St. Louis Community College faculty protest
administrative action in pay dispute

Faculty artists at St. Louis Community College, Meramec, created a dark new look for the college’s art gallery as they protested an administrative decision affecting their pay.

During the annual faculty art show in February, each piece of art wore a black shroud. Visitors were forced to lift the black plastic away to view the individual works, but easily within view were the signs reading, “MORE WORK!! LESS PAY!! NO WAY!!!” along with a brief explanation of the conflict.

In December 2002, the Meramec campus president and dean notified the art department faculty that, beginning with the 2003 spring semester, all release time for the faculty to tend to departmental functions other than teaching or studio activities would be compensated at a rate lower than the rate the college had honored over the past 20 years.

The department faculty, led by the Chairperson Kay Hagan and Vice Chairperson Patrick Shuck, lodged a vigorous protest. When they could not resolve the matter, Hagan and Shuck resigned as chairpersons of the art department. The department faculty then refused to elect new leadership. Thus, the department remained leaderless. The college’s president, Dr. E. Lynn Suydam, decided to postpone the implementation of the new rate of pay for release time to the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year.

The issue galvanized the whole faculty. As voiced by Margaret Keller, art gallery co-director at that time and one of the emerging protest leaders, the issue was clear.

“The faculty in good conscience could not accept having to work more and earn less for doing the same work,” she says. “The college’s position was offensive to every faculty member’s sense of worth and dignity.”

Prior to the beginning of the fall semester of the 2003-2004 academic year, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences Walter Clark formally advised the art department faculty that all release time would be compensated at a lower rate of pay.

“We felt we had no other option but to file a formal grievance through the Junior College District NEA,” Shuck explains.

Hagan vowed that she, under no condition, would ever agree to serve the department in her former capacity.

“We have at Meramec the largest art department of the three campuses,” Hagan says. “We are proud of what we have accomplished here. It takes more than classroom teaching to run this department and serve the best interests of our students. The college wants us to work harder for less pay. No way.”

On Sept. 12, MNEA UniServ Director Vito Maniaci filed a grievance on behalf of the art department and JCD NEA.

“The grievance involved a clear violation of the Statement of Understanding in effect between the St. Louis Community College and the JCD NEA,” Maniaci explains. “The language of the agreement had been in place for years. The application of the language had a long history of consistent interpretation and implementation. It was evident that the dean and college president wanted to change the agreement during its term and prior to the next round of negotiations, which were scheduled to begin in the spring of 2004. In this sense, the issue was more than just reduction in pay and increased workload. The unilateral change in compensation became even more important in that it affected the interests of every faculty member at St. Louis Community College.”

The grievance progressed through every level of the grievance process up to the Board of Trustees level. When the Board of Trustees denied the grievance, the faculty did not give up. They decided to stage a protest in conjunction with the scheduled faculty art exhibit at the Meramec Art Gallery.

Keller and her colleagues staged the protest by covering with black plastic every art piece hanging on the four gallery walls.

The college’s administrators angrily ordered the closing of the exhibit and fired Keller from her position as gallery co-director.

Outraged, the faculty called a special art department meeting to discuss the situation. United, they confronted Dean Clark who agreed to reinstate Keller and promised that he would reconsider whether to allow the faculty to reopen the gallery to the public. The faculty refused to dismantle the “black installations” as a precondition to the reopening.

When Dean Clark failed to rescind his directive, Keller, Shuck and Maniaci met with MNEA Attorney Sally Barker to consider legal action. Following that meeting, MNEA advocates, on behalf of the art department at Meramec, informed college administrators of the Association’s intention to file action in federal court seeking redress, including injunctive relief, for the college’s violation of the faculty’s constitutional rights.

As a direct result of the imminent legal action, the college agreed to rescind its directive to remove the black coverings from the faculty art show.

“We know that our original grievance has not been resolved, but we also know that MNEA will be there to support us every step of the way,” Keller says.

by Debra Angstead
MNEA communications director