Advice: Possible Vote of No Confidence

[Kim Dozier]

Hello,

I am the Senate President at College of the Desert (near Palm Springs where it will be a balmy 110 today). I am facing an unusual situation and need some advice and guidance as this is uncharted territory for us.

 

We have been conducting a search for a new Superintendent/President this year and last week the Board of Trustees, in a split decision, chose a candidate not supported by most of the college. There were two recent Board meetings where, knowing this was a possibility, almost 70 faculty, staff, and even some administrators issued public comments in favor of a different candidate (our current VPI). While we recognize that the BOT has the right to hire whom they want, many things have come to light over the last couple of weeks that lead us to believe that this was a political favor, the newly-selected President was promised the job before she even applied, one BOT member has a relationship with the search firm selected, and there are some shady real estate deals in the works between the BOT and one of our communities. I can go on and on if needed.

 

I have been asked by a large group of faculty—there were 70 people at a virtual gathering last night, including a dissenting BOT member and a former president of our campus—to draft a vote of no confidence against the three BOT members who voted for the selected candidate and to send a message (or a vote of no confidence) to the incoming president (who has yet to sign a contract) that she is not wanted here.

 

I have read the ASCCC paper on this topic, but it deals with doing this against an existing administrator, so I have some questions and would appreciate any guidance, warnings, or help:

 

1. Can we do this against a BOT and a person who is not even yet an employee of the college?
2. We do not have any scheduled Senate meetings until September, but I do believe I can call an emergency meeting with 72 hour public notice. Is this correct? (last nights’ meeting was an informal get together, not a meeting).
3. We vote by representation and I feel it is important for us to follow our processes, especially when we are calling out the BOT for not following processes, but I have had faculty ask for us to allow all faculty to vote anonymously on whether to support this vote of no confidence. Can/should this be done this way? What other options or mechanism might work? The next Board meeting when we believe the contract to the new President will be issued is on August 20^th, and the faculty feel we need to act by that date.
4. What else should I be aware of/do/think about?

 

Thanks! I appreciate your thoughts here.

 

Kim

 

Kim Dozier, MAx2, PhD

College of the Desert

Professor, English

Academic Senate President

760-776-7208

Communication Building 215-G

 

 

 

[Katie Krolikowski]

Hi Kim,

I just finished my term as AS president at contra Costa college here in the sf Bay Area.  We are a multi-college district and our board had done some very disappointing things over the last couple of years. 

The other 2 colleges did pass votes of no confidence against 3 of the board members, and were joined by their classified senates (and maybe management councils? I don’t quite remember).   Our asc (and our classified senate) chose to pass resolutions against the entire board, which were not quite as severe as a VONC. The reason was that the board’s decisions had adversely affected our college for a long time before they started affecting our sister colleges.  Also, the board member that represents most of our colleges’ service area was one of the three, and he HAS done good thjngs for our college and specifically the Latinx community over the years.   We all (senates across the district) think that this collective action had a good effect:

1) the board paid attention

2) two of the “bad” members were voted out in the November election (faculty and staff unions supported their opponents)

3) the accreditation visit we had this fall only had findings that fell at the level of board and district actions. While the colleges themselves have to respond, our district office and board acknowledge publicly that they have to do the work in order to let the colleges respond well. 

The three of us AS presidents had a really great meeting with Dolores Davison to talk things through as we were contemplating this action. I strongly  recommend reaching out to her.

I also strongly recommend collaborating with your classified colleagues, and management if possible. Faculty for sure have the strongest position, so it’s good for us to lead. This collaboration guards against the possibility of divide and conquer. 

Work with your unions, too!

Finally - take it from me that political chaos really negatively impacts students- any energy we spend on dysfunction is energy we are not directing towards them. Keep students front and center and it’ll be the right decision.

Good luck!! 

Katie Krolikowski 

(Former!) ASC President, Contra Costa College 

Katie Krolikowski

On Jul 23, 2021, at 10:59 AM, Kim Dozier <kdo...@collegeofthedesert.edu> wrote:



--
This group has NOT been established or endorsed by the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges or its Executive Committee. This discussion group is not moderated, and any opinion expressed is solely that of its author.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CCCSenates" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cccsenates+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cccsenates/ba82e421c27a420aa0ed379aa8a5b6de%40collegeofthedesert.edu.

[Kim Dozier]

Thank you so much, Katie! I agree that we must keep students center and protect them. That was discussed—what impact does this have on them. Our Union (we have two for faculty) presidents were part of the initial discussion last night and we talked about the need to loop in our classified colleagues.

 

I appreciate the info and time!

 

Kim

 

From: cccse...@googlegroups.com <cccse...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Katie Krolikowski
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2021 11:34 AM
To: cccse...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Google Group CCCSenates] Advice: Possible Vote of No Confidence

 

***Notice - From External Source***

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cccsenates/5F4DF017-6BDA-44C1-A741-A166B4B1F79F%40gmail.com.

[Katie Krolikowski]

Again, good luck! 

Katie Krolikowski

On Jul 23, 2021, at 12:02 PM, Kim Dozier <kdo...@collegeofthedesert.edu> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cccsenates/b21a97c4f3724f058c8e4ceb82d26690%40collegeofthedesert.edu.