CNC Faculty Pass Motions of Non-Confidence in College Administrators
Prince George, B.C. – The Faculty Association of the College of New Caledonia (FACNC) has released the details of not one, but two passed motions of non-confidence in senior administrators at CNC.
FACNC president Deborah Collette says the motions were passed in April, and September of 2015.
(This after 250News reported earlier today it had learned of the October non-confidence vote. See story here).
Following those votes, she says concerns raised by the Association Executive fell on deaf ears.
“Faculty have listened to the concerns raised by groups and individual students across the region this year, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that neither the senior administration nor the board were willing to listen to the alternatives put forward by stakeholders,” said Collette.
“The faculty have been clear that they believe they have an obligation to advocate on behalf of their current and future students.”
She adds cuts to programming and faculty have continued despite research showing “community colleges are perfectly poised to address the skills gap.”
As a result, Collette says the FACNC felt it had “no alternative but to seek solutions by approaching the Ministry of Advanced Education.”
They approached the ministry via letter earlier this month though she says they did not receive a response.
The ministry did however go to the unusual step of appointing Deputy Minister of Advanced Education, Sandra Carroll, and former Deputy Minister Robert Lee Doney to the board for two year terms.
Comments
Too funny, We don’t like our bosses so we’re going to throw a fit. There are a few faculty members that should be on the unemployment lines but aren’t. Maybe the students should pass a non confidence vote on them?
I am sure that there should be a few administrators who should quit or be fired as well. I am also sure that a few borders members should know they are just warming seats. There are very few large organizations which would not fit that pattern.
You and I only differ in that everything works on left versus right, management versus union.
I do not see an objective trend in any of your posts. Ergo, you do not make good management material in today’s organizations. In my opinion, of course.
Nothing works when all we have is left vs. right and management vs. unions.
The public gravy train has gotten way to big and now that we are at the point where employees can tell their bosses how things are supposed to run, we’re only going to go deeper and deeper into debt and our workforce will continue to be dumbed down to suit the lowest denominator.
“Nothing works when all we have is left vs. right and management vs. unions.”
That is all the USA and Canada ever had. They are adversarial systems.
Corporate Boards in Europe typically are required by law to have employee representation. France is one of the weakest where one is required.
Germany varies by size of employees. One third in companies with 500+ employees and one half in companies greater than 2,000 employees.
Sweden has about 1/3 employees as members of a board when there are more than 25 employees.
This change from a few decades ago has resulted in fewer strikes.
I think we’re agreeing the system needs an overhaul? Management and employees working together for a common goal? Time to stop butting heads?
It’s never going to happen, it will require to much give when all we have is take. Everybody wants to run the company, school, department but they don’t want to put in the effort.
Yes, I’m a skeptic. The glass is not only half empty, someone has peed in it.
It is the community stakeholders, in the region that the College of New Caledonia operates, that have been raising concerns for the past year.
Students, local and regional governments, First Nations and community members were presented with a new college model that would fix problems that stakeholders didn’t feel existed.
No consultation was done with students, communities or stakeholders. Complaints about an out of touch board and administrative body not knowing the needs of regional communities led to a promise of engagement.
This promise led to a round of community meetings where, representing the college, Mr. Reiser came to listen to concerns with a rather interesting style – he yelled over people, refused to let people speak, held his hand up to stop people from finishing sentences, etc.
At one point he even stated that he had been told not to talk, but couldn’t stop himself.
To sum it up – the administration and the board decided they knew better than everyone involved in the college region, the staff, students, communities, etc., and came up with solutions to problems that no one else things are problems.
Talk to residents in Burns Lake especially, but also Fraser Lake, Vanderhoof and Fort St. James. Even Quesnel, with its large campus, is very unhappy with the direction being taken.
I applaud the Faculty Association for taking the initiative and requesting help from the Provincial government.
Hopefully the new appointees can get this board in order – stopping the exclusionary tactics of some board and administrative members and returning to standard consultation and strategic planning practices.
Judging from the following Prince George Citizen news article, I would have to agree with you jales5. Important decisions are being made in a top – down manner. IMO, the two new “political” appointments to the CNC Board of Directors are there to quash any and all opposition.
www. princegeorgecitizen.com/news/local-news/cnc-burns-lake-mayor-clash-over-cutbacks-1.2160508
We witnessed a similar decision making style when Mayor Sherri Green and City Manager Beth James were running the show at city hall. Looks like things are going to get worse before they get better at CNC… unfortunately.
My suspicion is that the two political appointees are there to make sure that things are smoothed over between administration and faculty. There is no political or any other advantage to have matters get worse.
Although post secondary institutions are autonomous, just as municipalities are, they are organizations created by acts of the province. The province has to make sure that the organizations function relatively peacefully.
The CNC president is a train wreck, and watching his leadership unfold is awful – in the classical sense of the word. Having a much closer eye on him through the new board appointees can only benefit the college. By the same token though, the executive of the faculty association is a circus – peopled with mean little trolls who are only happy when knifing those who aren’t on their little A-Team. So it’s a whole lot of “Hello Kettle, You’re Black!” going on at one of our institutions of higher learning here in town. Aren’t we lucky?
No doubt about it, the executive at the college is toxic and have managed to poison relations not only with students, support staff, and faculty, but now the communities this “community college” is supposed to serve. I assume the Ministry appointees were put in place to monitor and control the board and more importantly, the president.
However, being familiar with the situation, I take issue with referring to the Faculty Association executive as “mean little trolls” since I know them as hard-working professionals who have the willingness and integrity to serve the interests of both the faculty they represent and the college they hold dear. It’s best to keep in mind that all unions, including the Faculty Association, are reactive bodies who often find themselves resorting to tactics dictated by the strategies employed by the administration they have to work with. “When you lie down with dogs, you get up fleas”, I think is the saying.
So if the College is in this shape again, what good is their counsel going to be sitting on the City’s economic development committee.
The way CNC is being run is not a model of how to develop this City and region.
Problem is everyone thinks bad attitudes emerge out of thin air. NO they don’t…they are created. Unless that new pres. doesn’t get reined in he will continue to bully his way. Maybe we should slap a pink shirt on him as a reminder that it isnt the 70s no more.Watch your backs ladies and gents, hes a conniving, slippery little devil.
CNC has never had respect for its faculty and students. I remember when they brought in the Empark pay parking.
One would think if you respected your students then you would include them on major changes that would impact significantly a fixed budget mid year?
When they brought in the pay parking it was an executive decision made behind closed doors, given with no tender as far as anyone could tell, and fully implemented over the Christmas break.
So students and faculty return after Christmas to find parking meters in the parking lot; and now have to pay to park. Everyone is outraged, not just that the pay parking was implemented, but that there had been no discussion of this with the student associations or with faculty. Just a big slap in the face by the Board knows best; and IMO just the start of the CNC BOD slide into something more akin to a politicized cost center than a community skills training focus.
We all know Empark makes out good on their near monopoly over government parking lots in BC. To the BC liberals this fee for private profit was more important than having community stakeholders at CNC involved in such a huge ‘fee’ increase decision.
If you can afford to drive, you can afford to park. Driving is a privilege, not a right. Do you want us to pay for your fuel as well?
Our education system is failing if (especially by the time people get to College) people haven’t learned that nothing is free in this world.
Actually, once you obtain a valid driver’s licence, driving does become a right, which you can lose by violating laws where the consequence is the revocation of that right.
As for parking at the college, if it was an issue of money, why didn’t CNC engage in consultation with the college body and then bring in their own fee collection and fines instead of farming it out to Empark? It’s college employees who monitor the parking lots yet fines go to Empark. Smells like cronyism.
No, it’s not a right. When you are granted the privilege to drive to are obligated to obey the laws or you will lose that privilege. Driving is not a right.
CNC gets a cut of all the parking revenue. Smells like business to me.
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