The College has reported that it intends to hire qualified, full-time replacements for faculty that exercise their legal right to strike. Assuming that “replacement” mean equivalents, we wonder how they are going to accomplish this monumental task.
We did some “back of the napkin” calculations about the number of hours spent by the College simply to hire current full-time faculty.
At MHCC, the faculty hiring process looks something like this: a committee of 6-7 faculty and staff reads and reviews all application materials, conducts interviews and forwards recommendations on to the VP of Instruction and President. This adds up to a conservative estimate of 220 hours per faculty hire. At 160 faculty that is 35,360 hours or 884 employee weeks or $1,700,000 (at the Dean’s rate of $48/hour)!
With faculty on strike, there will be no committee, and the only deliberation will be between the Dean and herself.
Students, what do you think?
Do you want the instructor chosen through 220 hours of careful vetting or the one chosen by 1 hour of quick-shod, single person coin-flipping?
The MHCC Board and administration has cost us too much already. It’s time to stand up! We, the students, the CONSUMER, have the power. Only we can force the hand. We do that in one way. We “revolt”.
No violence, of course, but we set up peacefull protests, sit-ins, and refuse to participate with scabs. We need to be seen.
I urge you, go to Facebook, search avragestudnt or mhcc.averagestudent@gmail.com. I want to hear your ideas. I want OUR voices heard!
“peacefull protests, sit-ins, and refuse to participate with scabs. We need to be seen.”
Seen, heard, none of these things move the royalty any more. What this generation fails to understand is what every generation of activists fails to understand – you can yell and scream and hold your breath and have temper tantrums all you want, but the day when the imperialists in our school, in our state, in our nation, and around the world, which seem to have marked 2011 as the year to buy back the world from the forces of democracy, AREN’T LISTENING ANY MORE.
They don’t have to listen, they don’t want to listen, and they won’t listen. The teachers go on strike, they can just replace them. It doesn’t matter if they don’t live up to our union staff’s quality, as long as nobody actually does anything to threaten the administration’s power.
I myself don’t know what can be done. If persuasion and lobbying doesn’t work, what can we do to actually displace or eliminate the Administration and Board of Directors? Not violent, of course – if there’s violence, it will become the ’33 Reichstag Fire of our school, and possibly the Nation’s. But what do we do when words fail?
I myself am dropping out – the school won’t see one more penny of my Pell Grants or loans. And since they’re looking to turn our school into a mini-China, they can hire one of those scabs they love so much to clean out all those nasty recycling bins I empty every day with pride and efficiency. I suggest everyone else find more physical ways to deny and defy the board and hit the Royalty where they really care – their fat nepotist wallets!
Suck on that, Sygelski!
I am glad I am leaving for PSU in the Fall, doing a co-admit. MHCC instructors have always been great to me; they are passionate, smart and will do anything to help you. I can’t imagine that the “replacements” that they will hire are going to be near the same quality. I wish for the best, because they deserve it. However, I can’t help but think that the students are getting screwed the most here. What the *%$& are we gonna do? I’m told that PCC is getting flooded with calls, and most of their classes are filled. Seriously, is this what we pay for??
I can’t help but feel the same way about us as students. What ARE we going to do?
As selfish as it sounds… I DO feel lucky in the fact that most of the teachers / staff I favor are part-time or classified, so this strike doesn’t affect them… I hope.
And I hope that these replacements do a good enough job to teach us what we need to at least get through the term. It would be horrible to have to suffer just to have some change happen.
If the administration doesn’t make this right, the scabs will have empty halls while some of us go to PCC. I am not sure I can spell ethics, but regardless of that I won’t help screw the faculty I have come to admire.
I won’t cross our teachers picket line, but I will join them in walking it.
Think before you cross the line, these teachers are committed to guiding us to success, don’t turn your backs on them. For once let’s give them the same support they give us.
I want the teachers that I signed up for. I came here to further my education and I was sure I made the right choice, until now. Who the hell is Dr Ski? He is about to ruin the college experience for many of us. Get a clue pal, none of us came here for you, we are here because you have the best teachers period!!
If he won’t listen to us now we can make him listen in June.
I’d love to “do something”, but WHAT is the question.
I do agree with John, they just aren’t lisenting any longer.
If we the students refuse to go to class in support of the instructors that we trust and believe in then what happens? WE FAIL, and that creates a whole whirlwind of events for many of us.
I hate what’s going on in this whole situation, but what can I do?
We the students are SUPPOSED to be the important thing here, and yes, we are the consumer, but apparently, no one is listening to anything anymore, and it’s sad.
I came to Mt.Hood because I hoenstly believed in the school, I believed in what they stood for, but anymore……….
I don’t want to transfer school, but I am almost starting to feel like it’s the only option.
What kind of learning enviroment is this placing us in? It’s in turmoil. And to top it, they just want to throw some people in to “replace” our instructors?
Have they forgotten about the STUDENTS?
First, thanks for commenting. Don’t underestimate the power of student voices nor think the board is not listening, they can hear but until now have chosen to ignore … so make that impossible. It really doesn’t matter ‘what’ but you need to do something, we all need to keep doing something, so the board will understand the solution is not more stonewalling. Strike is not an end it’s an action and when it works the college doesn’t. Action can make a strike unnecessary but there has to be action, you have to find something you can do.
I agree! I do not want “scabs” teaching me! I want the best! But I will loose my grant and scholarship if I protest to go. Is it worth the support? Is it worth my education for right now until I can afford school on my own? I want to participate but it’s a decision between following what I think is right and moving on with my life for a career.
As a student who plans to graduate from a specialized MHCC program, I want the same professors that have been teching the same classes for 15 plus years. NOT SOMEONE WHO WAS HIGHERED LAST WEEK! I PAYED TO BE HERE GIVE ME WHAT I WANT! I AM YOUR CUSTOMER!
Amen! My sentiments exactly. I CANNOT imagine some spare who is willing to cross a line for part time work replacing my faculty. These people are insane. I payed for this, I payed for quality, not this nightmare.
I concur with the suggestion that students can respectfully choose not to cooperate with the replacement staff. I also suggest that we keep in mind that the “scabs” are professional people, some of whom may have been looking for work for a very long time. Having said that, I also believe these replacement teachers are being used as pawns by MHCC admin in a very far-reaching game of chicken. It is obvious to myself and others the single goal of the MHCC Admin is to break the union. History speaks to this issue: Recently in Wisconsin the State Employee Union was broken. In Ohio and other states unions are under siege. This is a pattern which is being followed by MHCC Admin. Please remember a lesson in Modern World History: One of the first acts of Hitler when he became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 was to outlaw the unions.
The “seige” mentality which I observe in MHCC Admin is dysfunctional and shows co-dependence upon an outdated authoritarian “top-down” management model. How very sad for all of us.
I came to this school for a program that is the best in the state for what I want to do, and the full time teachers are what brought it to that place! They’re specialists in what they’re teaching, and now we’re getting some under qualified scabs to replace them??? Students are getting jipped! What happens to my education? Will I get to finish this program the way I was supposed to? I’m paying for the quality information that my teachers are able to give me, and if these scabs end up replacing my teacher’s jobs for good, I am leaving this school.
I am in the RN Nursing Program. Sure, not all of the teachers are as amazing as I could hope for, but then, I’m not Perfect Person #1 either, so we all have shortcomings. Life goes on. I can’t say the same for my HIGHLY SPECIFIED program, however.
“Replacements”. Ok, that was a good laugh!! Who’s got the next joke?
The Nursing instructors have to 1) be nurses. Last I checked there is a SHORTAGE of nursing instructors. Why? They make more money just by being nurses. Why would anyone who is trying to get ahead become a nurse educator unless they love teaching and/or believe in giving back to nursing specifically by training new nurses. That’s a small percentage of the total whole… of nurses.
2) Have at least at least a bachelors degree if not higher to be able to teach. The number of eligible recruits drops yet again.
3) Be certified/passed off by the Oregon State Board of Nursing. Oh, wait. You mean that anyone who wants to be an instructor who hasn’t gone through that process can’t teach me how to be a nurse in Oregon? Oh. I guess that makes the pool of eligible recruits even smaller….
Wow. That’s kind of depressing. So it looks like the only place they can get new teachers from is other schools. !!!! That’s a great idea!! Let’s steal them from OTHER community colleges!!!! Oh, wait. I forgot. All of their unions are telling them not to help out MHCC or their community college will be next. Scratch that idea.
The next biggest joke? “Seamlessly transition”. Right. You mean to tell me that these nonexistent ‘nurse educators’ that can’t teach my classes are also going to magically (without any training by the current full-time staff who are leaving on strike) learn how to work the Simulation equipment, Blackboard (which has been giving our current instructors hell for the past 6 months already), develop instantaneous relationships with all our clinical sites and their staff, as well as somehow manage to pick up immediately on our newest lesson plans without having a clue about the books we are using, the online charting system that we just began using this year, and don’t know about the drugbooks-on-handheld OR the ATI NCLEX Testing System?? Right.
“Wow. That sounds pretty involved. I really hope they can find teachers for you that are just that magical. Because that sounds like it would be impossible to transition seamlessly into that sort of set-up without some serious otherworldly powers getting involved”.
Yeah, tell me about it.
Suffice it to say that I am fully in support of my instructors and I think if I had to choose between teachers on strike or, well, the immediate resignation of the Board of Directors, I think I know which I will choose.
You can do more than comment on this site. Use the link to email the board. Make sure your voices are heard. You deserve the education that you paid for. You chose this school because the instructors are really some of the best out there. Is it right that the board fire them to save some money? Are they serving their community? Let’s fire the board!