeal.

“The Pitt Faculty Organizing Committee … believes the University of Pittsburgh administration deliberately inflated the number of university instructors in their potential bargaining unit in an attempt to avoid a union election,” the statement read.

“The organizing committee anticipated this problem because the university administration failed to disclose exactly who they put on the list of eligible faculty they gave the PLRB or whether they included job classes or schools excluded in the petitioned-for unit,” the statement continued.

The complete article written by Bill Shackner for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is available at: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2019/04/18/University-of-Pittsburgh-Pitt-Steelworkers-USW-union-labor-election-PLRB-faculty-adjuncts/stories/201904180131.

 

After Years-Long Campaign, Grad Students Await Outcome of Union Vote

Organizers wearing pro-union T-shirts high-fived and cheered for the last few dozen graduate students as they trickled into the second-floor ballroom of the O’Hara Student Center Thursday afternoon to cast their votes in the union election.

They were celebrating the culmination of a years-long campaign to unionize Pitt graduate students—although the results of the election won’t be announced until next Friday. Despite roadblocks and perceived opposition from the University, organizer and Pitt graduate student Kim Garrett said she was hopeful about the results of the election.

“This four-year long battle is almost over,” Garrett said. “I’m optimistic we turned out enough people to form a union.”

More than 1,000 students voted in the graduate student union election held this week in Posvar and the O’Hara Student Center, just five weeks after the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate students at Pitt are allowed to unionize.

According to Dennis Bachy, a PLRB agent who oversaw the voting process, Pitt turned out an estimated 60-70%—approximately 1,200 to 1,400—of its eligible 2,017 voters. The PLRB will likely provide an exact number Friday, Bachy said.

The complete article written by Neena Hagen for The Pitt News is available at: https://pittnews.com/article/147487/featured/grad-students-await-outcome/.