GODDARD BOARD WON'T REVERSE COLLEGE LAYOFFS
PLAINFIELD - Despite their emotional appeals, critics of Goddard
College's president failed to convince the college Board of
Trustees Saturday to reverse his decision to fire 16 faculty
and staff members.
Goddard's annual trustees' meeting became a public forum on the
contentious tenure of college president Richard Greene, as some
faculty members faulted his leadership and asked for union
recognition.
About 100 faculty members, students, alumni and community members
were on hand to address the trustees during a public meeting. They
had demanded the meeting in hopes of averting staff layoffs at the
tiny liberal arts school, a bastion of progressive education since
its founding in 1938.
Goddard recently fired 16 faculty and staff members in a move Greene
said was necessary to balance the college's budget. His opponents
charged that union organizers and Greens critics on campus were
targets of the layoffs, which Greene has denied.
After a day-long series of meetings, the trustees did commit to
appointing a trustee committee to help the Goddard community and
Greene resolve their differences.
They will also work on creating a provost position to handle day-to-day
administration at the school.
"We can't reverse what's been done here. I wish we could,"
said Jane Sanders, chairwoman of the board of trustees.
The board's actions Saturday did little to satisfy many of those who
attended the public forum, and word that Greene himself would appoint
the provost elicited a chorus of groans.
Earlier, the speaker after speaker rose at the trustees' meeting
to criticize the college's direction.
Adam Bush, a student at the college, told the trustees and crowd
that he had served under many leaders, but had "never met an individual
in a position of leadership who created more contempt or ill-will ...
than Richard Greene."
Bush said Greene had "manipulated, stalled and bullied his agenda"
as a member of the college's executive committee.
Dan Chodorkoff, one of the remaining faculty members, called Greene
a liar and cited several instances in which he said the president's
public statements were later proven false.
"You have to ask yourself, has he lied to you as a board?" Chodorkoff
said to trustees. "There's a character issue here."
He also accused Greene of bullying and intimidating the people who
worked for him.
"He's used tactics which may be appropriate to the corporate world,
but which are not appropriate to academia," Chodorkoff said.
Several students and perspective students said they would leave the
college or not come if the school continued on its present course.
Others, like fired faculty members Richard Schramm, presented financial
figures and claimed they showed Greens had over-reacted to the
budget problems.
For his part, Greene did not respond during the public meeting, and
was in a closed-door session with trustees Saturday evening and not
immediately available for comment.
Greene did dispute Schramm's figures, however, and in the past has
strongly denied charges he retaliated against critics or union organizers
in deciding which staff and faculty to let go. Greene said he did not
know who among the Goddard faculty were active in the union effort.
Earlier in the day, faculty members presented trustees with a
memorandum announcing their intention to form a labor union.
According to Mark Greenberg, one of Greene's most vocal critics and
a union organizer who was among the fired workers, and Ellen
David-Friedman, a union organizer with the Vermont National Education
Association, 75 percent of those workers eligible have signed cards
supporting a union.
During a break in their closeddoor session, the trustees issued a
brief statement in which they acknowledged the union drive, but said
they needed to consult kith their lawyers before formally responding to it.
Manuel O'Neill, another union organizer who was fired, said he was
disappointed with the trustees' response.
"I would have thought ... the board would have done its legal homework
on this issue," he said. "It couldn't have been a surprise to them."
O'Neill also thought that Sanders, wife and campaign manager of
Vermont's pro-labor Congressman Bernard Sanders, supported the union
drive, but that-others on the board did not.
"I'll be happy to be proved wrong when they (trustees) agree to the
employees of the college holding an uncontested election (on unionizing)"
he said.
Faculty members said they hoped the trustees would not seek to block
the unionizing efforts, and then either recognize the union voluntarily
or allow an election.
Private colleges may, under a Supreme Court ruling, challenge unionizing
efforts. Greenberg said he was "very disappointed" that the board did
not stop the layoffs. "I think they've . moved a bit in the direction
we proposed, but not far enough," he said. "Without a moratorium on
the firings, we've been given one shoe."
Manuel O'Neill, a faculty member fired from
Goddard College, joined employees and community members at a college
trustees' meeting Saturday to criticize layoffs and the leadership
of college president Richard Greene
