T
Vive la Revolution
Kem’s Korner: Music therapy better than a shrink? OPINION ON 6
Solano’s best kept secret is right on our campus FEATURES ON 5
Luningning de Jesus / Tempest
Just keep swimming: Solano’s swim team makes a splash
TEMPEST All quiet on the southern lawn Signs plaster the campus as “Occupy Solano” takes place.
SPORTS ON 8
• APRIL 1 - APRIL 21, 2015• VOL. 31, NO. 12 • FAIRFIELD, CA • www.solanotempest.net •
Luningning de Jesus / Tempest
Tension increases as battle between faculty and administration feud over contract Suzy Jane Edwards-Freet Staff Writer sedwardsfreet@solanotempest.net
Ongoing contract mediations between the Solano County faculty union and the district were precluded by a dispute over free speech last week. In anticipation of the arrival of a mediator at 9:30 am March 24, instructors put up about 500 signs supporting the faculty union with slogans such as “Empower teaching and learning - did you forget?” “Let’s put the community back in Solano Community College” “0%=zero respect.” “The idea was that when the mediator arrived that he would walk through an ocean of signs,” said Jim DeKloe, president of the Solano College Faculty Association in a March 24 email headlined “Wow, an Outrageous Day,” that was forwarded to The Tempest.
But the signs were taken down. In the email, DeKloe writes that after learning that the signs were being removed, “I rushed out there and they were all gone. I put a call into Dwight Calloway, the Director of Facilities ... He said that it wasn’t his call that it had come from above him.” “So, I found out that the signs were in the office of [Associate Vice President] of [human resources] Wade Larson, the leader of the other team in the mediation. I went into the office and said, ‘those signs are ours.’ The District’s lawyer, Scott Yarley was there and said, ‘those were yours until you abandoned them on District property.’” According to the email, later that day, DeKloe received a text: ‘come get your signs.’ So, we got them and put them back up,” DeKloe wrote.
“If the District wanted to indicate that they were willing to negotiate in good faith, that was NOT the way,” DeKloe’s email said. Larson did not respond to requests for an interview. Regarding removing the signs, Larson was quoted in an article in the Fairfield Daily Republic March 25 “The lawn is not public access so I picked up litter and put it in my office. They got fired up.”
to Laguerre, who promised an investigation into the matter, and that Laguerre does not condone the removal of the signs. “Wade and I have always had a good working relationship,” DeKloe said in an interview March 30. “We have personally worked it out. We have been trying to build trust between faculty and administration. This is a temporary setback we are working to overcome,” DeKloe said. DeKloe said that Larson later apologized for saying that posting signs was “unprofessional.”
In a March 27 article in the Vallejo Times Herald, Larson said “Having a mediator walk through a sea of signs, I didn’t think it was professional.”
The faculty union is currently negotiating a contract that expires in June. DeKloe said that the instructors have low morale.
The incident, dubbed “Signgate” by DeKloe, occurred while Jowel Laguerre, SCC Superintendent/President was in Haiti. DeKloe said he spoke long distance
“The administration seems to have shifted all of its focus on the new, and then forgotten about the support of the core mission of the college.”
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Bad literature is a form of treason.” - Joseph Brodsky