Friday, March 11, 2011

Save The City Colleges of Chicago Unite in SOLIDARITY NOW

“REINVENTION”
IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU!
“A Take Over of the City Colleges of Chicago is in Progress…”
Under the leadership of Chancellor Cheryl  Hyman and Chairman of the Board, Martin Cabrera and other business tycoons vetted by out going Mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley, a massive  take over of the City Colleges of Chicago is in progress. 
WHY?  A 500 Million dollar budget!!!
HOW? Under the cover of: “REINVENTION” and “STUDENT OUTCOMES!”
Evidence: City Colleges of Chicago Board Report and Chancellor Hyman’s Actions:
Ø $2.2 million dollars cut from each one of the 7 colleges via massive lay offs of staff (union and nonunion);
Ø Over $5 million in new hirers and appointments at the District office by Cheryl Hyman, board member business tycoons and other Mayor Daley appointees to the Board.  They were vetted for the massive take over;
Ø Ability to purchase items for as low as $1.00 has been stripped from the colleges and controlled by District Office;
Ø There is no definitive Reinvention Plans.  There is only a definition of reinvention and purpose.  What are all of the factors of reinvention? What does it entail?  Is Reinvention inclusive of any of the following:
·        Outsourcing Remediation? 80 to 90% of entering students need remediation;
·        Decreasing the number of faculty due to outsourcing;
·        Eradicating tenure process to assure faculty with seniority does not have rights when enrollment decreases due to outsourcing, when there will be a need to lay them off according to their contract;
·        Creating a workforce of all part-time personnel including faculty;
·        Renegotiation of faculty and adjunct contracts to terminate many rights that are not aligned with reinvention;
·        Eliminating open admission;
·        Changing all full-time clerical staff to part-time;
·        Replacing CCC staff with Major Daley’s people  (mayors office & CPS) before incoming mayor elect Rahm Emanuel takes office and replaces Mayor Daley’s people;
·        Eradicating all sitting Presidents to replace with business people under the auspices of reapplication process to meet the four new established goals.  
”REIVENTION,” It’s Not About Us or Our Students!  It’s about the upper class, the rich need to stay rich; the top is narrowing and now there is a need to push the middle class out.  These are middle class, lower middle class and lower class jobs they have and continue to come for. The interest is clearly to establish and assure a lower class.    Some Questions Need to be Asked and Answered:
1.     Why was each college mandated to cut 2.5 million from their budgets via layoffs and vacant positions that directly impacted student learning outcomes?
2.     Why were nursing programs removed from the predominantly minority colleges?
3.     Who are the following people (hired by Chancellor Hyman) and how do these positions impact retention, remediation, and student success? Why are their salaries so high and our colleagues with less salaries were terminated:
·        Jim Frankenbach, Chief Operating Officer (COO) $130,000
·        Jaime Guzman, Chief Advisor to Board of Trustees ($ 110,000)
·        Ronny C. Anderson, Chief of Staff ($ 120,000)

4.     How does an Internal Auditor($ 112, 074.11) Derrick Harden, move to Vice Chancellor, Human Resource & Staff Development ($120,000) then to Managing Director of Special Projects($120,000) now move to a current position of Interim President of Kennedy-King College while the President is occupying the seat but out on  Medical Leave? What are his qualifications for being a President – or an Interim President?  He is an auditor…
5.     Why is it that the majority dollars spent since Cherly Hymen’s appointment are not being allocated toward full time positions that directly impact Student Success? All tutoring positions added were part-time, on a one time grant. What happens when the grant is over? The majority of academic advisors hired are all part-time. Why? 
6.     Foreign Language is a requirement for city college students, why are we not hiring full-time faculty to teach these courses across the district?
7.     Why is Cheryl Hymen (CCC) hiring consultants to plan graduation and spend additional dollars to host it at a venue, when we have cut 2.5 million from budgets via layoffs? What about the people that lost their jobs?
8.     Why hasn’t our Union President Perry Buckley fought or spoken out against the layoffs of our fellow union colleagues and the one’s to come? According to the Crane Newspaper President Buckley stated he is “against what’s happening at City Colleges however we are willing to compromise by allowing faculty to run their departments.”  We already run our departments as department chairs.  But how will we continue to run our departments if the new standards the Presidents are going to be hired under directly impact the role of faculty success in the classroom.  If Presidents do not meet the standards what will they do? Fire Faculty?  Perry Buckley has been bought and sold and is looking to be re-elected.  Should he be?  Why hasn’t he raised his voice, our voices surrounding the past and current layoffs?  What about our district wide President of Faculty Council, she is on the District Reinvention task force (her services, silence and deceit paid for by Cheryl Hyman) Any and all  information discussed in our union and faculty council meetings,  she feeds to Cheryl Hyman.  Who is speaking on our behalf?  Have we been sold out and to what degree?
9.     What will happen to our next contract? Is Tenure on the line? According to Mike Davis former faculty member (at $65,000 now Associate Vice Chancellor at 104,700, far more that a 10% salary increase the board proposes for personnel in the system) “There is no need for tenure, we should do away with it!”
Why?
It’s clear – “REINVENTION,” IT’S NOT ABOUT U!
It’ about Cheryl Hyman and the Charge she is carrying out through unprofessionalism, intimidation, demoralization  and her inability to communicate using terms such as irregardlessrevalent and bachorett  degree when she means regardless, relevant and  bachelor degree) under the auspices of Reinvention and student Outcomes…  And if you disagree with Cheryl Hyman, you will be cussed out and ultimately fired… Cheryl Hyman lacks professionalism, leadership and the experience necessary to ensure student success. If our Chancellor has difficulty with subject-verb agreement, the pronunciation of the most basic of words,   how can we expect our students to excel in their studies?  Cheryl Hyman must be removed…
REINVENTION, IT’S NOT ABOUT US!
It’s About City Colleges of Chicago’s
500 Million Dollar Budget…”
It’s about $$$
Who will fight for the People’s Colleges?
 If our students can stand up so can we!

4 comments:

  1. Whoever you are THANK YOU for being the informed, articulate voice of a cowed, silent, fearful faculty... exactly where they want us to be. And, oh yes, thank you for pointing out those horrendous language flaws of our esteemed Chancellor. What an embarrassment! Clearly she needs to hire all the consultants she can pay for. No wonder corporate needed to unload her... but why on us?

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  2. Thank you for setting up this website - it's damn REFRESHING!!!

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  3. WOW!! I did not realize how bad it was. Thanks for helping us see what the "reinvention" is all about!!!!

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  4. I've been at City Colleges of Chicago for a long time and have watched things slowly deteriorate over the years but in the past year things have gone from bad to worse. The thing is that even though I know it's been happening and my colleagues know the same, it has been difficult to articulate how each of the "incidents" is related. Your writing here draws things clearly together. Keep it coming!

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