HELLO ALL YOU ECC STUDENTS. My first semester here at Elgin Community College and I must say, gee what the hell is my reasoning for coming here? Did I suffer a brain aneurysm here? I leave the comfortable trenches of William Rainey Harper College in the northwest suburbs in hopes of finding a place that goals are less “corporate” meaning wanting businesses from the outside to take over the school. I come here to find out that school may be in session for only a week, because once again, corporate has to drop the ball again.
Don’t get me wrong ECC seems to be an OK school and all. I think its architecture is better than the “University of Lake Palatine.” Plus, it’s cheaper and it seems more down to Earth and less demanding. So yes, there are many things here that I like much more than Harper. Nevertheless, my bad attitude is based upon the fact that when I started here, I learned that class may not last very long at all.
When I was walking through the halls of the SRC, I saw signs all over that read “ECC faculty working without a contract since Dec 31, 2000.” Not knowing what all this was about, I quickly found out that the teachers are not happy with their current situations because once again “corporate” channels wanted to change things. Why is it that corporate people always have this desire to change things? For the good of mankind or in this case the students. No siree bob. The suits are not making any money or benefiting from the current status of the school. So in order to get paid, the suits will have to change policies. I am so sick of this corporate crap as well as many students who go here. Our education is on the line because administration wants to implement changes in the contract before with health insurance plans. Furthermore, they are asking teachers to take a pay cut. In my opinion, without teachers, there would be no learning or any type of educational experience here. What are these people (administration) who probably hold each other’s hands in the golf course going to do? Start hiring students to be administrative assistants and throw a textbook their way. “Here you go son, read this now or you will be fired. After you get done typing these reports and memos, we will give you a quiz on Friday.”
This whole strike business is completely ludicrous. You would think that administration is the students here. They are ignoring concerns of the teachers, let me reiterate, the ones who make the education process happen, because they don’t want to ruin their budget. Well, let’s see. We know that tuition went up recently and state funding has increased. What’s the problem here? Do you need to save extra money to build a statue of Michael Shirley in the front? I think if they do, they should give him a big smile with a thumb up. That would be great. Speaking about Shirley, college president, is there some reason he cannot be present for one of these negotiations? I do believe that the college running smoothly would be a bigger priority than attending a luncheon about how the stock market works or something else completely stupid. OK so maybe Shirley is president, so he does not have to be there because he’s the man. So why doesn’t the chair of the board John Duffy attend the negotiations? Excuse Mr. Duffy sir, do you care about the future of ECC, or do you have better things to do like plan a fundraiser involving midgets playing basketball? What’s the deal here? Maybe we should let Erik Schultz handle negotiations for the board. At least we know someone will be working for the interest of the students? Go Erik Go.
These teachers all have families and have to pay the bills like anyone else. I believe asking the faculty to take a pay cut so the admin is making more money than the teachers because their egos are going to be bruised if god forbid a teacher makes more money than a suit is completely unacceptable. Education is not all about dollars and cents, well maybe sense, which the board obviously does not have. Common sense tells us that this whole situation sucks. So come Tuesday February 6, 2001, we the students of ECC have to call to see whether class is in session or not. Can the board please reimburse the number of phone calls we make to find this out? We are college students so we can’t afford to make phone calls to the school because we are stuck paying tuition. This isn’t Harper’s district where mommy and daddy pay your tuition.
And now let me take this opportunity to address the board. Hey board of trustees, WAKE UP. This is not about you. It is about us the students. We are the ones paying all your salaries, so why don’t you think about that? I can’t say I blame the teachers. I do believe what they are doing is quite radical, but sometimes to get someone’s attention, you have to slap them in the face. I hope your face is bright red monkeyheads. There is absolutely no excuse for nine months of negotiations to end like this. I hope the board is proud that they felt changes needed to be implemented. Change is good? Yeah right. Change is what killed the dinosaurs. Change is what killed the eight track. Change is horrible. You know why change is horrible? Change has brought me from a school with spoiled kids, a corporate mission, and a president who dressed like John Gotti who has classes still in session. Yet I “changed” to a school with the most immature, manipulative, egotistical board of trustees who is afraid teachers will make more then them, and doesn’t care if students get hurt by their paranoia.
I would like to just say thanks to ECCO for bringing the Ranger on board and also say ECC is a pretty neat school. I really hope I get to finish the education that my money is paying for here. Please work something out guys OK? I ask the board put all egos aside and give these teachers what is fair and just for all their hard work. God bless you teachers. Hopefully we can sweep this under the rug by tomorrow.
Hi ho steamroller,
THE STONED RANGER