Today, Nov. 18, the Campus Solidarity Working Group demonstrated in front of Main Circle at 3 o’clock. The protestors, many of them bearing signs and dressed in red, cheered several speakers from both the student body and the college staff. Then they marched around the campus, cheering to the beat of a bucket and a pan: “We’ve had enough; can’t take no more!” After the march, the protestors regrouped in front of Main and sat in the lobby in silence, holding up signs to explain their intent to express solidarity with “silenced voices” in the Vassar community.
Vassar alumna and Field Work Office Administrative Assistant Robin Laurita ‘05, one of the speakers, quoted President Barack Obama’s inaugural address: “the time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit and to choose our better history.”
“I believed that [the administration] would commit themselves to these ideas,” said Laurita; “[would] make Vassar College a pioneer in these difficult economic times. It was only within a few weeks that the true mission of the executive administrators would begin to take hold in my psyche.” Laurita continued, “I’m asking the students, as an alumn to upcoming alumns, take back your mission statement! Do not allow a select few to come in here and dismantle what Vassar has stood for historically.” Laurita then displayed the cap and gown she had worn on her graduation day. “I’m aking you to stand up and show what [this] means to you,” she said tearfully, gesturing to the robe. “You be the leader…take back your mission statement!”
Dean of the College Christopher Roellke commented on the administration’s recent relationship with the Working Group. “We received a very cordial response to our response,” he said of their latest correspondence. “It was a very polite, diplomatic email but the bottom line is they still want their demands to stand.” Roellke commented that this tone of voice is “a 180-degree turn into [a direction] which is extraordinarily positive.”
Science Support Technician and business agent for the Communication Workers of America Union Carl Bertsche also spoke at the rally, announcing that the Union proposed a plan for staff reductions to the administration where six people would still have been laid off, but “there would have been due attrition, and the union would have taken the hit. The College could have had what they wanted; we would have had job security…and all our folks would enjoy the holidays with their families.” However, according to Bertsche, “[the administration] told us basically to ‘stick it.’ Now,” he continued, “We’re on a position with the moral high ground.”
Roellke was unaware of the proposal of which Bertsche spoke. “We’re ready to hear any and all grievances,” he said. “If we made an error in the contract we certainly want to follow the proper protocol.” He also explained that the College is working with the laid-off staff and that “an effort is being made to try to place them elsewhere in the College.” According to Roellke, the way that the administration approached the cuts was to “determine functions that the college could do without.” Knowing this, he said, several departments left vacant positions open in the hopes that staff whose posts were eliminated would be moved into the available positions.
“It isn’t about six people here or the 14 adjuncts who are not going to be renewed…this is an institution of higher learning, where you’re supposed to be able to treat people properly,” said Bertsche. “There’s four groups of people on campus here, and a large amount want [the senior officers] to do business in a different way.”
