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MONTAGE Serving the St. Louis Community College - Meramec community since 1964
ACP Award Recipient
VOLUME 53, ISSUE 5 | THURSDAY OCT. 26, 2017 | WWW.MERAMECMONTAGE.COM
Welcome to PITTMAN-VILLE
Police tackle adjunct professor at Board of Trustees meeting
-News, Page 3
Photo by Melissa Wilkinson Forest Park adjunct faculty Brett Williams (right) gives Chancellor Pittman a report card at a union march on Oct. 23. The report gives Pittman failing marks in all subjects except for âprioritizing buildings over people.â
Photo by Noah Sliney Wildwood adjunct professor Steve Taylor is escorted from the Oct. 19 BOT meeting by armed police officers.
SSAC occupies Meramec in campus resistance Students camp out, march on campus in show of solidarity with adjunct professors Melissa Wilkinson | Editor-in-Chief
Meramecâs Student Social Action Committee (SSAC) hosted an occupation and protest march to draw attention to âthe plight of adjunct professors in their struggle for fair pay and treatment,â according to member Michael Marino. The occupation, which lasted four daysâMonday, Oct. 16 to Thursday, Oct. 19ârepresented the four years during which adjuncts have been trying to negotiate a contract with administrators. Marino, who slept on campus three out of the four nights, said he considered the event successful. âBy the end of our efforts, our numbers had doubled, and I saw firsthand a campus that was willing to organize and struggle for its future,â said Marino. Protesters originally organized at the traffic circle on Big Bend but soon relocated to the quad for safety purposes. Students pitched tents and held signs with messages such as âWelcome to Pittman-villeâ and âour educational staff deserve betterâ. âWe slept out there...to let the administration know that we stand with our professorsâall of them, adjuncts included--and we would like them to bargain in good faith, not only with the adjuncts union in pursuit of their contract but with the students who are
seeking alternatives to reduction in force in response to budget cuts,â said Marino. SSAC member Katherine Johnson said she joined the organization after reading an article covering the budget crisis in âThe Montage.â According to Johnson, the administration is planning to demote many fulltime faculty members to adjunct professors in order to cut costs. âAdjunct professors make less than poverty wages,â said Johnson. But according to Chancellor Pittman, STLCC pays the highest rate among community colleges in the state of Missouri. âAdjunct faculty are, in fact, part-time employees,â said Pittman. âEquating contracted work to an âannualâ wage is inaccurate and misleading to students and the public.â A pay raise was one of several demands made by Forest Park adjunct professor Steve Thomas at the Oct. 19 Board of Trustees meeting. Specifically, Thomas said adjuncts are requesting a three percent pay raise retroactive to January, less time between paydays, 100 dollars per credit hour in class cancellation fees (should a class be cancelled) and recognition of service--
protection from being replaced after they have served the college for some time. The final demand, noted Thomas, would cost the college nothing. âWe want a three percent raise, but we know about the money and that they donât have the money,â said Thomas. âFrom there itâs an issue of what they can offer us. Thatâs why I made the point to have some sort of seniority system where we get some assurance that we have some value to the college, that they canât just go and hire anyone to replace us.â Chancellor Pittman said he has been in negotiations with the SEIU bargaining unit but both parties have yet to reach an agreement. Pittman has called in a federal mediator to help facilitate an agreement. Amna Habib, Chair and Vice President of SSAC, announced at the Oct. 19 board meeting that on Oct. 2 her organization voted to establish an official subcommittee called the Reduction in Force Prevention Coalition. The RIFPC was established to make sure students are adequately informed and to generate proposals that the college could take to readdress the budget crisis. Habib said that the RIFPC has developed five proposals for the board to consider. All five were to
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