College of Lake County Federation of Teachers
Political Action Committee
Letter to the Editor
Wendy L. Brown
CLC FACULTY SPEAKS OUT
Published: News Sun – Monday March 19, 2007
Some members of the press have made the comment that faculty at the College
of Lake County, “seemingly wields considerable influence at the college.”
As a member of the CLC faculty and chair of our recently created political
action committee (CLCFT-PAC), I would argue that historically the faculty
have had zero ability to influence the CLC Board of Trustees in their decision
making processes. The choice of the Board of Trustees to expend $136,660.00
on two back-to-back presidential searches, despite great protest on the part
of the faculty, before hiring the current CLC president is a significant case
in point.
As 1 of the 18 individuals who served on the first presidential search committee
I read over 60 applications and participated in the interview process for
eight final candidates. After this process the committee confidently recommended
four diverse finalists for the Board’s review, secure in the qualifications
and ability of each. After negotiations failed with only one of the finalists,
the CLC Board of Trustees decided to reject all other candidates recommended
by the search committee and chose instead to reopen the search.
The CLC Board of Trustees chose to reopen the search for a CLC president despite
the fact that all four faculty representatives from the first search committee
requested that they reconsider. They chose to reopen the search despite the
fact that 91 additional faculty members added their support to this request,
noting the apparent disconnect between the Board and a diverse and representative
search committee, and expressing particular concern about the cost of an additional
presidential search on top of the $50,781 of taxpayer monies already expended.
And, they chose to reopen the search despite the fact the CLC Faculty Senate
voted to “condemn” the Board’s actions.
If the CLC faculty had the kind of power suggested by some members of the
press, the CLC Board of Trustees would have spent less than $51,000 of taxpayer
monies on a presidential search instead of over $136,000. And, they wouldn’t
have ended up hiring a president that they then had to admonish within the
first few months of his hire.
Our newly formed faculty political action committee seeks to endorse candidates
to the CLC Board of Trustees who are dedicated to student success and who
are responsible when expending taxpayer monies. After interviewing a field
of potential candidates we are excited to endorse John W. Lumber and O.H.
Michael Smith for the elections on April 17. Our organization is “grass-roots”
in every way imaginable but we have received wide support from CLC employees
and retirees (administrators, classified, specialists, professionals, in addition
to full and part-time faculty) as well as multiple Lake County community members.
Checkout our website at www.clcft-pac.org,
you might just agree that the CLC Board of Trustees would benefit from at
least some dialog with the faculty.
Wendy L. Brown
Resident of Grayslake
CLC Faculty, Anthropology
Chair, CLCFT-PAC
-dedicated to improving the educational experiences
of the citizens of Lake County
CLCFT-PAC