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August 2003
Newsletter |
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C
O N T E N T S |
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Ponderings of the President
by Ira Lansing Nobody likes a complainer, but sometimes there is a small satisfaction that you are not the only one complaining. What am I whining about? The excessive number of meetings of the College Board of Trustees in a given year. Used to be you could count on 12, the second Tuesday of every month. Then the dates were adjusted during August to give more time for preparation of the final budget. Then special board meetings started popping up. Now, as one trustee put it, we’re up to 14 or 16 meetings a year! This might be tolerable, except when the meetings themselves last until 10:30 or 11 at night. Why it takes four or five hours to transact this business escapes me. Having expressed my complaint, I will say that the special meeting of August 12 was very interesting for at least one reason: it was new acting, interim, temporary President Callahan’s first appearance in this role. She didn’t say too much, but she did express some very significant sentiments. Let me set the stage for these remarks. The specific agenda item was the report and recommendations from Thoughtbridge. I won’t go into the history and feelings about this external consulting firm that was brought in after Middleton’s vote of no confidence from the faculty; faculty have received other information on these points. Suffice it to say that prior to the meeting there were strong feelings amongst the faculty that the Thoughtbridge report was meaningless, useless and a waste of time and money and should never have happened in the first place. At the meeting the trustees and the public were given an opportunity to comment on the findings. The discussion began with Trustee Wanden Treanor commenting that we are not a dysfunctional family, but more like a family of different ages and interests. Therefore, we need outside help (i.e., Thoughtbridge) to work on and correct our problems. I looked it up. Webster's 20th Century Dictionary defines "dysfunctional" as "impaired or not working properly". College of Marin was and is dysfunctional. Furthermore, I would observe that in any family the first step is to talk with one another. If that does not work, then outside assistance may be of value. There is a difference between "can’t talk with you" and "not talking with you". We suffer from the latter. This sentiment was echoed by Paulette Foster, representing the CSEA Executive Board, when she said to the trustees that CSEA is willing to participate in in-house discussions, not using an outside consultant. Trustee Frank Parnell reminded everyone that conflict in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing—there are positive aspects to conflict and negative aspects. I hope that he and the other trustees see the positive angles in the current situation. Trustee Larry McFadden opined that there has been a breakdown of the governance process, or that at the very least, it was not used the way it was intended. He continued by saying there needs to be a sense of responsibility by the members on committees, that they will show up and the results of the meetings are made known. If it’s not too self-serving I would add, just like the Union-District committees and its representatives operate. They meet year-round, and it is rare that a UPM committee member misses a meeting (I would say they never miss a meeting, but…). The results of the meetings are fully reported to the Executive Council and published in their minutes. Wisely, when Dr. Callahan commented on the Thoughtbridge recommendations she said that she wanted to talk with the "leadership group" first. She did not say "management", but leadership. I take this to mean that not only will she consult with her own administrators, but also with the leaders of the other organzations—faculty, staff and student—throughout the District. Good thing to say, Lois, just follow through. She added that the existing governance structure was probably adequate to deal with the issues raised by Thoughtbridge and that "[i]f we don’t want to work together then we may need some help". Again, good observation. So, how dysfunctional are we if an outsider who has been here officially all of 12 days can make these comments and observations? Well, I leave you to ponder all of these statements. After all, it is an election year for the Board of Trustees and it does help to know something about the candidates. So pay attention, be informed, ask questions and as that longtime radio reporter Scoop Nisker says, "if you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own." Only 83 more school days until winter break! Stay healthy. |
Flex week has come and gone. The summer wanes and our weekend thoughts turn to barbecues, or more likely to a weekend of prep and recuperation after a harried first week. Few of us have the time or inclination to reflect on the original intent of the Labor Day weekend or for that matter, the current state of Labor itself. More than 120 years after the first Labor Day observance, many of us have forgotten its vital history – our history. The labor movement is responsible for the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It has taught us again and again (for we seem to need to learn the lesson over and over) that in unity, we the people are greater than the sum of our parts. It is, as we read on bumper stickers, the movement that brought us the weekend. How fitting, therefore, to pay tribute to the source of so much of our strength, freedom, and leadership — the solidarity of working men and women. Here at our own college, our battles may seem small when compared to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy, the West Virginia Coal Mining Strikes or the Auto Workers battles against Pinkerton thugs. Faculty have nonetheless in recent months embodied the memorable saying by Margaret Mead " Never doubt that a small committed group can change the world. In fact it’s the only thing that ever has." And yet, we forget. We become complacent. In the 1950s about 40 percent of the work force belonged to unions. Today, union membership is about 14 percent of the working population. Is there any coincidence that this declining union membership has seen the phenomena of two partners in a relationship working two full-time jobs to maintain a standard of living once commonly achieved by single wage earners? Or that minimum and low wage jobs have increasingly become the norm among our disappearing middle and working class? Or that Americans now work more hours per year and have less leisure time than did our parents, not to mention the workers of every other industrialized democracy? Clearly the struggle for good and decent working conditions is ongoing and one we neglect at our peril. But is this a UPM issue you might ask? Absolutely. Or as Samuel Johnson would put it "we must all hang together or we will surely hang apart." The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City. By 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the "workingmen's holiday". The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country. It is interesting to note that The Socialist Party held a similar celebration which was eventually adopted by virtually every European country, on the first of May (known as May Day), but the U.S., chose the first Monday in September to reject any identification with Communism. The first state bill recognizing Labor Day was passed by Oregon in 1887, along with four more states later that year — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit and by 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday and Grover Cleveland signed a law designating the first Monday in September as Labor Day nationwide. This is interesting because Cleveland was not a labor union supporter. He was in fact trying to repair some political damage that he suffered earlier that year when he sent federal troops to put down a strike by the American Railway Union at the Pullman Co. in Chicago. That action resulted in the deaths of 34 workers. Today, Labor Day is observed not only in the U.S. but also in Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, China (over May 1-3), Afghanistan, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam , to name a few. (The irony has not escaped this writer that some of these countries terribly abuse and oppress their workers as they build inexpensive toys and shoes for our children.) The cause of fair wages and humane working conditions for all workers continues and in our own small way by forcefully and vigorously advocating for the rights of our fine faculty we help to advance that cause. So as we flip our free- range, hormone and antibiotic free buffalo burgers this weekend, let us raise a glass to the memory of the brave men and women who paved the road for workers rights in this country and around the world. Since (wo)man does not live by bread or beer alone, here is an always timely and timeless poem by James Oppenheim . "Bread for all, and Roses, too" -- a slogan of the women of the West As we come marching, marching, in the beauty of the day, A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill-lofts gray Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses, For the people hear us singing, "Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses." As we come marching, marching, we battle, too, for men -- For they are women's children, and we mother them again. Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes -- Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses. As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead Go crying through our singing their ancient song of Bread; Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew -- Yes, it is bread we fight for -- but we fight for Roses, too. As we come marching, marching, we bring the Greater Days -- The rising of the women means the rising of the race -- No more the drudge and idler -- ten that toil where one reposes -- But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses
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