This commentary is by Judy Hiramoto, an artist in San Francisco who was employed as a Goddard College faculty member from 2003 to 2011.
Regarding the VTDigger report “Goddard staff on strike”:
I am an artist living in San Francisco. I was a faculty member in Goddard’s MFA-IA (Interdisciplinary Arts) Program from 2003 to 2011.
Half-time faculty received such a dismal annual salary of $12,000 in 2003 that the academic journal listed the position as an “internship.” Faculty were so obsessed with increasing their salary (eventually raised to $28,000) that they did not pay attention to protection from unfair labor practice and vague grievance procedures.
I was constantly subjected to inequitable mandates, disciplined for filing workers’ compensation for an injury, and received racist evaluations by my supervisors.
In the first grievance, the union, UAW, told me to limit my complaints so that my supervisor would not get riled up.
In the second, it allowed the college six months to write unfair settlement terms, too late for me to file complaints to the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In the final grievance, my supervisor (in a document dated 3/29/2011) rushed the college to set up a new and unfair evaluation procedure solely to dismiss me. Faculty were compelled to participate in the new evaluation although they did not understand or ratify it as UAW guidelines require.
UAW informed me that if I wanted to address discrimination, I would have to take my case to court. My federal court case was a reenactment of the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War.
Subsequently I was surprised that academic workers at the University of California, Berkeley, received hefty pay raises in 2022 (up to an 80% increase, with salaries starting at $34,000) negotiated by UAW. UAW also added protection against bullying and discrimination and new paid leaves. (Alexander Nieves et al, “University of California workers approve contract agreement, ending longest higher education strike in U.S.,” Politico, 12/23/22).
The UAW faculty contract at Goddard had no sick leave. I continued working with pneumonia, the flu, a fractured leg, and a sprained back induced by unhygienic residency conditions and job stress. In order for a few faculty to receive health insurance for which they paid a monthly fee, all faculty had to agree to take on two extra students each academic year for no additional pay.
My suggestion to staff members is to leave. Take your skills and dedication to another employer who will treat you fairly. So many competent administrators, faculty and staff are already gone.
There is no way Goddard’s enrollment will increase since students are aware of its racism and high employee turnover. Even if UAW does obtain pay raises for you, it won’t do any good, since unfair labor practices are entrenched. A former faculty union president told me years ago that Goddard refuses to negotiate and employees feel that they have to put up with practices that they feel are unfair.
Integrative doctors write that it is better to be unemployed than to put up with job stress leading to inflammatory disease that can literally kill us. Sadly, Goddard is a relic of plantation capitalism.
