UPDATED, with link to survey results.
Though he’s currently touring colleges in western Siberia, College of the Redwoods President/Superintendent Jeff Marsee appears to be taking the
CR revolt
seriously.
Last week, at a heated Board of Trustees meeting, union employees delivered a vote of no confidence in the Board, citing the removal from the CR Web site of hundreds of employee comments gathered during a survey by consulting firm Noel-Levitz. In a letter from Russia, Marsee begrudgingly reversed that action by announcing that the comments will be put back online. (Links to the survey results
here
.)
The embattled head of CR struck a conciliatory — if not quite apologetic — note in the letter, saying, “As I observe from afar, and reflect from within, I recognize that I have been unsuccessful in helping each of us resolve our differences through normal discussion and debate.”
Read the rest of his letter below.
I further recognize that each of us, including myself, must assume some responsibility for this failing. We all must learn how to work together to resolve issues collegially and leave behind any process that in any way resembles a conflict-oriented approach. We need to do this for our students, for our community, and for each other. I, like you, have committed myself to the College of the Redwoods, to do all that I can, in concert with you, to weather these hard times and move us forward to serve our students and community. I pledge this commitment to you. Please allow me to present my perspective on the matter of the survey posting.
The raw CESS responses were not removed from the web site to hide results from the study. I always intended to share with the college community all the results of the study as part of the process for creating action plans for improvement. The reason the initial data and comments were removed from the web site was simply because the data had not been analyzed by Noel-Levitz and the summary comments had not been sorted by theme or topic. Further, we were advised by Noel-Levitz that posting raw results without analysis or context was counter-productive to the intended goals of the survey project. However, and despite the advice received from Noel-Levitz, I have asked Dr. Marjorie Carson to post the raw data survey results on the College web site in the accreditation section. I continue to believe that it would have been preferable to have released the results of the survey after the Noel-Levitz analysis was completed. Nonetheless, I now believe that it is more important for the health and well being of our college community to not wait for the analysis.
I truly regret that this unfortunate chain of events has created so much angst for so many of you. We must reverse the painful course we now seem to be on and return to a path of open communication and mutual collaboration. I sincerely look forward to restarting our positive efforts to resolve our differences through active listening and collegial discourse when I return from my Fulbright travel. I have learned much while participating in this extraordinary opportunity in Russia. I look forward to sharing what I’ve learned with you when I return.
Sincerely,
Jeff Marsee
This article appears in Roads and Redwoods April 2010 (North Coast Journal).
Who was the letter addressed to and how did Marsee deliver it (email, fax, etc.) ?
E-mail sent to all staff. It began with, ‘Dear colleagues,… .’
How does this compare to the HSU vote of no confidence? That one was played up in some sectors as disgruntled unreasonable faculty throwing a fit because the budget is tight. The news coverage of CR’s situation seems to take CR teachers more seriously.
Perhaps boards of colleges could try a different approach in their hiring for top positions. Instead of offering insanely high salaries, under the rubric of "high salaries attract the best talent," they could offer an adequate salary and look for committed and qualified applicants.
LOL! Joel, you crack me up.
This is quite similar to Richmond’s shallow excuses, in that he also lacks support from the educators and administrative staff, along with students.
Who keeps supporting these losers?
Oh yeah, the self-promoting losers on the Boards, like Trustee Bruce Emad who dismissed the numerous and well-documented complaints from educators, staff and students alike. Catch him in the T-S making very similar excuses for Marsee that he made for Crabill. She left this community holding the bag for her expensive mistakes while she headed off to the East Coast for greener (more $) pastures when she saw the cow patties heading for the fan. The NC Journal’s story is more comprehensive and gives one a more complete picture of how incredibly bad it has become.
I’ve heard from several instructors about how bad it is. The Board should be deeply ashamed at how quickly and easily they abandoned their principles and the pledges they made to the community. Marsee has serious leadership and management issues, along with major communication shortcomings. Students say the same thing, essentially, but not as nicely.
CR is a benefit to so many in this community I don’t know where to start. I do know where the buck ends: with the Board of Trustees.
Thanks a lot, Emad! Any idea of how to fix this mess and make it up to the community???