Tonight on Oct. 8, a group of students, staff and faculty gathered in the ALANA center to “get to know each other, create some points of unity and share thoughts and ideas on what is happening to our community and how we might like to change it,” wrote one the event’s organizers, Anastasia Hardin ’10, in an e-mail to various organization leaders on campus. Though members of different constituencies on campus were in attendance, the meeting was formally hosted by M.E.Ch.A., the Student Activists’ Union and the Vassar Association of Class Activists.
At the meeting, one of the event’s other organizers, Robyn Smigel ’12, began with introductory remarks, explaining that the meeting was initiated by students primarily as a result of the 13 position eliminations which were announced last week by President Catharine Bond Hill in an all-campus e-mail.
One of the first to speak was Science Support Technician Otto Bertsche, who serves as the business agent for one of the two prominent unions on campus, the Communication Workers of America (CWA). Bertsche claimed that since Hill announced the reduction of the 13 positions, three more had been eliminated and that the employees in those three positions had been given their notice without the usual representation by the CWA. “They should have been provided representation in those meetings,” said Bertsche, who explained that Associate Vice President for Human Resources Ruth Spencer has since apologized.
Several expressed concern that though the economic crisis has shown signs of improvement, the College has maintained the “same pace of job eliminations,” said the Business Agent for the Local 200, the Vassar chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Professor of English Donald Foster was also at the meeting. Although not present at the open forum with Senior Officers last Tuesday, Oct. 6, he was a major focus of the discussion. Over the course of the last month, Foster compiled sets of data in a document which he distributed at his discretion to students and other community members—major points of the letter were later refuted by Senior Officers, who made a formal written response, which they urged Foster to forward to all whom he had sent his initial document.
“When Frances Fergusson retired,” said Foster, speaking of Vassar’s ninth President, who resigned in 2006 after nearly 20 years of service to the College, “our giving dropped about 50 percent and stayed there. Our giving has collapsed. No one’s going out there schmoozing with the rich people. Our peers are, but we aren’t, and so our money is not coming in. The markets have come back up, but our fundraising has failed and our administrative costs have skyrocketed. Someone has to pay for that mistake, and it’s coming out of the wrong group,” said Foster.
Halfway through the hour-long meeting, Smigel redirected the conversation by suggesting that those present draft a list of “demands” that they would be able to deliver to the Senior Officers. Hardin began by suggesting that more transparency be a major priority. “One thing that we all share in common,” said Hardin, “is that we’re getting mixed messages, and we don’t have clear information or transparency.”
Though few others had suggestions for demands, all who spoke agreed that the group should work to increase the visibility of their message on campus. According to one student, Adjunct Associate Professor of English Judith Nichols will be working with a group of students to interview and take pictures of those who have recently lost their jobs in order to create “an instillation of posters in the College Center.” Next week, the group will be tabling and selling cupcakes to raise money for the posters.
Before the end of the meeting, one student called on the members of the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Executive Board—all but one of whom were present—to speak about how they were working with the administration and what they planned to tell the Board of Trustees during their scheduled October visit to campus next week. VSA President Caitlin Ly ’10 rose to speak, reassuring those present that she and the other members of the Executive Board have been working closely with the Senior Officers to represent student opinion in the decision-making process.
Please continue to check miscellanynews.com and From the Newsroom throughout the coming week for further updates on these and other issues.
