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May 6, 1996 Dear [Board Member]: I apologize for the heated tone of my post-governance meeting comments on Monday. I appreciated your willingness to listen and your expression of sympathy, and so would like to clarify and reiterate my points through this somewhat calmer written medium. In your May 6th statement to the community (the "Board's" statement which I understand was not unanimous but did have your endorsement), you speak of "ethics" and how "we all ... have an obligation to provide an exemplary learning and working environment" based on "open and honest communication", where "every individual is treated with respect and behaves respectfully." This is one of the primary reasons I chose to join the Goddard staff in 1993 for $19,000 a year (with an M.A. and PhD.ABD. -- but Goddard's about experiential qualifications and non-classism, no?). Under Steve Schapiro's deanship, I exuberantly gave my best for said learning and working environment: running a hectic student-faculty services office, supervising Work Program students outside the regular Dean's office position, adjunct teaching in Japanese language (resulting in one student eventually spending a scholarship year in Japan) and music (the semester-end performance filled the Haybarn), advising, serving on LPGs, working holidays/evenings/weekends for' orientation, Meal Teaming for advising dinners with a child strapped on my back, committee work and searches (due to which daily office work is often taken home), et cetera, not to mention the myriad ideas and initiatives that I have fed into various working groups. I do not list these accomplishments to boast or to whine about low pay. However, it is very discouraging when you hire new administrators from outside at 2 to 3 times my salary who then come to me for answers! It effectively squelches out any sense of volunteerism or constructive ambition, precious and unquantifiable human resources. A few staff meetings ago, Dr. Greene told staff -- including a "single mother who supports two children on $25,000 a year, and an 18-year employee who has lived in central Vermont for decades -- that they are "free to come and go." He also declared that all workers deserve the salary they get, that he deserves his and his raises, and that high-paid administrators generate income: never mind how many students over how many years have been recruited and retained by the likes of Jennifer Tripp Mead, Manuel O'Neill, Ellen Codling, Greg LaCroix, and faculty. I was appalled by Dr. Greene's arrogant, callous assertions -- this qualifies as respectful treatment and behavior? I am sickened at the thought that you will grant him an automatic $10,000 raise (that's one-third to one-half of many of our salaries) without question, while the rest of us are subjected to annual reviews and demeaning anxieties over contract renewal. Even IBM and ATT grant the courtesy of an advance reduction in force notice and a severance deal. Regarding the Nudepaper incident I cited: the article in question was simply a reprint and the "professional" consulted about it was James Falzarano (not Jim Lowe), now ironically author of the infamous "Anarchy 101" editorial. For an institution that supposedly insists on "open and honest communication," it strikes me as exceptionally unsavvy that your CEO attempted to shut down the student newspaper and so early in his tenure (five months). I also question why he chooses to send out incomplete or skewed information from his office, and why the Board accepts and even insists on this. As for the current Nudepaper, it is published underground and has no advisor. I suppose you could try suing them for libel, just as the faculty could sue the Times Argus for its ugly editorial. I agree that "community collaboration is ... an integral part of Goddard," and I thank this place for teaching me the civic skills I have come to exercise as a first-generation U.S. citizen. However, so many of my role-models over the past three years who engaged me in this vital process have been fired/resigned or shut down: Earl Thompson, Emily Tanner, Alex Forbes, Ken Mattei of AJA, Kathleen and Laurie in the kitchen, Katherine Fanelli and Mary Welz, Jim Galloway and Barbara Carns, Steve Schapiro, Jim Jatkevicius, Peter Burns, Sherri Molleur, Jamie Kline, Manuel O'Neill, Robin Sales. Staff turnover totals about 30% since August 1994; with such a steady drain of institutional knowledge, is it any wonder that we are bogged down? Contrary to what you may believe, I do not have an "authority problem." I have worked successfully and productively in many non-democratic settings and in some very autocratic situations, such as under orchestra conductors. In fact, I fetch tea very graciously for divas. I have no patience, however, for authority that is ignorant, incompetent, and cruel. I accept that Goddard is an institution with a "policy-making board of trustees, a president, and an administrative structure to implement". Unfortunately, experience has shown me that a top-down "organization is only as good as its leaders are enlightened. Finally, you should realize that many staff and faculty have been intimidated by Dr. Greene into silence, and that those of us who do speak out put our professional reputation and jobs on the line. Others have been silenced by indifference, tired of pleading at closed minds, having better things to do than play at shadow democracy.
Hereon in peace and silence,  |
