FIRED GODDARD WORKERS TURN WRATH ON BOARD
PLAINFIELD - The termination of 16 employees at Goddard College this week virtually guarantees that next weekend's meeting of the board of trustees will be one of the most tumultuous in the school's 58-year history
Most of the nine part-time and seven full-time employees who lost their jobs at Goddard say they plan to stage some kind of protest or demonstration at the board meeting.
Nobody's sitting down and taking this," Jennifer. Tripp Mead, who lost her job, said today.
Tripp Mead, and many of the other Goddard employees who were told either Wednesday or Thursday that their contracts would not be renewed, said they also plan to talk to their lawyers to find out what kind of legal options they have.
Manuel ONeill, the former director of financial aid, who lost his job Thursday after 10 years, said he is trying to find out if there is any evidence that he was terminated because of his efforts to organize a union at Goddard.
"Nobody's sitting down and taking this." - Jennifer Tripp Mead
"Given my seniority and job performance, I should have kept my job," O'Neill said.
O'Neill said he plans to ask the trustees next weekend to rescind the firings.
"If they have any commitment to labor and workers, there is a chance of us getting our jobs back," O'Neill said.
Kiko Nobusawa, another Goddard employee who was let go this week, said she hopes to convince the trustees to declare a moratorium on the job cuts, pending an investigation.
Nobusawa said some Goddard employees are trying to put together an alternative budget to present to the board of trustees that doesn't include so many job cuts.
"The board is our last chance," Catherine Weidner, an instructor and a member of the college's executive committee, said.
Goddard College President Richard E. Greene, who has been under fire from faculty, staff, and students for months said the job cuts were necessary to produce a balanced budget.
In a prepared statement released Wednesday, Greene said the personnel reductions were made to save about $300,000 and "lay a solid foundation for Goddard's future."
But Weidner said Greene could have achieved the cost savings without eliminating 16 jobs. She said the executive committee presented Greene with several other options that would have saved people's jobs.
Only two of the people on a list that was prepared by the committee actually lost their jobs this week, Weidner said.
Greene did not follow a "last hired first fired," policy either, Weidner said, but, instead, appears to have targeted many of his most outspoken critics - including O'Neill and Nobusawa.
"There were so many other creative ways for the college to deal with its budget problem;" Weidner said.
Some students at Goddard say they are reassessing,their decision to attend the alternative liberal arts college because of the firings.
"I'm debating whether or not I want to go to school there anymore," Katharine Kavanagh said.
While O'Neill and Nobusawa said they were not surprised that they lost their jobs, Tripp Mead said she was totally blindsided.
"I had no idea I was being targeted this was a complete shock;" she said.
Tripp Mead, Goddard's offcampus coordinator, said she did sign an organizing card for the union, but hasn't really spoken out publicly against Greene's administration.
She, like the others, was told to clear out her desk immediately even though her contract doesn't expire until the end of the month.
"I was asked to leave right away - I was not given two weeks' notice. I feel like I experienced a death," Tripp Mead said.
Some of the employees met informally Thursday to discuss the situation at Goddard to decide what to do next. Many plan to meet with lawyers during the weekend, Nobusawa said.
A press conference is tenatively scheduled for next Wednesday, two days before the board of trustees meeting is set to begin.
