Strike or No Strike at GRC?

Tense air permeated the halls of the faculty offices with picket signs resting against the open doors. They read “Tell the College…To Value US, To Listen To US, To Work With US. We want to make GRC better.”

Last Wednesday, May 11, President Ely confirmed the fear of many students and faculty alike – programs will be cut. The decision to do so has left many in question whether or not their programs will be existent next year, but more presently, whether a strike will be taking place in response.

A button reading “I don’t want to strike but I will,” is clipped to the shirt of Allison Jansen, head of the Political Science Department. She shares the belief of many of faculty members that the budget crisis is artificial and there is no logical connection between cutting programs and saving money.

“The integrity of the college is at stake,” she said.

According to Timothy Scharks, head of the Geography department, one of the department’s proposed to close, Social Science classes have some of the largest caps ranging anywhere from 32-37 students per class. With more students comes more revenue for the college, and with classes like Geography filling up consistently there is a constant influx of money from the program. Regardless of this fact, Scharks decided to remain silent on whether, if a strike did occur, he would participate.

“I [just] need to worry about being the best employee I can,” he said. To Scharks, as the head and only member of the Geography department, “there is more at stake.”

Last year the Auto Body Technology program was eliminated, leaving Mark Millbauer, president of the union, without a job. The Auto Body building cost over $1 million alone to revert back to its original state. Now programs such as Geography, Drafting, and Drama are on the line to be terminated. Including Occupational Therapy, which is the oldest OTA program in Washington State and consists of a competitive acceptance process. Many members of the existing OTA program already have Bachelor’s degrees and have committed to the two year program after accepting loans. If the program were terminated, these students could not be accepted into another program and left with debt. The OTA program can add up to triple family income.

The full-time faculty has authorized the union board to strike with over 70% of votes from adjuncts. After a series of failed negotiations, two unconsidered votes of no confidence, performance evaluations, and countless attempts at coming to a settlement diplomatically, faculty are left believing they are given no other options.

“I don’t want to go on strike…but it’s been pushed to a point where we don’t know what else to do,” Jamie Fitzgerald of the English Department said.

If a strike were to occur, there is a chance that the faculty could be ordered back to work if the court determined the case was not strong enough; Such was the case in the last, and only, strike in Green River history in 1974. If that were to happen “we’ve sent the strongest message we can,” Fitzgerald said.

Many faculty members believe, even in the event of being court ordered back to work, that the act of a strike would bring attention from the governor and hopefully a reconsidering of the union’s demands. As it stands, the only demand of the strike is to reverse the cuts of programs. It is the general consensus, amongst faculty members, that the program cuts are unnecessary and attributed to mismanagement of school budget.

Green River College spends more, both local and state generated, funding than any community college in the area, by about $100,000,000. Bellevue College has recently come close to rivaling this, yet half of their spending has gone to an expensive dormitory project. Considering Bellevue is a larger college than Green River. Steve Kinholt, of the Math department, designed a way of measuring GRC’s spending compared to other colleges based off of dollars per student. In this tradition, GRC spends roughly $14,000,000 per student.

A large majority of GRC’s spending is locally generated, such as contracted projects, international programs and running start, but a large amount is also contributed to loans, so much that the school is estimated to remain in debt until 2029. Predating President Ely, spending averaged one to two million on building projects. In 2013, three years after Ely took her position, this has increase to $53,000,000. Just two years after that, spending increased to $56,000,000. Projects include building a new Aviation facility, a new Auburn building, a Kent and Enumclaw campus, a new student center and a proposed remodel of the old Lindbloom building and Welcome Center. $15,000,000 alone was borrowed to complete the Student Life Building, and an additional $5,000,000 is estimated to be spent on remodeling its old location. “It’s nice to have new buildings,” Kinholt said, “but it’s nicer to have programs in them”.

If a strike were to occur, there would be no way of knowing until students showed up to school to a picket line and empty classrooms. The Union expressed there is a strategic benefit to the element of surprise rather than notifying students ahead of time. As of now it is ambiguous what that would mean to student’s grades or tuition but depending on how long the strike would last, operations would act as frozen until settled. The uncertainty has left many students, as well as faculty, distressed at the potential repercussions. 

“If the strike were to continue passed June 10, I wouldn’t be able to get the political science credit I need and potentially get held back a year,” Cameron Braun said. Braun is a full-time running start student who depends upon completing American Government class to graduate from High School. 

The Kent Education Association will be attending a meeting today, Wednesday May 18, to discuss whether the United Faculty Coalition of the AFT will call a strike, among other issues. Pete Lewis, chairman of the GRC board, plans to attend. It is possible that, if a strike were called, the campus could see its effects as early as Wednesday. For any additional information on the strike, the school’s spending and budget or the cause of the unrest, students are welcome to visit the faculty operated website: unitedattheriver.com.