The membership meeting on Saturday was lively and filled with good energy. With mounting indignation, adjunct faculty heard from members of the union's Steering Committee and from each other about the Columbia administration's increasingly outrageous and disrespectful actions -- more than we can recount here -- with regard to part-time faculty and their union.  We thank you for your active participation and look forward to your continued involvement in our union.  

Diana Vallera, P-fac President, asked that members call with their concerns and to report particular incidents in which the school had acted unfairly or tried to deal directly on union issues. She also emphasized that the union's goal is to get us a contract that provides and protects basic workers' rights. The key to getting there is member involvement.

Member involvement was active, and we collectively drafted an Open Letter to President Carter that will be sent at 4 p.m. today.

An open letter to President Carter

The following was collectively-written by the P-fac members who attended our April 14, 2012 Member Meeting.

We are deeply concerned about this administration's stance and actions, specifically

• its failure to seriously conduct contract negotiations with our union,    
• its failure to be transparent with regard to the finances of the college; 
• its failures with respect to the prioritization process, both as a process and in its likely results; 
• its failure to show respect for students, their concerns and their interests. 

Dear Warrick Carter:

1. Why are contract negotiations with P-fac apparently being run by the college counsel, and in a way that ensures that no progress will be made?
2. Why does the college refuse to reveal its budget? We ask that Columbia College be financially transparent.
3. Why was prioritization launched without any consultation with faculty or staff, and without consultation with Columbia's unions, even as P-fac and the college were in the midst of contract negotiations?
4. We have shown loyalty to the students of this college and the mission of the college, but this has not been recognized or reciprocated by this administration. There are faculty here who have been here for 35 years. Why are a few people who are quite temporary calling the shots on basic questions that will affect the college for the next thirty or forty years?
5. Where is the evidence that prioritization, here and at other schools with whom Dickeson has consulted, improves the quality of education? Was his firm asked to present evidence that this process would enhance educational quality, and if so, why has this evidence not been presented to the college community?
6. In making your recommendations on prioritization, will you take into account the long term cost to the cultural community of Chicago, of the cuts recommended so far? We ask that the relation of Columbia to the larger cultural community be a factor in decisions.
7. If it is true, as you have stated on several occasions, that you make no differentiation between full- and part-time faculty, then why have actions taken by your administration over the past few years made part-time faculty feel so little valued? For an institution that has built its reputation on professionals teaching students, how has it come to the point where those professionals are no longer valued?
8. Are you concerned that faculty morale at this college is at an all-time low?
9. You have stated, in answer to questions about the amount of your salary and bonus, that this is not determined by you, but by the Board of Trustees. Is it forbidden that you would donate part of your salary or bonus back to the college? In fiscal year 2009, the last year for which figures are available, you received a $45,000 bonus, bringing your total compensation to just under $396,000. Yet this was a year which saw a decrease not only of enrollment, but of income from gifts and grants, as well as from investments. Do you believe that it was right for you to accept this bonus (which is more than the yearly income of many who teach at this school) at a time when your administration was carrying out austerity measures across the college?
10. It is rumored that there are as many as fifteen or more lawsuits pending against the college, including from formerly prominent figures at the school such as Zafra Lerman. Why is none of this information available to the college community? How do these lawsuits and their projected settlements bear on the finances of the college?
11. Do any of the current board members have a financial stake in the properties purchased by Columbia College Chicago? Do any of the current board members profit from the institution or its properties?

Sincerely,

Part-Time Faculty Association at Columbia College