How the reduction in force convinced me to quit Meramec
BY: SEAN THOMAS
Former Student
Dear St. Louis Community College,
I came to you a couple of years ago seeking a way to constructively use a little free time. With no real goals in mind I thought, at the very least, that obtaining an associate’s degree might improve my chances for success in the future. To tell you the truth, I didn’t expect much from you, other than a possible stepping stone to another institution. I was caught by surprise when I found myself surrounded by such capable, ambitious and involved faculty and students.
A semester later, I was officially a part of the Honors Program at STLCC Meramec. This, combined with interesting classes and becoming a writer for The Montage, has helped me understand who I am: the abilities that I possess, my place in this world, how I can use what I’ve learned to not only improve my place, but also that of those that will come after me. This is what the faculty, both fulltime and adjunct, at STLCC have given me: a sense of self, a sense of purpose and the tools to explore both.
I owe my time here everything. 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. 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. 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.
You see, in the Fall semester of 2017, I noticed something. I noticed a change in the way you felt, in the way your educators were behaving and speaking. Your campuses, which once felt exciting, full of possibilities and promise, were beginning to feel sad, beaten down, oppressed. I started hearing about the horrible working environment thrust upon our adjunct professors by an administration unwilling to provide, at the very least, fairness. I joined the Student Social Action Committee. We began hearing acronyms like RIF (reduction in force) and realized that our full-time educators were under attack as well.
We started doing research, we started speaking out and then on Thursday, Oct. 19, at a Board of Trustees meeting, we were silenced. When one of your educators, Professor Steve Taylor, tried to speak out on behalf of the students that were speaking up for him, he was attacked by St. Louis Community College police officers and arrested. This is when I woke up and our relationship will never be the same again.
After meetings with Chancellor Pittman, after offering our own proposals and possible ways out of the firing of 70 of our full-time faculty members, after pitching our own ideas for how our extremely well-compensated administration might be able to provide our part-time educators with a living wage, we still felt that we, the students, the faculty, and the community were being ignored.
We decided it was time we did more, it was time to make sure that the administration could no longer ignore us, or so we thought. On Nov. 30, the Board of Trustees had its final meeting to vote on the RIF. Your students, believing that the decision had been made months in advance, decided this vote would not be taking place. To use an expression that is quickly becoming a slogan for the righteous participants of St. Louis politics, we “shut it down.”
While students laid across the floor in front of the Board of Trustees table and others stood in the audience, arms intertwined, all chanting phrases such as “Justice for Faculty,” we were going to ensure this vote didn’t take place, and at the very least, that the community was given an opportunity to see what a greedy administration was doing to its education.
We stood and chanted, exhausted and becoming hoarse, for an hour, the board retreating behind closed doors. 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 out come of the vote was unanimous; they had approved the cutting of 70 of your magnificent educators.
We left that night, a bit surprised that no disciplinary action had been taken against us. A week later, the letters came, informing 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.
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.
This is why it is time for us to part. I will be foregoing the graduation that I envisioned for so long and transferring to another university. A requirement to transfer to most is being in good standing with your previous institution, meaning amongst other things, that you can’t have been expelled.
While the current Board of Trustees and Chancellor Pittman are still at your helm, I refuse to let my thoughts or opinions be held hostage by a hostile institution. Rather than running the risk of your board being able to my fate, I have decided to inform them that they are no longer in good standing with me. I will keep coming for them, until your hallways are returned to the corridors of opportunity and advancement that they once were.
While I would like to thank some of your educators specifically for every thing that they have done for me, I feel that I cannot. I am afraid that by doing so, I would only be placing a target on their back, making them easy selections for your next round of layoffs. After all, the last thing Chancellor Pittman wants is more students like me.
St. Louis Community College, thank you. I love you. I am truly sorry that I must leave. Please know that although I am no longer a student, I will not rest until we have wrestled you from the hands of the oppressive and violent bullies you call your Chancellor and Board of Trustees.
I am forever in your debt.
Sincerely,
Sean Edward Thomas
Former Student
