What is happening to my school? As a longtime student, former employee and parent of a student at College of the Mainland, I can see it has changed from a progressive institution, where students rallied behind professors to ensure academic freedom, into an institution where employees are afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.
A decade ago, the college promoted teamwork rather than authoritarian control and had policies protecting the rights of staff, faculty and students. Since then, it has instituted policies that hurt employees, are anti-union and discourage people from reporting abuse of power, discrimination, or other problems.
The board and president Michael Elam fail to realize that, by attacking employee rights, they are hurting the students as well.
Last December, the board voted to kill the grievance process that employees used to settle problems before taking legal action when they felt they had been wronged. The board claimed the process was broken as too many people were filing grievances and lawsuits against the college, costing it too much money.
At a Hitchcock town hall meeting in June, I heard Elam say none of the grievances or lawsuits had any merit. This isn’t true. The college has settled lawsuits. The board approved one at its latest meeting. If these lawsuits had been frivolous, I doubt the college’s attorneys would have recommended settlements.
At the May 2009 board meeting, the trustees did away with the “good cause” policy that protected employees from wrongful termination. This has made many employees subject to termination “at will.” As dissenting trustee Don Criss said at the meeting, the old policy had served the college well for many years and it is ridiculous to roll back employee rights.
At the Hitchcock town hall meeting in June, the new president erroneously claimed supervisors didn’t have any other way to get rid of employees not doing their jobs. Some in the audience pointed out that he has a contract and should support job security for other employees, too.
The policy changes will not make employees work harder or perform better; they will have the opposite effect. When administrators are given free reign to fire employees “at will” or terminate contracts without “good cause,” employees are forced to focus on keeping them happy instead of doing their jobs well.
Today, keeping your job at the college does not depend on how well you do your job, but rather on whose ego you feed or how well you maintain the status quo.
Elam says he wants to make the college a “world-class institution.” If this is true, he and the board must reverse their policy changes, restore employee rights and protect the dedicated, hardworking employees who give so much to the students on a daily basis.
