Michigan: Washtenaw Community College faculty face privatization

[Hannah Bell]

WCC President Larry Whitworth announced that the Board of Trustees will vote in November to privatize nearly 400 part-time faculty and staff in order to save $1 million a year in pension costs. Under the plan, all part-time faculty of the college’s non-credit Lifelong Learning Program and all support staff paid up to $12 per hour will be fired on January 1, 2011. They will then be rehired by the private temporary employment servicing company, EDUStaff.

Once handed control of a segment of the WCC workforce, EDUStaff will work to reduce employee compensation in order to slash costs and increase profits for its investors. The quality of the education provided at WCC and the working conditions of its employees will be of little significance to EDUStaff so long as its profits rise.

Employees of EDUStaff, faculty and staff will be contracted out to WCC on a per-semester basis, with no promise of a job the next semester. By removing them from its payroll, WCC will no longer have to pay 19.6 percent of the employees’ salary into the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS).

In announcing the decision to privatize a segment of the WCC workforce, Whitworth pointed to the $12.9 billion in stock market losses sustained by MPSERS since 2008. “It’s a matter of being fiscally responsible,” Whitworth told the local Ann Arbor newspaper last August.

The WCC president has testified in Lansing in support of amending the Michigan Constitution to allow community colleges to be released from MPSERS and benefit-defined pension plans in favor of contribution-defined plans.

While some college property at WCC and other community colleges has already been privatized in an effort to find new revenue sources, the privatization of faculty and support staff positions is a relatively new tactic...At the campus level, it is widely acknowledged to be a trial balloon for similar moves on a wider scale. AnnArbor.com commented, “If that plan worked, about 700 part-time faculty teaching for-credit courses could go the same route...”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/wash-o28.shtml

[ibegurpard]

1. well, of course

who's going to work for some corporate chicken-feed when they can get cushy public-sector jobs with good benefits?
that's ONE reason why attacks like this are going on.

[Starry Messenger]

2. Holy crap.

o.O

[somone]

3. This after the Board of Trustees enjoyed their $4,000 retreat dinner along with $600 worth of wine

Also I see that President Whitworth is 'retiring' to his fat pension, plus a new gig at the University of Michigan. Nice.

[Hannah Bell]

4. k

[Hannah Bell]

5. k

[Reader Rabbit]

6. k&R

More depressing as Hell news on the education front.

:(

[Starry Messenger]

7. k

[Scout]

8. update

Dear Faculty and Staff,
On October 27, 2010 an article appeared on AnnArbor.com regarding WCC’s possible use of EduStaff as a payroll function for part-time faculty and staff. Although the article was very similar to previous stories, one sentence suggested that an EduStaff proposal might be presented to the Board of Trustees in January. This statement is incorrect and I have communicated that to the reporter.

The College will no longer pursue the EduStaff solution to address WCC’s skyrocketing MPSERS obligations. Beginning in January, President Whitworth will instead pursue a legislative solution in hopes of providing a defined contribution alternative to MPSERS for all part-time faculty and staff.

Janet Hawkins
Public Relations and Marketing Services

sent to WCC faculty/staff on 10/27/10 7:49pm
bold emphasis mine

[Scout]

9. sent to WCC faculty and staff 10/25 4:23pm

All Faculty and Staff,

I wish to inform you that the EduStaff Proposal has been withdrawn. Although the program was to be voluntary, if approved by the Board of Trustees, there appears to be substantial confusion about the continuing employment relationship between part-time faculty and staff and the College. The intention was that all relationships between part-time faculty and staff and department chairs and deans would remain the same; that all hiring would continue to be handled just as it always had with EduStaff simply handling the payroll. However, it appears that this point was unclear and was of major concern to many.

Washtenaw Community College has an outstanding reputation as one of the finest teaching institutions in theState and within our region. That reputation is well earned because of the caliber of our faculty, both full-time and part-time, and our academic support staff. Last year the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) awarded the College aten-year unconditional reaccreditation, which is given to only approximately ten to twelve percent of the institutions that go through reaccreditation. That ten-year unconditional reaccreditation was a validation of the commitment to teaching and learning of all of our full-time and part-time faculty and staff.

Given the lack of support for the EduStaff proposal, by our part-time faculty and staff, I’m pleased to withdraw the proposal. Neither the Board of Trustees nor I wish to, in any way, affect the strong commitment to the College and our students by our part-time faculty and staff. Although we will not pursue the EduStaff solution to the MPSERS problem, I will continue to lobby for a legislative solution. Our legislative proposal, for the past five years, has been simply to have our State legislature provide the same opportunity for part-time faculty and staff as for full-time faculty and staff. Our proposal has been that part-time faculty and staff should beable to elect either the defined benefit (MPSERS) or a defined contribution (TIAA-CREF), just as our full-time faculty and staff are able to do. Equity between our full-time and part-time employees would solve the vesting/MPSERS problem.

I am somewhat hopeful, with a new Governor and a new legislature, that a legislative solution may, in fact, be possible. The unfortunate reality, however, is that this solution of equity is opposed by the Michigan Education Association (MEA). As I have lobbied for fairness and equity between full-time and part-time faculty and staff, MEA has lobbied to keep part-time faculty and staff in MPSERS, knowing full well that it is rare that anyone would vest and receive benefits. Hopefully, with a new set of eyes and ears in Lansing, equity and fairness will prevail and our legislature will allow all part-time faculty and staff to select the retirement benefit package that is most appropriate; either the defined benefit (MPSERS) or the defined contribution (TIAA-CREF), the same as full-time professionalemployees.

If you have questions or comments about this or would like to discuss this in more detail, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Sincerely,

Larry