Lane Community College (LCC) faculty have been working without a contract since June. Contract negotiations have been underway, but parties remain far from agreement. The union claims the administration is cutting back diversity, equity, and inclusion policies on campus. The administration says the contract needs to be simplified and it’s not making cuts to support for faculty and students of color.
Faculty union and college administration continue to negotiate new contract
Adrienne Mitchell has taught at Lane Community College for 25 years and is president of the faculty union. She said she really doesn’t like the college’s contract proposals and most of her fellow union members feel the same. Many objections have to do with salaries, workloads and health benefits. But there’s also concern about how policies affect diversity, equity, and inclusion policies on campus.
“What we're seeing is administration proposals that really seek to remove a lot of the fundamental rights that faculty have and eliminate a lot of the protections and services that, in particular, serve our most marginalized students,” said Mitchell.
One example of a disagreement in the contract negotiations concerns a requirement to keep two separate positions that support Native American programs at LCC. Union members also want to keep a mandated training for managers on creating an inclusive environment. These requirements were the result of an unfair labor practice settlement with a former employee in 2022.
When asked about why these provisions were removed from the new contract proposal, LCC Associate Vice President Grant Matthews, a member of the administration's bargaining team, said there are too many separate agreements in the current contract.
“One of the intentions that we have is to try and clean those up so that we have a clean document to work with that outlines our relationship with the faculty union,” he said.
Leadership position for equity and inclusion vacant
Another concern the union has raised is that positions that support students of color remain unfilled.
The position of associate vice president for equity and inclusion has been vacant since 2023. Many faculty members advocated for reinstating that office.
That includes literature instructor Edrees Nawabi, who spoke at a March 2024 Board meeting.
“There’s a clear hierarchy on campus that defines normal and success through a lens of whiteness – something that we need to develop and challenge through hiring a leader for the office of equity and inclusion,” he said.
Nawabi, who is Afghani, told faculty union president Adrienne Mitchell he faced retaliation after speaking out.
“He had really been through a lot already on campus. He had an experience where he had had his life threatened by a student and didn’t feel supported at all by the administration at that time,” Mitchell said.
KLCC was unable to reach Nawabi for comment.
When asked about the union’s concerns about a loss of leadership for equity and inclusion, Lane Community College spokesperson Jen McCulley said the college is recruiting for a related role, called the associate vice president for culture and belonging.
“It gives them a little bit more oversight and ability to influence inclusion and belonging activities across our college,” she said.
Faculty of color resigning or retiring early
Nawabi left the college during last spring term, Mitchell said, citing a lack of support and safety on campus. Mitchell told KLCC that at least five faculty members have left in the last three years, citing working conditions and their experiences as people of color. She fears the administration’s contract proposals will worsen the situation.
The administration disputes both points. A report provided by the college’s human resources said there is, “no statistically significant difference in turnover rates between employees who are people of color and white employees across classified, faculty, or manager employee groups.”
Jessica Alvarado is a faculty counsellor who has been at LCC for more than 20 years. She said many of her colleagues have left.
“I think we've lost three, four people in our work group that would identify as people of color. And also there've been other people across the campus that started positions and ended up leaving the college within one to three years because of the treatment that they'd received,” she said.
Concerns over treatment of President Bulger
The union is holding the college president, Stephanie Bulger, responsible for many of the issues they identified in the new contract. Bulger’s office did not respond to a request for comment. However, the Eugene Springfield chapter of NAACP said the union is putting undue pressure on Bulger, who is a Black woman.
At a recent board meeting, some union members and supporters used public comment to accuse Bulger of violating public meeting laws and call for her resignation.
In a letter he sent to the board, Eugene Springfield NAACP chair Demond Hawkins pointed to treatment of Black women in leadership across the country and said they face heightened scrutiny.
“This is a trend across the country, right? This is part of that backlash on DEI, right, where they're okaying things to happen to people,” Hawkins said.
This is not the first time there’s been concern about how Bulger is treated. Last spring, there were complaints that the college’s board chair, Zachary Mulholland, bullied her. He was censured and apologized. An investigation by outside counsel requested by the college found his treatment, “constitutes microaggressions based upon race and sex.” Mulholland told investigators in the report that he believed his frustrations were reasonable and that he did not engage in bullying. The college’s board oversees Bulger’s position.
Hawkins said Bulger is doing good work at LCC. Enrollment has gone up since she took leadership three years ago. He’s seen her reach out to communities of color in a positive way.
The faculty and administration have two more bargaining sessions scheduled. If those don’t result in an agreement, the next step is mediation. If an impasse is declared, a strike could occur. Mitchell told KLCC they have not had to go to mediation since 2016 and the union has never been so far from agreement as they are at this point with the administration.
Lane Community College holds the license for KLCC but has no part in KLCC's editorial process and does not review news content before publication. This story was edited by an outside editor from the Northwest News Network.
