Dissent, Unrest at Community Colleges

* The Times article of Sept. 16 on the letter of intent filed by the Ventura County Community College District Board of Trustees with the Cal State University Board of Governors correctly identified some of the problems that the college district faculty has with the proposal. As a member of the committee formed to consider the letter of intent, and a member of the faculty of Moorpark College, let me elaborate.

At the first meeting of the committee it was pointed out that Ventura County lacks three things to get the job done:

* There is no federal money to aid the project, such as the defense conversion funds used at CSU Monterey Bay.

* There is no political support, such as that from state politicians who supported the founding of CSU San Marcos.

* There is no broad-based public support, not from the business community, not from the agricultural community, and not from the public at large.

The conversion of the old Camarillo State Hospital into a CSU campus will take time and money. Where will this money come from?

The people of Ventura County have long supported their community colleges, but taking money away from the county colleges to finance the relocation of the district office is not in the interest of the students nor of the people of Ventura County. Neither is the rental of 50 acres of parking at the new location. The parking is needed on the campuses where our students currently attend classes.

Further, the college district is not a “for profit” business. It has no new sources of revenue. When the chancellor says the money won’t come out of the operating budget, we must ask, what other budget does the district have?

The idea of a CSU campus in our county is an exciting one. But investing money so that an administrative office can be moved far from students, teachers and taxpayers and then calling it “distance learning” is not what the people of this county have asked for.

A CSU campus would bring benefits, but paying for them would not be virtual reality. It would be a hard economic reality and that reality should be explored and examined before we are committed to a contract that will outlive all the personalities involved.

STEPHEN C. DOYLE

Moorpark

* On Sept. 9, I attended a meeting of the Ventura County Community College Board of Trustees, where I witnessed an appalling demonstration. The major issue on the agenda was the contract negotiations between the teachers’ union and the district. The auditorium was filled with the most obnoxious, rude, disorderly people I have witnessed in a public forum. It was a case of mob mentality.

If this was a meeting of the Teamsters union, I might have understood, but these were the people who teach at the college level. They acted like a bunch of thugs.

The meeting was one continuous round of shouted threats, chants and insults to the chancellor, trustees and those who spoke in opposition to the teachers’ union.

Strangely, the president of the board did nothing to quiet or control the crowd. Had President John Tallman used his gavel, or at least advised the teachers of proper decorum, the meeting might have been productive. Such behavior on the part of the audience is absolutely not tolerated at the Board of Supervisors or most city council meetings.

It is my impression the arguments over the contract have less to do with salaries than with control of the district. Who should be responsible for making job assignments and evaluating performance, the union or management? Management is not a popularity contest by the employees, but rather a position that takes fortitude and resolve to best serve both the faculty and the taxpayers.

It is a waste of everyone’s time to negotiate a labor contract by playing the audience and making veiled (and not so veiled) threats. The union agitators may have aroused their members with their vitriolic speeches, but they certainly lost the support of anyone else who watched their performance.

JERE ROBINGS

Thousand Oaks

* Your support for the Ventura County Community College chancellor and board of trustees would be honorable if you reported true facts. Faculty salaries are controlled by a salary schedule, which is a public document. To make $100,000 a faculty member would have to substitute for or take a semester assignment as a manager, not as a teacher. Faculty can teach an additional load of two extra classes or the equivalent per semester, which would not enable them to take a semester’s leave until they had accrued an overload for several semesters. They are not paid for the overload that they bank to take time off.

Why are the college managers so silent? Do some real reporting to find out why some are working without a contract this year. What has already happened to those who have spoken in favor of the faculty? What is going to happen to the good relationships necessary to provide students with excellence?

FRAN SHEPPARD

Ventura