Faculty, staff speak out at BOT meeting. The chancellor responds.
By: Kavahn Mansouri
Editor-in-Chief
On Thursday, Oct. 18, STLCC Chancellor Myrtle Dorsey visited the Meramec campus for the monthly Chancellors’ Forum and Board of Trustees meeting. Dorsey took questions and heard faculty testimonials following the Professional Development day for faculty and staff on Tuesday, Oct. 16.
Dorsey heard from several faculty members sharing their anger and frustration from the 8-hour day in which faculty and staff attendance was ‘mandatory.’
Professor Margaret Hvatum and member of the National Educational Association attended the Chancellors’ Forum and asked several questions regarding the development day and addressed concerns of the faculty.
Hvatum said several faculty members with ‘legitimate medical concerns’ or family emergencies were denied leave. Hvatum described one case of a faculty member whose daughter was having a medical operation and was denied leave on the development day.
“The faculty reaction to being mandated to attend professional development day was extremely negative because, as I described, some faculty members have legitimate medical concerns,” Hvatum said. “I don’t know if the chancellor was aware that her request to her subordinates to make sure that everybody showed up for development day was interpreted in such a draconian fashion.”
Florissant Valley professor Carol Berger, Ph.D. was one of the several faculty members to speak at the Board of Trustees meeting. Berger said in her 31 years of teaching with STLCC she had never attended a professional development day that was as big of a failure.
“I’ve been to every staff development day and I have to say; they haven’t always been winners, but I’ve always come away with something,” Burger said. “I’m sorry. I think maybe the road to hell is paved with good intentions and there were a lot of people who were present Tuesday who would have said we were, in fact, in hell.”
The development day was not only detrimental but damaged the college as a whole, Berger said.
“This is the first staff development day that has damaged the college all around,” Berger said.
Dorsey said the day was intended to communicate with faculty members and that there was no intention to disrespect the faculty.
“I took that day to focus on communications and that was the intent; to tell people what we were doing, how we were doing and actually have some experts there to talk about those things,” Dorsey said. “It’s my understanding that it wasn’t quite taken that way. I understand where there is some confusion. The intent was not to be disrespectful to anyone; the intent was not to make anyone feel badly about having to take leave or whatever.”
Dorsey added that the development day was a tool to help faculty properly serve STLCC students.
“I want our students to be able to come into our classrooms, have everything set for them, they have no worries and they get their work done,” Dorsey said.
Stay tuned to http://www.meramecmontage.com for coverage of the Board of Trustees meeting and the full story as it develops.
