BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
As The Montage approaches its 60th anniversary later in 2024, it’s notable that archived digital copies that can be viewed by readers on The Montage’s “Issuu” page only date back to 2010. The rest are not lost to time, however. Print copies, both loose and binded, still exist. They date all the way back to the very first issue in 1964 and can be accessed in the Library.
As we approach the next volume of issues, The Montage would like to take you back in time to some of those issues throughout the coming school year. This month, we’re diverting from the formula once again and covering two different events from two different months.
JANUARY 2018:
The fall 2017 semester was a trying time, with faculty layoffs uprooting the relationship between STLCC’s administration and its students. At an Oct. 2017 board meeting, the college made national headlines when STLCC-Wildwood adjunct Steve Taylor was tackled to the ground by security. This incident, and STLCC’s reaction to it at the next meeting, further upset students, with the board voting to approve cuts to faculty over the objections of almost everyone in attendance.
One upset person was former Montage staffer Sean E. Thomas. In a rare, front-page opinion piece, Thomas quit the college with only one class left to take, citing his disgust over the situation.
“We stood and chanted, exhausted and becoming hoarse, for an hour, the board retreating behind closed doors,” Thomas recounted. “Once the board realized we would not be leaving until they did, in what was possibly the biggest slap in the face to your students up to this point, they returned, huddled behind their table, and voted anyway, amidst our literal shouts of protest. The outcome of the vote was unanimous; they had approved the cutting of 70 of your magnificent educators.”
Thomas also cited what he perceived to be intimidation by the college via a disciplinary meeting with Kim Fitzgerald, who was then the Dean of Student Development and Enrollment Management.
“[The letters informed] us that we were required to meet with Kim Fitzgerald, Dean of Student Development and Enrollment Services, to discuss how we were in violation of student conduct code. Failure to meet would affect our enrollment in the following semester. These letters were delivered during finals week,” he recounted. “At this meeting we were given a copy of the student conduct code and condescendingly informed that “there are more effective ways to protest,” and that the school provides ‘designated protest areas.’ I was even asked what sort of punishment I expected for my behavior, which I likened to being asked to pick my own switch prior to a spanking. We were told repeatedly that this was an “educational” meeting so that we could be informed of how we broke the rules with an underlying and expertly veiled theme: don’t do it again, or else.”
“I owe my time here everything,” he said. “STLCC saved this life. I changed profoundly and found myself no longer wandering aimlessly towards a degree but seeking out particular programs at specific universities. I went to the extremely qualified faculty at STLCC for their guidance while repairing my GPA and preparing to transfer.”
“Once I had met my goal and completed all of the necessary coursework to transfer, I had planned to stay at STLCC for an extra semester, so that I could graduate from the institution that had done so much for me with honors,” he continued. “I would stay so that I could walk across that stage with my fellow students and thank the educators that had helped me along the way, so that I, a high school dropout, could represent STLCC as the first institution of education I have ever graduated, and tell people in the future that with you is where my success all started.”
“With only an algebra course left to complete, your administration, spearheaded by the Board of Trustees and their Chancellor Jeff Pittman, have made this an impossibility for me,” Thomas said. “This is not because I couldn’t enroll, but because the education with which you have provided me up to this point will not allow me to be part of an institution where I can only receive my degree if I keep my mouth shut.”
Thomas did indeed leave the college, going on to attend his remaining courses at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology. Fitzgerald left STLCC in 2019 after a 31 year tenure with the college and is now an Academic Advisor for Webster University.
FEBRUARY 2011:
Budget cuts aren’t a new thing to STLCC, and this was especially true in 2011, when Editor-In-Chief Spencer Gleason reported that STLCC were combining its individual campus sports teams, a revision to the program that still continues today.
“This concept would cause STLCC-Meramec, STLCC-Forest Park, and STLCC-Florissant Valley to combine their individual sports teams into seven district-wide teams,” Gleason wrote. “Although it would allow the STLCC-Wildwood campus to engage in athletics, there would be no more Magic, Highlanders or Fury. Just one STLCC team would represent STLCC in each of the seven sports: baseball, softball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.”
Gleason reported that many weren’t on board with the college’s decision at the time, and former Forest Park basketball coach Bob Nelson even shared his feelings with KMOV.
““I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all,” Nelson said. “It’s one thing not to like it and the fact that they occurred, but the process under which they did occur is suspect.”
Regarding what he believed to be that suspect process, Nelson recounted what he claimed to know.
“The leadership team together secretly devised this system where there was going to be one team that represented STLCC and that was all that was going to happen,” Nelson said. “They were going to eliminate a whole lot of positions… secretarial positions. For example, they have one trainer after these cuts have been made.”
Today, the Meramec campus hosts various sports for students across all campuses, including women’s soccer and volleyball.
