MISSION VIEJO : Faculty Complains of Contract Impasse

An emotional crowd of more than 100 faculty and staff members packed this week’s meeting of the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees to complain about increasingly bitter contract negotiations.

Because faculty and the district administration have been unable to come to agreement on a new contract, the issue has been referred to a state mediator.

The faculty is asking for a 5% pay increase, while the district’s offer calls for no raise.

“You will not have a fully functioning faculty if they feel alienated from their board,” Saddleback College sociology instructor Sherry Miller-White told the board. “To suggest no salary increase is not realistic on anybody’s part. We’re not even asking for what we really deserve because we know the financial condition of the state.”

“I think it’s important to bring an end to this dispute,” added William Jay, president of the Saddleback Community College Assn. “The morale in this district isn’t so hot right now. I think our proposals are within the district’s capabilities.”

Board President John C. Connolly said later that he could “very much sympathize” with the faculty’s plight but added that the district’s “primary concern is the welfare of our students.”

“There’s as much frustration from us as well,” Connolly said. “What you’re looking at is the frustration of a state financial situation that we’re all a part of. We’re dealing with a limited amount of dollars and our challenge is to educate as many students as we can.”

District Chancellor Richard Sneed said this week that the 5% increase is “simply beyond” what the district can offer.

“In the Saddleback Community College District, the board and administration have made major efforts to maintain as much of the program as possible and to avoid full-time staff layoffs, which would only contribute to the recession,” Sneed said in a prepared statement released Thursday.

Also addressed during the meeting was a controversial grade change that has led Irvine Valley College writing professor Hugh Glenn to file a lawsuit against the district because an administrator raised a student’s grade from a D to a C over Glenn’s objections.

“It’s something that rattles the soul of every faculty member,” said Lee Walker, an English instructor at Saddleback College. “We really have a lot at stake here as far as our professional reputations. I hope that in the future, people can sit down and talk before such a major decision is made.”

Earlier this week, Sneed said the grade-changing procedure was in accordance with board policy and state law.