Editorial
The historical second strike of Green River “Community” College has come and gone. On this, the college’s fiftieth anniversary, the faculty took to the streets with picket signs in hand and told the president to leave.
As the dust settles, we can look back and give our thoughts on what has this strike accomplished and what can be done going forward. The first question that needs to be answered is was the strike a success? So far, keeping in mind it has only been a week, the strike has been met with criticism.
Even though the strike was only three days, students were still affected by the hiatus. The faculty were told not to check their work emails or participate in any work related activities. Students who needed help in a class for something as trivial as a homework question to something as important as a graded assignment, could not contact their instructors for help. We at The Current believe that even though the faculty would have tried to avoid this event, students were still left without instructors to guide them.
The decision to only strike for three days was a noble one as it minimized the damage done to students. Was that the right decision though?
In terms of faculty’s message to the college, the short duration of the strike watered down the impact of such a historic event. If the administration knows that you are going to go back to work in three days, why bother reacting. The administration strategy appeared to be waiting out the strike in their bunkers while also trying to scare the faculty with vague and pointless proclamations.
However, we as students appreciate the faculty’s concern about our futures. Keeping the strike to three days, while probably not the easiest decision to make, was the right one to ensure the students’ continued support and their students’ continuing education.
The strike was successful in that is garnered support of not only the faculty and staff, but also from the students. Less faculty were on the streets during the second day of the strike, but their space was filled by students chanting and yelling at cars to honk their support.
Still, some students chose not to attend classes or go on campus to support the strike and ensure the college was empty for those three days. Though most just used those three days to catch up on their sleep.
It is disheartening that President Eileen Ely did not show concern for the strike during the special board meeting. She was silent to the students talking to her about concern for their instructors. The strike did not impact her in the long run, but the strike did garner attention, and that will definitely hurt her in the long run.
Our college has a public relations problem, and the strike did not help that image. Ely said in letters to the editor and to the press that the faculty are being irrational and the college is just addressing a money issue. When you look deeper, which some news outlets have been doing, the college has $12 million in reserves and that money can be used to offset the deficit. There are other factors such as the state’s new allocation model that stops the college from doing this, but it could at least be used to save programs from being cut.
The strategy going forward for the college is to cut some of these programs and look like heroes as they save others such as Occupational Therapy. Some of these programs may be in trouble, but no one can really tell when the data is not readily available, even to the administration. Freezing these cuts for now is not an unreasonable request when you learn that not even the heads of the programs can get all the information about their own programs that the administration is supposed to gather.
The administration is supposed to make decisions on how to save money and the faculty are supposed to make recommendations on ways to save that money. Right now, the administration is proposing cuts to save money and ignoring the faculty like they did with the autobody program.
Back to the main point of this editorial, what did the strike accomplish? It made Green River and the faculty’s issues with the president widely known across the state. A strike is a big deal for our small school that has enjoyed a good reputation for a number of years. Who knows if the government will take notice and try to do anything, even though our college governs itself autonomously.
The next step forward for the faculty is successfully blocking the re-appointment of Board of Trustees Chairperson Pete Lewis. Green River’s Board of Trustees is in a state of potential flux right now, with people who potentially support the faculty taking the majority from Board of Trustee Member Linda Cowan and Lewis who are the most vocal of the group against the faculty.
