CoCo Times reports on the DVC Faculty Senate's lawsuit against the District being argued in court

This article appeared in Wednesday's _Times_.

Of particular interest to us:

1) the lack of particular interest in the matter from State Faculty Senate President Ian Walton. We hear one more time a voice of lament that things went down as they did.

2) the district's tired claim, oft voiced by Chancellor Benjamin herself, that people (here, teachers) cannot serve as managers of their colleagues. MY, these folks have a particular notion of what management is all about. Time after time we hear these folks bring up the necessity for managers to effectively discipline faculty. Is that what college management is for? is that what management is for? Any of us who have EVER been in any kind of collective decision-making processes--food co-ops, cohousing communities, college committees--might dispute that model.

3) the assertion that the faculties at LMC and CCC have no objection to division deans. NO ONE would argue that the three colleges have similar cultures. If our colleagues at LMC and CCC like what they have, that's fantastic. That has not been the collective experience of faculty at DVC.

We celebrate difference! But the lip service paid to supporting diversity in our curriculum, in our hiring, and in our outreach and student services is not, apparently, to be paid to our workplace organization. There's no doubt an irony in educational institutions lacking a place for creative and positive models for doing our work.

Here's what Brother Krupnick wrote:

Court to hear appeal tied to Diablo Valley College
CONTRA COSTA: Faculty leaders say that administrators didn't consult them over altered management structure
By Matt Krupnick

A Diablo Valley College-related lawsuit that has attracted statewide attention will go before a state appeals court today in San Francisco.

The suit, first filed by faculty leaders in Contra Costa County in January 2003, contends that college administrators did not adequately consult the school's Faculty Senate when they changed the management structure. State law requires such consultation, the faculty argues.

Administrators say the decisions did not require faculty input because instructors were not substantially affected when then-President Mark Edelstein created a new corps of deans to replace faculty members who had been part-time managers.

Statewide faculty and administrative groups have weighed in on the issue, which could change the way college leaders consult with faculty members on important decisions. A Contra Costa County Superior Court judge ruled against the Faculty Senate in 2004.

Observers on both sides said Tuesday that they do not want the Diablo Valley suit to harm working relationships elsewhere in the 109-campus community college system. Better communication from both sides could have averted the Contra Costa battle, said Ian Walton, president of the statewide community college Academic Senate.

"I'd been hoping they would find a way to gracefully exit" the lawsuit, he said. "You've got to just shake your head and say the money could have been better spent."

Both Edelstein and his boss at the time, Chancellor Charles Spence, have left the three-college Contra Costa district. Faculty at the other two colleges, Los Medanos and Contra Costa, did not dispute the management changes on their own campuses.

The new system is more efficient, and it eliminated the need for some faculty members -- who had been doubling as administrators -- to make awkward decisions, said John Shupe, an attorney for the college district.

"The part-time (administrators) had divided loyalties ...," he said. "It's hard for a faculty member to do when you have to take disciplinary action against a colleague across the hall."

But changes to that system required faculty cooperation, said Robert Bezemek, an attorney for the Faculty Senate.

"The college was intent on going forward without engaging in collegial consultation," he said.

A ruling is expected within three months, attorneys said.