Author Archives: BOT Blogger

CODFA VP Arnott-Hill Comments to the BOT | March 16, 2023

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Hello and good evening.

My name is Elizabeth Arnott-Hill. I am a professor of psychology and the vice president of the faculty association.

I am pleased to see four of my colleagues recommended for tenure tonight and heartened to note that their tenure recommendation is properly tied to the student success component of our strategic long-range plan. I hope it goes without saying that student success, a term we hear a lot these days, is not possible without a strong and well-supported faculty. Faculty are fundamental to student success. We certainly aren’t the only piece of the puzzle, but we are an essential one.

In recent years, the number of full-time faculty hired and subsequently approved for tenure has declined. We have core disciplines, like math, which is down approximately 10 positions from a decade ago. Faculty who provide essential services to our students, like our counseling team, are down a number of positions, even though demand for their services has steadily increased. At the same time, faculty are being asked to do more work outside of the classroom, often in the name of student success.

Each month, the board hears presentations from my faculty colleagues about their outstanding work for the college – new grants, new programs and certifications, community outreach programs, OER textbooks, field study and study abroad programs, and accomplishments with student clubs. This is work that supports our students and promotes COD in the community. As our ranks diminish and our workload increases, our ability to engage in this high impact work is restricted. If our goal is student success, it is imperative that our numbers remain adequate to serve our student population directly. We also need adequate faculty so that the hours we devote to implementing the initiatives developed at the administrative level are distributed in such a way as to not to take away from the time we have for our students. Fewer full-time faculty plus more hours devoted to new initiatives does not add up. Additionally, it is essential that such college wide plans are vetted in a way that increases the likelihood that they will have demonstrable positive effects, that they are given adequate time for implementation, that concrete data regarding impact is clearly communicated, and that initiatives which are determined by evidence to be without merit are discarded.

As we look ahead, it is imperative to not only think about making changes that are flashy and disruptive, but also to remember that we can’t ignore the fundamentals. Our institution is only as strong as the quality of education that we provide. And quality education requires faculty.

Prof Alyssa Pasquale Comments to the BOT | Jan 19, 2023

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This evening I chose to address the board during the general public comments section because I am speaking to you not as a faculty member of the college, but as a tax-paying resident of district 502.

After spending my entire life in the north east, I moved to DuPage county 10 years ago after accepting a postdoctoral position at Argonne National Lab. When my postdoc position concluded, I found myself amused and slightly surprised that I chose to stay in DuPage county and make it my permanent home.

What is it that I love about this area? DuPage county is rich in nature and beauty. I can walk out my door and find my way through the trail system to one of many forest preserves. There are parks in every neighborhood.

DuPage county has an excellent education system for individuals of every age. My College of DuPage experience started not as a faculty member, but as a continuing education student taking an Italian language class on Tuesday nights.

On March 3rd of last year, I purchased my first home, just around the corner in Wheaton. This past summer, I paid my first ever property tax bill. While everybody around the country, and indeed the world, is being affected by high levels of inflation, I was still proud to do my civic duty and pay my tax bill. It is important to me to have Forest Preserves, parks, good roads and sidewalks, and educated neighbors.

I am disappointed that this board declined to increase the property tax levy. I know I don’t speak for all homeowners, but I would rather pay a few more dollars a year in taxes than require my students to shoulder the burden of a tuition increase. In addition, an increased tax levy doesn’t hold the school hostage to fluctuations in enrollment. The College of DuPage is a treasure that I am happy to continue to support financially. Some things are worth paying for, and this college is more than worth it. I hope you consider this next time you vote on an increase in the tax levy.

Thank you.

CODFA Pres Goldberg Memorializes Prof Tom Robertson in Comments to the BOT | Dec 15, 2022

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Good evening. Tonight we mourn the loss of Professor Tom Robertson. Tom was a professor of Automotive Technology who passed away unexpectedly over Thanksgiving weekend. After serving as Treasurer of the College of DuPage Faculty Association for more than ten years, he decided to turn his energies elsewhere. Faculty Senate had planned to honor Tom’s service in advance of his passing. That planned resolution took a decidedly different turn after his passing. The comments below were written by English professor Tim Henningsen. Thank you, Tim, for your eloquence in the face of adversity.

While Tom won’t be in our presence to hear the following words, many of them would still be the same if he were here.

First and foremost, Tom was an outstanding teacher. He was beloved. Students in the auto tech lab were proud to have him. They would brag to other faculty about him. They were excited to showcase their diagnosis of the vehicles when they’d learn something, hoping to impress him. He’d often keep his poker face on while inspecting his students’ work, and he’d push them to learn more.

Tom was a generous and ever-present colleague. He was our CODFA Treasurer. He was a division curriculum chair. He was always reliable, and stepped up when colleagues couldn’t. His long tenure with CODFA meant we relied on him for institutional history. He had an incredible memory.

Tom was simultaneously a mechanic and an academic. He was a community college graduate himself, attending Baltimore CC where he studied automotive technology. He earned his bachelor’s in automotive science from the Pennsylvania College of Technology, and later obtained a master’s in teaching and learning from the University of Illinois. He had industry experience, working for Ford and Chrysler. He was always tinkering with something, always craving learning.

Tom was a noonballer, that’s our colloquialism for a bunch of old and slow COD employees who play gym rats over our lunch breaks. Tom wasn’t the most athletic player. A colleague recently joked that he would “cringe when [Tom] launched a 3-pointer.” But Tom was often the happiest guy out there, and it was a joy sharing the floor with him.

Tom was a midwesterner. Minnesota-bred, which usually means kind, honest, hard-working, and a sense of humor which was admirable, though not always enviable (his email signature for years, read: “No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.”). That’s Tom.

Tom was a husband and an adventurer. Many of our faculty colleagues know Tom’s widow, Pika, quite well. They traveled the world together, enjoying jaunts to Australia, Dubai, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Morocco, France, Spain, England, Alaska, Hungary, and Hawaii. He was, it seemed, in constant motion. We wish the very best for Pika, and hope she knows that we love and support her.

Tom was a volunteer. He worked locally for Sycamore Youth Baseball, umpiring and coaching kids in the community. He volunteered with the Boy Scouts, teaching worldly survival skills. And there are countless other community programs, ranging from Minnesota to Maryland, where Tom helped his fellow neighbors.

Tom had just turned 43.

In the face of this adversity I am proud to say that our institution is rallying together. Dean of Business and Applied Technology Kris Fay has been beyond supportive to help Tom’s students and colleagues on Monday morning, and in helping establish the scholarship in his name.

Ellen Farrow of the College Foundation has been helpful and supportive as well. Tom’s friend Bob Clark, professor and coordinator of the HVAC program. Bob has been tireless in his efforts on Tom’s behalf. I can say with some certainty he hasn’t had much time to sleep in the intervening days as he works to make personal and professional arrangements.

Tomorrow the College will undertake the Celebration of Life in Tom’s honor at the Automotive Tech center at 3pm. Bob assured many “Tomisms” will be shared.

Last week, Faculty Senate voted to make a sizable donation in Tom’s name. In addition, noonball players also have taken up a contribution.

Colleagues and friends across the institution have come together in Tom’s honor, his wife and his students. This is a testament to how stand together to support each other.

Please visit foundation.cod.edu to contribute in Tom’s name.

Prof Lisa Higgins, Honors Director, Comments to the BOT | Dec 15, 2022

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Good evening!

My name is Lisa Higgins. I’ve been a professor of English at COD for 18 years and the Director of the Honors Program for the past 6 years.

Thank you for your service to the college. I know that each of you gives a great deal of your time to the school.

I wanted to speak today to share some of the inspiring things that take place every day at COD and to express my hope that our upcoming contract negotiations will not distract from these successes.

Faculty members are on the frontlines when it comes to dealing with students. We see their successes — and their struggles. Since the onset of the Covid pandemic, our students have faced more challenges than ever before. We’ve seen a clear increase in students dealing with mental health challenges, financial problems, and family issues.

But we’ve also seen an inspiring amount of resilience among these wonderful young men and women. For the past 18 years, every fall, I teach an Honors Composition class that requires Service Learning. This semester, I’ve watched as my students volunteered with food pantries, the COD garden, after-school tutoring programs, the Forest Preserve, an animal shelter, a recycling center, and other organizations. They each spent at least 15-20 hours with these organizations, helping others and writing about the experience.

I also see many dedicated COD staff and faculty members putting in the time to help students connect to service projects and track their hours.

This is just one example of the successful cooperation that goes on every day at COD. As the administration and the COD Faculty Association enter into contract negotiations, I hope that the process is handled in a collegial and swift way that doesn’t distract attention from our mission at the college. Our number one priority has to be the students. Teaching matters.

Thank you!

CODFA Pres Goldberg Comments to BOT Special Meeting | Nov 10, 2022

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Good evening.

Tonight is an important milestone in the past, present and future of the College of DuPage.
The Board of Trustees deserves our respect and admiration for the work they have put in to close this chapter. Thank you.

In September of 2014, under the leadership of my predecessors Glenn Hansen and Richard Jarman, the College of DuPage Faculty Association overwhelmingly passed a resolution of no confidence in the presidency of Robert Breuder. By that point faculty concerns and complaints had been expressed through every available channel, including to the board of trustees and the press. We were summarily gaslit and ignored until Breuder arrogantly played fast and loose with an Illinois governor and millions of tax payer dollars. It took potentially criminal action until faculty concerns were taken seriously. Reporters from the Chicago Tribune listened to our concerns. Thank you, Stacy St. Clair and Jodi Cohen.

Trauma is a word that has entered our national lexicon. This institution was traumatized by Robert Breuder’s presidency. A climate of fear and intimidation, violation of public trust, misuse and mismanagement of taxpayer support, and outward displays of substance abuse at a minimum. All of which occurred with the explicit support of his sycophants on the board of trustees and in senior administration.

The subsequent board, the Clean Slate, did us no favors. They betrayed our confidence and exacerbated the existing dysfunction at the college, while further weakening the relationship with faculty and college employees. This included jeopardizing our accreditation and lowering our much-vaunted bond rating.

No, trauma is not too strong a word.

We can’t fully move forward until Breuder’s craven, self-serving minions are no longer associated with and employed by the college, but you could start by removing the bronze deer at the foot of a failed water feature. That would be another step in the right direction.

So, thank you to Chair Dunne and this Board of Trustees for helping us move forward with this chapter.



Faculty Comments to the BOT by Mitrani, Gryglak, Moorehead, and diLiberti | Oct 20, 2022

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Following President Goldberg, four CODFA members offered remarks to the Board of Trustees.

Professor Sam Mitrani

Our last contract was hard fought, and much better than it would have been without that fight. I know the majority of faculty wanted an extension, especially coming out of the stress of COVID.  But personally, if faculty were ready to stand up, I was against an extension because the current contract leaves in place the eroding of education we have seen at COD and across the country for 30 years, first of all through the massive replacement of full time by part time labor, and second of all through the vast increase in the number and power of administrators.

COD relies heavily on highly exploited adjunct labor. This has become so “normal” that few even question it anymore, but not so long ago, it was assumed that professors would get good health insurance and enough pay for a decent standard of living, with the occasional part-timer hired to teach a class as a form of training, or as a supplement to their retirement, or because they were an expert in a specific subject who had another full-time job. Today, most COD classes are taught by people who do not make a living wage. How can we tell our students that an education is the path to a decent future, when so many of the people teaching those students are highly educated and yet are denied the basic standard of living that used to be assumed for college professors? I hope our administration wants to add something to our contract that ensures everyone teaching at COD has affordable health insurance and a decent standard of living, first of all by hiring many more full timers.

The second massive change in education over the last era has been the enormous increase in administrators and in administrative power. It would have seemed strange not very long ago to put people who have almost never actually taught and who have chosen not to pursue teaching, in charge of people who actually teach and who presumably know what they are doing. I believe that it makes no sense to give administrators that power. If we need to have administrators who have chosen not to be educators, then our contract should bar them from intervening in the educational side of the institution, including deciding which classes should be taught, how they should be taught, who should teach them, and how they should be evaluated – and let the educators control the pedagogy, which after all is what we were hired to do. I admit faculty lost power in part because they didn’t want to do administrative work. But I think most of us today would be willing to take that burden back on if administrators would stay out of the things about which they know very little.

If administration wanted to open the contract to address these problems, then I am happy to hear it and I look forward to participating in friendly negotiations.

But if they rejected our offer of an extension because they want to add more “student success” metrics that they don’t know how to use, then I will instead be happy to participate in whatever fight is needed to defend education from so-called education “leadership.”

Professor Diane Gryglak

I’m Diane Gryglak from the Nursing and Health Science Division. I teach Medical Assistant and have been here for 15 years. That means I have been through two full negotiations. The things they had in common is that they were both distracting and exhausting.  

I like to wear red. It looks good with my gray hair, but it requires a separate laundry cycle. Too much sorting. It’s just one more thing to do.  I would like to see a contract extension.

I’m also concerned about everyone’s well-being. At in- service, which was just 2 months ago, we heard our keynote speaker, Dr. Imad Mays talk about the strain and isolation associated with COVID. This quote from her was included in the college announcement: “The fear, stress, and burnout that all teachers, students, higher education employees have faced in this pandemic are of a magnitude difficult to articulate.” Our whole in-service was about healing and recovery. I would like a little more time to heal and recover before we leap into something guaranteed to put the campus under stress.

Please re-consider a contract extension. 

Professor Robert Moorehead

Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. I’m Robert Moorehead, a faculty member in sociology. This is my eighth year at COD.

I wanted to give you some updates on the work that my colleagues and I have been doing. We’ve not only survived the greatest public health crisis in 100 years, we’ve innovated and, in a way, thrived. I hadn’t taught online before the pandemic, so, like many of my colleagues, I had a crash course in online instruction. We took classes on instructional design for online instruction, we learned best practices from our colleagues, and, to be honest, we got really good at teaching online. 

Now that we’re back in the classroom, we’re navigating a new set of challenges. We’re constantly reaching out to students who are falling behind. And there are a lot of them. Our students had two years of online classes, leading to all sorts of gaps in their skills, on top of the mental health issues they’re facing, the challenges they face paying bills, and the fact that they are working way too many hours while also taking classes. 

This is more than a full load. We’re exhausted. One of the most common topics of conversation among colleagues in the hallway is how tired we are. Between adapting our classes for this new environment, meeting with students, checking messages, filing BIT reports on students we’re concerned about, doing committee work, and much more, we’re tired. From looking at us, we might seem chill in our nice red t-shirts. You might not notice that below the water, our legs are kicking furiously. 

Given all that we have all been dealing with, the majority of faculty indicated their preference to extend our current contract. We expressed our desire to focus our energy on our students, and on each other, and not on re-negotiating our contract. So it’s disappointing that administration has rejected that request, and instead is insisting on opening everything up and re-negotiating the contract.

Please don’t mistake our fatigue for weakness or lack of commitment. We have a great negotiating team ready to work, but simply extending the contract seems like the best option for everyone, for faculty, for students, and for the college. Please reconsider this.

Thank you.

Professor Julia diLiberti

Last week the faculty were informed that our contract would not be extended. It was a surprise given that the faculty offer was made as a collaborative gesture. In fact, a new surge of COVID may be on the horizon and, as of about 9 hours ago, a new strain of Covid–the ‘”nightmare variant” it’s called—has now been found in the US.

We have barely begun to stabilize from the COVID-19, omicron, BA1. We, as a college, not just the faculty, but the staff as well, are still exhausted and feeling tenuous for having to live in present and contingency modes simultaneously.

Despite that, graduations have happened, student clubs are going, innovations in curriculum are occurring, pedagogies are being examined and implemented, committees are up and running, faculty are being developed, research is being conducted, peoples’ tech skills have increased exponentially, and our student count is up even if FTE’s are down.  All of this suggests some measure of collaboration within the college, some shared vision for a stronger COD. Sure, yes, we have different theories and ideas about what makes us stronger…and yet, much has been done to provide stable and new opportunities for students and the general community members we serve.

More importantly, with the cost of living going up and other financial implications potentially not to our advantage, the faculty offered a contract extension.

The offer was rejected so now the questions become:

“What does opening up the contract look like?” Is it sides drawn, public rallies, and marches? Is it more distraction to already frazzled college members?”
How does renegotiating a contract in newly stabilizing but still fragile times allow us to work on initiatives that are just getting traction—VR rooms, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion taskforces, Study Abroad and Field Studies Programs that are starting up again as more students and community members are willing to risk travel and travel together with groups outside their own health bubbles?

We realize that no contract is perfect and that clarifications are sometimes needed. Still, how does opening up the contract for prolonged negotiations allow us to focus on student success if we are all too preoccupied by another negotiation that puts us into another level of contingency in our work and personal lives as we worry about finances, family, and faculty concerns.

What problems exist for the administration with the old contract that are so big we must start this long, draining, disrupting, line-drawing, divisive process at this particular moment?

CODFA President Goldberg Comments to the BOT | Oct 20, 2022

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In March 2019, CODFA’s table team and the board’s emissaries met for the first time. Those negotiations went on more than six months until the end of September. In between we met bi-weekly, required a federal mediator, and COD faculty voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. It was a contentious process.

Today the current and predicted internal, local, and national conditions are different.

  • A Pew Research poll from September 2021 shows a strong bi-partisan majority of Americans view unions in a positive light. Workers at Starbucks and Amazon have made unprecedented gains.
  • 9% inflation is the highest in 40 years.
  • Recession fears loom on the horizon, nationally and globally.
  • Locally, COD students, faculty and employees are returning to a “new normal” with some trepidation and a high level of change fatigue.

Against this backdrop, our members were surveyed, and a strong majority supported entering into talks on extending the existing full-time faculty contract, as opposed to full negotiations. We asked administrators, as the board’s representatives, on three separate occasions. Each time, the request was rebuffed with little serious explanation.

It is unfortunate, to put it mildly, that the board has no interest in engaging in extension talks and prefers full negotiations.

We think the interest of the institution as a whole is best served by a limited discussion. Several years of peace and stability across the institution are well deserved.

Therefore, our preference is to have a serious conversation about extending the existing contract and discussing an MOU for any current issues – but this should not be misinterpreted as weakness or lack of resolve on our part.

Our Negotiations Team has been hard at work over the past several weeks, focusing on scope and content of proposals. Our resolve is strong, we are disciplined, and tireless in our efforts.

The faculty who are here tonight in support, as well those you will hear from shortly, are reasonable and fair, and they expect the same in the coming weeks and months.

We are eager to begin negotiations and engage at the table.

Thank you.

CODFA Pres Goldberg Comments to the BOT | Aug 19, 2022

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Good evening. It feels great to be back on campus at the start of a new semester.

Today, the faculty panel on four connections was strong. The break-out session on stress and burnout led by Counseling Faculty Silvia Donatelli and Dennis Emano provided explanations and ways to address the growing challenges a lot of us face. Given the strong faculty turnout I think this panel was timely and needed. We should consider a check in later this semester.

On my way to and from the MAC yesterday I encountered students and parents walking their schedules. Eager to start their college experience from the looks of it.

A big part of this in-service week’s success is due to the diligent efforts of Tina Bures, Jenn Kelley, and Nicole Matos. Thank you for your work. It makes ours easier and allows many of us to focus on Monday morning.

Much of what makes COD a great place to attend is the people that teach and work here. That starts with hiring committees. The search committee process is problematic to say the least, across a number of areas.

To be clear, I am not referencing any current faculty search committees.

There are a number of problems from minor to potential ethical lapses about which we should all be concerned.

The high turnover and missing out on good people from vice-presidents, directors, managers, groundskeepers and associate vice presidents is an issue.

Outgoing employees should not populate committees to pick their successors. That is a conflict of interest without extenuating circumstances.

There are three large issues that need to be addressed immediately:

1. Timing

Most searches in the academic world are announced via discipline and area specific communications earlier in the fall. Jobs are announced internally, externally, locally, nationally and internationally. The committee is convened begins the process and by mid-spring is having on campus interviews and making offers.

At COD recently, search committee work starts at odd times. Some began in the summer when at least 1/3 of faculty are not on campus. This is not the norm and not consistent with our best practices. The outcome is we are not getting the best applicants, who in many cases have already accepted positions elsewhere.

2. Training of Committees and conducting their work

Greater direction and training of all search committees is needed on campus. That’s hard to do when there is so much turnover in HR.

If the will of the committee is routinely ignored or overruled, that has a trickle-down impact on morale. People don’t want to work on committees for dozens of hours over months and months when there is a pre-determined outcome. This is bad for our institution.

3. Lowballing Candidates

From groundskeepers, faculty, student assistants, to upper management, applicants are turning down positions because they can earn a better wage/salary elsewhere. Beyond understaffing key positions, it hurts our reputation as an attractive place to work that attracts the best candidates.

Given the economic circumstances, this is not the time to lose candidates as it is, anecdotally, a reason frequently given.

Replacing permanent positions with interims that last for a significant time also hurts our internal culture and has been noted both internally and externally. It’s time to remove the interim label from so many.

Timing, training and lowballing need to be addressed.

This is not a contractual issue. It is an issue that this board can and should address by clarifying the process for everyone involved.

Thank you.

CODFA VP Elizabeth Arnott-Hill Comments to the BOT | April 21, 2022

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My name is Elizabeth Arnott-Hill. I am professor of psychology at COD, and I currently serve as the vice president of the faculty association.

First, I want to express my appreciation of the hard work of the faculty, staff, and administrators who have worked diligently to prepare for next week’s HLC visit. I have every confidence that your excellent work is going to pay off.

As we near the end of the semester, I have been reflecting quite a lot, as I typically do this time of year, about my students and their outcomes, in my courses and also more generally as they pursue future endeavors. Like most professors, I have lofty goals for my students. I want them to develop academically but also as people; growing in general knowledge, but also in cognitive, interpersonal, and even basic life skills. I hope that education changes their lives for the better, as it has mine, and I hope I can be a small part of that process.

It is with those ideals in mind that I struggle when I hear the value of education being reduced to metrics. As a social scientist I am a firm believer in using evidence to make decisions. However, I also know that complex things rarely have simply definitions, much less explanations or solutions.

As we comb through survey results and benchmarking data, I would like to encourage us as an institution to think more deeply about how we are serving students instead of focusing on how to simply improve numbers by developing one-size-fits-all solutions. It is my hope that we can broaden our definition of “student success” beyond a final grade in a course. To draw valid conclusions, we must recognize that one outcome cannot reflect the myriad goals and experiences of our students. Single quantitative measures are not sufficient to measure the multitude of qualitative experiences. And an overemphasis on these single quantitative measures could potentially blind us to the richness of the story our data have to tell.

Thank you.

CODFA Pres Goldberg Comments at Special BOT Meeting | March 21, 2022

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Good evening.

Tonight, the board votes on proposed tuition and fee increases for the fall of 2022. This is not an easy decision, especially given the number of students at COD who face financial hardship before and during COVID. I hope that the board will make the correct decision to propose modest increases for the health and longevity and work to assist students for whom even modest increases can be a significant obstacle in their pursuit of higher education.

Tonight board members will also hear a presentation on student success indicators. According to the presentation in the board packet, the information relies heavily on the Baldrige Criteria.
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program sounds prestigious and is worthy of a bit more attention.

It is housed at the Commerce Department and applies primarily to the private sector including health care, businesses and non-profits. In 2014-2015 the last two years for which data was available, there were six schools total that applied.

Baldrige was first instituted under a previous administration that, unfortunately, still casts a long shadow over COD. It might be worth considering wandering into the early 21st century in developing appropriate metrics to pursue success at COD.

Before going any further I would like to turn your attention to the slides on pages 8-9 of tonight’s board packet. Please look carefully for use of “students” anywhere on those two pages.

While I was unable to find any mention of students, “customers” appear prominently and account for 8.5% of the total weighted value. I couldn’t find faculty either, but will save that for another meeting.

If we have only customers and no students, it calls into questions the very value of higher education. Customers exchange money for a product or service of value. Higher education is not transactional and should not be treated as such.

Student success is narrowly measured as a grade of C or higher. In looking at a number of other community colleges participating in the benchmarking project, many had goals including increasing enrollment and strengthening retention, but I did not see a narrow, superficial definition that includes a metric that is very specific and cannot be compared across disciplines let alone colleges.

It’s unfortunate that attempts to measure what we do as a college are reduced to a customer consumer relationship and the shallowest of measures of helping students accomplish their goals.

We already have a student success plan. It’s called teaching and learning.