Hey everybody! Mike Tish here for @CHIdocumenters. I’m at the @ChiCityColleges board meeting over at Harold Washington College.
Today’s meeting should be getting started shortly.
02:26 PM Mar 12, 2020 CDT
Today’s meeting is oddly low on attendance. It’s also yet to begin b/c of technical difficulties, we’re told. In the meantime, here’s some background on the day’s meeting.
The board is set to consider a slew of tuition changes as part of an effort to close a possible $17.4 million budget gap.
@McGeeReports had a solid story on this in late February: https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/facing-17-million-budget-gap-city-colleges-of-chicago-looks-to-raise-tuition/97264efe-b23d-4931-9934-c848f5f6bf53
Possible changes include a hike in tuition; increasing fees to use science labs, career/technical labs, music lessons or the CCC’s culinary program; as well as a change to the way CCC currently caps tuition costs.
Today, the board is set to consider a contract extension for @Chancellor_Juan, which would be for three years and earn him $265K/year.
Kind of weird that we don’t have as large of a presence today from union faculty members. At past meetings I’ve been to, union members have packed the meeting and often times criticized @Chancellor_Juan to his face.
Today’s meeting is much more sparsely attended.
Draft of that contract here:
http://www.ccc.edu/departments/Documents/Board%20Office/Salgado%20Contract.pdf
Massey begins the meeting with a remark about how @Chancellor_Juan’s commitment to students and faculty has been unmatched.
Armani Alexander chimes in with the Student Trustee Report, who says students were planning to participating in upcoming events at a Blackhawks game and on a cruise.
Not looking like that’s happening anymore.
Chancellor Salgado spoke next. He said @ChiCityColleges is working closely with the Chicago Department of Public Health regarding what the CCC’s response to COVID-19 should be.
.@Chancellor_Juan says CCC will not be closing at this time, but adds that faculty has been asked to plan how they would respond if CCC has to close.
First speaker is a student from Harold Washington. She says there were issues of gatekeeping and bemoaned the way in which CCC officials inform public speakers that their speaking time is dwindling.
She kept speaking as her two minutes were up, and a CCC official walked right up to her podium and repeatedly told her that her time was up.
Guy never touched the public speaker, but it was definitely behavior I’ve never seen at a Chicago meeting before. He got pretty close.
Seemed a bit much. And it kind of just validated the woman’s complaint that CCC officials aren’t courteous in the way they interact with public speakers.
QUICK CORRECTION: Chancellor Salgado has postponed the discussion of tuition changes.
https://twitter.com/mcgeereports/status/1238185227488497666?s=21 https://twitter.com/mcgeereports/status/1238185227488497666
We heard from the lone union rep at today’s public comment. He was here to talk about the board’s consideration of firing a tenured professor from Wright College, which will take place in today’s closed session
He said that if the board decided to terminate the professor, the union would take them to arbitration and that the board would be on the hook for thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Most of the people present today are students of this professor. These students were not allowed to speak today, but there’s about 10 of them present in support of the professor
https://twitter.com/mcgeereports/status/1238191334214832132?s=21
He did this to several other speakers today. This was merely the example I caught. Definitely intimidating https://twitter.com/mcgeereports/status/1238191334214832132 https://t.co/utAogpLDf2
Sorry for the delay folks. The meeting went into closed session so board members could discuss the potential firing of the Wright College professor. I spent that time talking to the students who weren’t allowed to speak.
More on that in a bit. I want to fill you in on the rest of the public comment that took place.
Several professors, faculty, and former CCC students spoke about how @ChiCityColleges needs to make their classes for Cook County Jail inmates an official part of the curriculum.
At the moment, they do one class for detainees. The class, we’re told, is full and there’s also a waiting list that could fill another class.
These faculty members, by and large, wanted CCC to make this an official CCC program so that they could educate inmates and set them up for future education when they are released.
Professor Jennifer Alexander, who currently works as an educator in the classes at Cook County Jail, to the Board of Trustees:
“Trust and respect your faculty who have actual experience. Trust and respect your sheriff’s office.”
Back to students here in support of the tenured professor at Wright College, who the board may decide to terminate today.
Here’s what they would have told the board if they had been given the chance.
The ones here today were part of class that included students possessing varied spanish abilities. Some students were native Spanish speakers, some only were exposed to Spanish through the coursework.
He always taught in a way that was accessible to each student, they said.
One student said this teacher was the first hispanic professor he had at @ChiCityColleges, and spoke highly of the teacher’s professionalism.
Students say the new teacher has created a starkly different learning environment and that grades they earned earlier in the semester were thrown out when the new teacher took over.
The change happened shortly before midterms, I’m told.
The students, as well as this professor’s wife, tried to sign up for public comment. All were denied.
Everyone tells me they were denied because there are rules in place to keep public commenters from complaining or making allegations against CCC board members.
The students and the professor’s family member claim they are being denied unfairly.
Tony Johnston, President of the Cook County College Teachers Union, Local 1600, says there’s no reason for the board to not allow these students the chance to talk.
The board has returned from closed session and says they took no action during the session.
I’ll try to confirm what that will mean for the Wright College professor, but for now we move onto resolutions.
A rundown of all of the resolutions can be found here:
http://www.ccc.edu/departments/Documents/Board%20Office/ALL%20AGENDA%20ITEMS%20-%20PUBLIC.pdf
Included in these resolutions are contract extensions for @Chancellor_Juan and Dr. Mark Potter, the Provost and Chief Academic Officer at CCC.
As far as what the “no action” in the closed session means, Dr. Potter directed me to the personnel report. It shows that the Wright College professor, David Migaj, will be terminated.
Students and his family are currently talking to the Board’s student trustee Armani Alexander.
Here’s a bit more about the importance of college education for folks who are in prison—something that professors were fighting for during public comment earlier.
https://twitter.com/chidocumenters/status/1238206945141669903?s=21 https://twitter.com/chidocumenters/status/1238206945141669903
Following professor Alexander’s comment, Harold Washington professor Jessica Bader asked board members why the men in Cook County Jail shouldn’t have access to education.
Bader said the CCC should be trying to create a pipeline from prison to college education.
Board members did not make any comment on this topic, so it’s unclear what will be done following today’s comments.
One last thing. One of the people here to support Professor Migaj gave me permission to share the email conversation she had with a CCC staffer. The question they posed was whether their request violated CCC rules, as the staffer claimed it did.
See for yourself. https://t.co/XkhLWaytPg
Today’s meeting was another important one, so I’m glad I was able to cover it despite the COVID-19 fears.
Like, I know we’d all rather have the NBA and the NHL back, but S/O @CHIdocumenters for keeping the coverage up. If y’all appreciate it be sure to show us some love eh? 1/2
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