Good evening,

My name is David Goldberg. I teach political science and am proud to serve as the president of the College of DuPage Faculty Association. I am also a resident of the district.

Tonight it is my honor to extend a heartfelt congratulation to four candidates recommended for tenure. The awarding of tenure is a significant accomplishment in the career of a faculty member. The first of what we all hope will be a career filled with accomplishments.

Beyond the students and departments who will benefit from these new faculty, their tenure contributes to strengthening the College of DuPage as an institution.

The hiring of new faculty and awarding of tenure is an investment by the Board of Trustees, and the community they are elected to represent, in the future health of the institution and confidence in our ability to successfully continue to realize our primary reason for existence: to educate the residents of District 502.

Four new faculty is a smaller number than in years past.

It begins to feel like a “faculty hunger games.”

Four retirements in the counseling department over the past five years, with one replacement faculty.

A lot of attention is currently paid to mental health. The emotional well-being of our students.

COD received in excess of $20 million in state and federal assistance to help during and after the COVID epidemic.

How many new full-time faculty have been hired to address the growing mental health crisis with the embarrassment of riches?

One. One person.

Faculty and other college employees who interact with students on a regular basis see the impact of the crisis, and beyond our individual faculty efforts, it feels like there is little institutional effort to address this.

It cannot be addressed solely by software fixes, technological fads or AI bot scripts.

It cannot be addressed by stackable credentials in mixology and sewing.

It cannot be addressed by well-intentioned slogans on a t-shirt.

It can be addressed by devoting the required existing resources to strengthen the faculty who exist to serve the needs of students.

Let’s keep the hunger games to the realm of film and literature and stop cannibalizing for unclear purposes.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the painters, groundskeepers, mechanics & carpenters association and the administration for coming to an agreement nearly eight months into negotiations.

Thank you.