Quick History
A quick history of activism at Grinnell leading up to this demand.
Grinnell employment policies and social justice
Over the past year, employment practices have been at the heart of many of the major public discussions that have happened on campus. However, we feel that it is necessary to re-frame these discussions in the context of the college’s commitment to social justice.
Employment practices are central to any such commitment. How we treat the least protected members of our community – namely, college staff – is a reflection of the degree to which we really mean what we say here. Key components and principles of just employment policies should include transparency, effective communication with the entire college community, and equitable mechanisms for dispute resolution. Additionally, although current Iowa law allows for “at-will” termination of employment, as an institution where social responsibility and justice are a critical components of our core values, our employment procedures should afford staff more protection than state law currently does (they don’t). These values should help to create an environment in which staff feel they have real job security (in contrast to here and here (need a Grinnell email account and password).
Is Grinnell sincere?
Recent History
On September 4th, 2008, Sheree Andrews, Associate Dean and Director of Residence Life was put on administrative leave. Administrators maintained a heavy silence around the issue, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters. This led to the rapid spread of rumors, while her critical position remained unfilled.
On November 21st, Andrews officially ceased to serve the college. This announcement was followed by the December 5th letter from a group of tenured faculty in protest of this. Their letter contained serious allegations of impropriety – that Andrews had been forced out by administrators, in spite of receiving positive evaluations only months earlier. Furthermore, the faculty allude to a drawn out severance process and legal battle between Andrews and the College that took place from September and November, stating that Andrews accepted a settlement out of court.
Since then, a large group of faculty have continued to advocate for an independent, external review of staff hiring and firing practices at the college, as well as improved governance structures that will allow faculty and staff disputes and grievances to be settled more transparently and justly.
At a forum on the state of the college a week after the initial letter was published, faculty and administrators faced off. During December and January, the faculty group continued to work on these issues. On January 26th, 2009 Professor Ralph Savarese received a cease and desist letter from college president Russell K. Osgood; at the same time, as the Trustees met on campus for their quarterly meeting, reports of students being “inappropriately” and “repeatedly” contacted by Faculty concerning these matters surfaced. In the same Scarlet and Black article cited above, Osgood and Trustees uniformly condemned these alleged contacts. The Board of Trustees soon after responded with a letter, joining in that condemnation.
However, more recent reports have indicated that the administration’s position has changed. According to an article published in the Scarlet and Black on February 20th, 2009 Osgood rescinded his cease and desist letter to Savarese on February 19th, and tentatively agreed to an “external review of all administrative hirings and firings” as well as related procedures.
Urgent need for action
In spite of this recent turn of events, the situation is less hopeful than it may initially appear. First, all that is publicly known about these issues are thanks to Scarlet and Black investigations – not to disclosure from administrators. Second, although the most recent Scarlet and Black article documents a positive trend, it must be emphasized that the article contains NO commitments from administrators, written or verbal, to a full external review of staff hiring and firing procedures. Rather, in the article Osgood REFUSES to comment on the external review. Furthermore, Marcy Sortor, Vice president for Institutional Planning and Associate Dean is discussed as a potential candidate to run the review. Emphatically, Sortor is not an “independent” in any way.
For this review to have any chance of (1) shedding light on potential past abuses or (2) ensuring that staff hiring and firing practices be reformed to ensure that these processes are transparent, just, and in line with our core values, a completely independent group must be brought in to conduct it.
Therefore, we demand that the administration commit in writing to a full, independent review of staff firing and hiring procedures. The purpose should be twofold – potentially shedding light on past controversies and making recommendations that will inform a revision of these procedures. These procedures should ensure staff more protection than is currently afforded them by Iowa law and the College. Finally, this review must allow for substantial student, faculty and staff input.
OUR DEMAND
We demand a full and independent review of staff hiring and firing procedures in order to establish more transparency, more equitable dispute resolution and a greater sense of job security for staff to be convened by April 20th, 2009 and completed by June 1st, 2009.
