Colleagues,
Please consider the following as we seek to answer the question: Who is the Civic Consulting Alliance?
(Excerpt from City Colleges of Chicago Reinvention: The Truth Blog Site)
The upper echelons of the bureaucracy that runs the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) are in the midst of a drastic transformation of the historical mission of the CCC. This mission, like that of most community colleges across the U.S., has been to provide a path for millions of working class, poor or immigrant students to access a university education which offers personal intellectual enrichment that has long been recognized as one of the important foundations of democracy as well as professional advancement. Behind the facade of Reinvention the CCC hierarchy is moving away from these goals and instead narrowing the mission of the CCC to that of job training centers. In service to the Obama administration’s initiative to track students into associate degrees and certificates as their terminal degrees, they have invented the Reinvention. Corporate Chicago is steering this process under the guise of pro bono consultants and advisory councils. The result is the full adoption of the business model for the administrative structure of the CCC. This has also allowed for the merging of political and business cronyism bloating the CCC headquarters with business positions, heaping on more than $5 million in additional annual salaries in the first nine months alone.
This has all occurred since Cheryl Hyman, a businesswoman lacking prior educational leadership experience, was anointed chancellor. The impact on students, faculty and staff have begun with the loss of jobs, the reduction or elimination of services and the smothering of academic freedom. The specifics of the Reinvention indicate that these attacks are just the beginning. Students and faculty have begun to air frustration, resentment, and opposition to the abuses of the Reinvention. An organized opposition to the masters of Reinvention is required in order to secure quality education, decent working conditions, and bright futures for all of those who work and study at the CCC.
Please note the tsunami relief web page on the CCC website is basically an exact copy of the Haiti disaster relief page from last year...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ccc.edu/ccc_supports_haiti.asp
http://www.ccc.edu/files/JapanQuake.pdf
How is it possible that with all of those dollars we are spending on marketing and communications staff/companies...we have to do Mad-libs with an earlier request for donations?
If you have ever been required to work with the marketing staff on one of your projects you would understand why. They can barely write their name.
ReplyDeleteThis letter was sent to Dr. Lopez 3 weeks ago and it leaves a lot of room for interpretation of required credentials.
ReplyDeleteGood morning Dr. Lopez,
My name is Claudia Williams and I have worked as adjunct faculty in the English department for about 4 years at the Olive Harvey Campus. Instruction included, remedial courses, 098, 099, and 100, 101, 102, respectfully. My over all teaching experience is that of about 10 years. I also facilitate written composition and various written communications courses online for the University of Phoenix for 5 years now.
In the Spring of 2011, a week before classes were to start, I was informed that because my Master's Degree was in Communication Studies and Training, and not English, that I could no longer continue teaching the above courses in English and that only Speech Courses would be available for instruction. I was also informed at that time that I would not be returning in the spring to the classes that were contracted out to me beforehand. However, because of the lateness of notification from the campus, I was allowed to teach this past semester.
Posted below is a brief portion of the job description for English faculty (full and part time) from City College’s website.
Please review:
Qualifications:
You must have at least a Master's Degree in English, Rhetoric, Composition, Literature, Linguistics, MA Journalism, or MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry or other appropriate sub-discipline, and relevant teaching experience.
It would appear that a Master's in Communications and Training would fall under the appropriate sub-discipline and the relevant teaching experience is that of at least 10 years.
I have currently completed 70% of studies in Education pursuing a PhD in Postsecondary and Adult Education. I feel I am more than qualified to teach these levels of courses in English.
Because of this I have not been offered any classes in the English Department for the fall semester, and this is truly unfair. I believe I have a good track record and work well with the department members and these factors can be confirmed. Qualified and dedicated instructors should not be pushed aside in this manner for any re-invention.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
Professor
Claudia Williams