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Six days before the start of the fall semester at Pacific Northwest College of Art, a group of Master’s candidates and professors received an email from the dean of students informing them th…

The Pacific Northwest College of Art is in turmoil amid protests and a last-minute decision to suspend a beloved MA program.

Call for Info: CT+CR Suspension

We are currently seeking more information regarding the suspension of the CT+CR MA Program and the termination of Professors Barry Sanders and Anne-Marie Oliver. As we are aware of the “rumor mill,” we are seeking viable information that can help to enlighten our community. This appeal is aimed at all PNCA stakeholders, including upper administration. If you have information, please submit it anonymously. Thank you.

August 19th meeting regarding CT+CR

Dear Dr. Tuski, Thank you for taking the time to meet with me and 5 other CT+CR '17 students on August 19th, 3 of whom-- because of confusion-- had not submitted their deposit to PNCA Admissions. Thank you for taking the time to discuss why, a mere week before class, as many are traveling from other countries and states to attend CT+CR MA, we received an email stating that the program would not enroll students for the 2016-2017 year. You stated that because only 5 of 13 students had not made $250 deposits, the program for Fall 2016 has been canceled. I offered to pay for the deposits right then and there, which you then declined. You spoke of the difficulty of managing an institution with a delicate financial situation, which I can appreciate. However, I cannot square this with sending 17 tuition-paying students away a single week before class begins. You stated that the real reason that 17 lives are thrown into chaos, having left jobs, signed leases, given up residencies, acquiring student visas, to attend the CT+CR program was because Professors Oliver and Sanders were lacking a serious or respectful attitude about collecting deposits, and had declined your offer to call new students to collect these deposits. In short, they hurt your feelings. I cannot reconcile the passion, ethical standards, and absolute commitment Professors Oliver and Sanders have held for CTCR with how you describe their reaction to your request for collecting deposits. If this requirement was clearly and sportively communicated to Professors Sanders and Oliver I know that it would have been fulfilled; they had just spent a single month tirelessly inviting qualified students to study with them--a herculean task-- why would they then jeopardize all of this over a handful of $250 deposits? If the issue was a failure of Professor Sanders and Oliver to communicate the importance of deposits, Dean of Cockrell might have sent an email on August 17th stating "pay your deposit today or your program will be canceled" instead of "CTCR MA will not enroll students." I find it bizarre that a college asks professors chairing a respected graduate program to collect deposits from students--while simultaneously reviewing dissertations, graduating a class, recruiting, interviewing and vetting new students, as well as fundraising scholarships. This really is the new Ivory Tower Sweatshop, and starkly so with out hyperbole. What makes this bizarre is that PNCA has an entire multi-person admissions department to fulfill this task. Properly admitting students seems to be a requirement of this department, given the title "Admissions." Perhaps, like when Dean Cockrell stated that only 3 students had been admitted to CTCR, this is a "Metaphorical" Admissions department. Suggesting that the CTCR program should be suspended because of ADA violations is at best careless. There are institutional policies for addressing issues with ADA compliance and I do not think that this is in compliance with this policy. I appreciate you comparing how expensive it was for you to move across the country to become the president of PNCA to our situation. However, a better comparison is, after great expense and time, you moved from Maine to Oregon and instead of being the president of PNCA, you find your position "suspended." Again, I thank you for your time. It takes great courage to reverse a decision, but when new information is shared about the situation, people will not see weakness in reversing the decision, but the great courage and strength it takes to do so. Because my cohort are all capable, creative, courageous people, I know we will survive this shipwreck. It is not evident that PNCA will survive with decisions executed without prudence. If one group of students and professors can be "suspended" without reason, which program is next? PNCA is not "doing all we can to support" students enrolled in CTCR, and if a college can just shuffle applicants from one program to another those programs have no merit. MFA, MA, BFA-- they're all "metaphorical" at PNCA. Sincerely,

XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX

User submitted comment with our response below:

“The conversation around the temporary suspension of the CTCR program does not reflect that there was only one student fully enrolled for fall. Four more had made deposits and two of those had been admitted to both CTCR and another MFA program at PNCA. For facts and background on the situation, there is a statement and Q & A on the PNCA website. http://pnca.edu/about/update/7824″

There is some dissent regarding the deposits and the timeline for admissions. Given the extreme duress under which recruitment for the CT+CR program occurred it would not be unusual for a slight grace period to allow completion of enrollment and securing deposits. There is a subsequent post which we defer to given the author’s first hand account of the applications/admissions experience.

For the sake of allowing a variety of opinions we have shared your submission, however we do not generally prefer to rely on official PNCa PR for our informational sources. Our opinion is that PNCA has an entire marketing apparatus that is designed to present itself in the most glowing light possible. What we can do here is provide an, often suppressed, counter-narrative that can be useful while trying to discern circumstances. PNCA does not have a monopoly on “facts” about their organization, nor are they always forthright with them.

President Tuski has been at PNCA for, what, three weeks? He cannot possibly have any strong feelings about the CT+CR program that he is dissolving. One would imagine that he is being told how to act in regards to the program. Who could be holding his puppet strings and why is this happening?

We invite the community to discuss this concern.

User submitted comment, our response below: “Unauthorized sharing has counterproductive effect

To whomever posted Sally Schoolmaster’s email and accompanying petition to this website:

Bravo! You have just sabotaged the AAUP Advocacy Chapter at PNCA by sharing content that was meant for internal discussion without the permission of the Chapter officers who authored the petition. Now we will have a very difficult time communicating with the faculty in future because we cannot trust that these exchanges will not end up on this site. We will be seen as untrustworthy.

Trust is not something you get back easily without a lot of time and hard work. Thanks for making our efforts to make changes at PNCA just that more difficult.

If you care at all about what we are trying to do, you will work to remove that content from this site immediately. If not, thanks for nothing.” A petition is not intended for discussion, it is intended to elicit a direct and immediate response. The PNCA AAUP will be sabotaged by whatever they choose to let sabotage them. There will come a point that if interested stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, and alums) wish to affect change they will need to do so openly, sincerely, and with rigor and vigor outside of the usual behind closed doors one on one deal making. Sharing the petition works precisely to that end, as well as working to provide an archive for broader audiences of major events at the college. As was said in a previous response, those who are being laid off do not have the luxury of anonymity.

I would like to know why you do not honor requests to have material removed when the author of that material did not give permission to have it posted and it has been taken from internal company systems? There are repercussions for the author when this happens and it harms/stifles open dialogue within the organization and works against the very aims I assume this site purports to support.

A petition is by nature collectively authored and transcends a single individual’s ownership or ability to retract. Further, it necessitates public visibility to be effective. It is our opinion that were the petition to be successful, awareness of it and its origins would be commonplace. We regret that the single individual who disseminated the petition was not anonymized, however, as the petition specifically names a number of others who do not have the luxury of being anonymous, and the initiator specifically called on individuals to contact them directly to sign the petition, it does not seem unreasonable that they be identified, if for no other reason than to extend the reach of the petition. To say that sharing information (especially information that wold become common place) “stifles dialogue” is counter-intuitive. Maybe another question is, why would instructors not want to stand in open solidarity with one another?

The MFA IN COLLABORATIVE DESIGN at the Pacific Northwest College of Art brings together a unique faculty of Portland’s working professional creatives with participants who wish to continue working

PNCA cancels one program while imagining a darkly corporate and barely legible new version of a preexisting one.

#PNCA #mfa #collaborative design #Executive mfa #kavin buck #corporate culture

Email to President Don Tuski in response to suspension of CT+CR

“Dear Don,

First, I question how unilateral action by yourself and Administrators to suspend or otherwise interfere with a program at PNCA is in any way in keeping with a commitment to students, faculty or staff at PNCA. To make abrupt changes of this magnitude barring imminent financial collapse of the institution at the eleventh hour is both unethical and deeply disturbing. If there were indeed five students accepted, we have other graduate programs that run with that many students. Are they being suspended as well?

Second, there are no other equivalent programs at PNCA to the CTCR Masters program. If a student has applied and been accepted to CTCR and we are denying them access, then we have no business attempting to sell them something that bears no relation to it.

And in the interests of full disclosure, what is the employment status of Anne-Marie Oliver and Barry Sanders? Have they been "let go"? Or will they be part of the faculty leadership working to reinstate the program? What about faculty that has taught within the program in the past? Are they part of helping to reinstate it?

I would very much like to hear the thoughts of the faculty members who are part of this reinstatement effort. By what process did you decide to take on this task? Has the Senate met to discuss this?

Best regards,

(Faculty X)”

#PNCA #ct+cr #ctcr #don tuski #PNCA511 #slothlife

AAUP Petition to Reinstate CT+CR and abide by agreed upon hiring practices

(This petition was initiated prior to the Change.org petition, and was circulates to faculty distribution groups. It is shared here for informational purposes, although faculty are welcome sign)

Dear Faculty Members –

I am writing prior to the start of classes because of the recent action by the school’s President, Don Tuski. You may or may not have heard, but this week the CRCT [sic] program was suspended and Anne Marie and Barry were let go. I am greatly concerned because both of these actions were taken without consultation with faculty. One of my main goals this year as Faculty Senate President is to help develop a strong shared governance system at PNCA and this action goes against that principle. Therefore, I am asking you to seriously consider signing the [below] petition (which was written by the AAUP officers which include myself, Stephen Slappe, Joan Handwerg, Mallory Pratt and Daniela Molnar) that will be delivered to the President and the Board on Monday. Quick action is necessary if there is any hope of retaining CRCT for this year.

The petition also includes a statement concerning the scheduling of part-time faculty. A system was developed with Casey Mills and faculty to ensure senior part-time faculty would be given preference for classes, but unfortunately, this policy was not followed. To that end, we are asking that this policy is followed for the spring 2017 scheduling.

It is important that we all stand together to support one another so I hope you seriously consider signing this document. I am serious about my desire to lead the charge of shared governance and I see this document as a step in that direction.

Because time is of the essence and there is no way to have each of you sign in person we will accept an affirmative email response as permission to add your name to the signature list. [email: sschoolmaster(at)pnca.edu]

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Sally Schoolmaster

Faculty Senate President

Petition from AAUP Advocacy Chapter of PNCA

In recognition of the events and decisions described herein, we the undersigned request immediate action from the Administration and Board of Governors of PNCA:

On Monday, August 15, 2016 without any consultation with any faculty body or governance structure, the Administration of PNCA unilaterally suspended a graduate program at PNCA and terminated the employment of the long standing full-time faculty members who developed and administer that program. This is despite the fact that the program has maintained sufficient enrollment to be profitable in the past, and a full cohort of students has been accepted for Fall 2016.

Additionally, during the Spring 2016 semester, the Interim President and Academic Dean agreed to a process to redress scheduling inequities in the Fall 2016 semester schedule, in specific, to make schedule adjustments in accordance with the principle, affirmed by the Faculty Senate, of prioritizing class offers to part-time faculty who are long-term, vetted and invested in the College. The net result of schedule alterations, however, has been that several part-time faculty that requested redress have Fall term schedules that are not in accordance with this principle, while other course assignments are in direct contradiction to this principle.

We the undersigned strongly urge the immediate reinstatement of the Critical Theory + Creative Research (CTCR) Masters Program for the 2016-2017 academic year with all faculty members who were scheduled to teach and direct the program including, but not limited to Anne-Marie Oliver, Barry Sanders, Joan Handwerg, Marie-Pierre Hasne, and Ellen Lesperance. This action should be taken such that the applicants who have been accepted to the program experience no interruption of their participation in the program and begin on August 29th, 2016. We believe failure to do so will result in long-term damage to the reputation of the institution with negative consequences that affect the entire PNCA community.

We also demand that the schedule for Spring 2017 adhere to the previously agreed upon priorities by scheduling long-term, vetted,and invested part-time faculty. These faculty should be given first right of refusal to classes that they are qualified to teach/have taught in the past. This process should be completed by October 1, 2016.

#PNCA #ct+cr #ctcr #higher education #don tuski

Don Tuski: Immediately reinstate CT+CR*

Please Sign and Share the Petition. Time is critical. We need as many signatures as possible before Thursday. We are planning an action at the school, if CT+CR isn't restored before then.

PNCA is once again seeking to remove faculty that speak out against unethical treatment of faculty and students. Please sign and share this position so we can keep Anne-Marie Oliver, Barry Sanders, Joan Handwerg, Marie-Pierre Hasne, and Ellen Lesperance at PNCA for the CT+CR program.

17 students were admitted, and a week before school, the program was canceled. 5 students in the 2016-2017 cohort met with President Don Tuski to share additional information he was missing. He still refused to reinstate the program with bizarre reasons that were merely straw-man arguments.

President Don Tuski, when you are finished talking to that straw-man over there, please turn and see the students right in front of you. We want to get to class, which begins August 29th. Reinstate CT+CR.

https://www.change.org/p/don-tuski-immediately-reinstate-ct-cr-masters-program-for-the-2016-2017-at-pnca

Why does PNCA not have an ombudsman? If an impartial party exists, I would welcome the sharing of that information to the PNCA community immediately.

This is a great question. An ombudsman is a public employee or otherwise independent employee embedded within another organization to ensure the organization functions for the public good. This ensures an ethical structure outside of the organizations drive to profit above all else. We invite anyone to comment further on why PNCA does not have this position, or with whom the tasks of an ombudsman reside. Our conjecture is that PNCA is not large enough to warrant a publicly appointed ombudsman and not otherwise compelled to create such a position. Your question underscores a need to for vigilance and a willingness to be vocal about ethical issues within our school–to be our own ombudsmen. This starts by talking to our immediate circles (inside an outside the school) to discuss and challenge one another on things we experience or hear about. It means holding one another accountable (students, staff, administration, and faculty) when questionable circumstances arise. We acknowledge that it can be difficult for individuals that are intentionally disenfranchised by the power structure to affect change, and so it may be necessary to organize into like minded groups to demonstrate the weight of opinion to vested authority. This also makes it less likely that vested interests will be able to placate/silence any one of us alone. If administration fails to hear collective opinion then it may be necessary to appeal to interests outside the institution itself: public opinion via conventional and social media; and larger organizations, which might include accrediting organizations like NASAD and AICAD, the recently founded PNCA Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, or state/federal labor Boards like the Bureau of Labor and Industry.

One intent behind Infoshare is to provide a database of relevant information for interested parties both within the college and beyond. Posting/asking anonymously (or not) here is one way you can be heard. Please know that media outlets locally/nationally are watching this space.

http://www117.zippyshare.com/v/8JaNaXMG/file.html

staff handbook

MOCC was on the chopping block for at least 3 years

Overheard at the time (paraphrased): “They are just going to close it and absorb the collection once we move into the new building.”

And voila.

(This post was shared with us late last academic year. It has been edited to omit some unsubstantiated defamatory comments regarding one particular administrative staff member. Regardless the post contains other thoughtful commentary).

“The reason for the elevated lead levels in the print studio is because the spot test (conducted over a 12" square) was conducted adjacent to (within 3 linear feet of, and using a spot on the concrete floor as a test patch) the lead type cases used by Letterpress. I witnessed this test myself, as did others. Don’t be fools.

That being said, it was good to hear Joan Handwerg begin to scratch the surface of correct questions at the final protest: HR and the Board. The power of the presidency only extends so far, and Manley was not involved in much of the minutia of the 511 renovation. Ask, then, how did the board let $34 million dollars go so astray? Why were so many poor design choices that we are still witnessing the effect of? Who is actually responsible?

On the subject of Human Resources, the questions are more severe. There are issues with the staff handbook, to start. It has been amended to say that accrued paid time off will not be paid upon termination of employment, a policy which the college has been sued several times and which is in conflict with easily accessible BOLI policy: http://www.oregon.gov/boli/TA/pages/t_faq_holidaypay.aspx

Additionally, staff are prohibited from the use of medical marijuana. Additionally, staff are prohibited from the discussion of or dissemination of literature of any union, or to allow any union organizer onto PNCA Property. Additionally, an employee’s own records may only be viewed in the presence of HR.

The “no retaliation policy” is a joke, because it is HR doing the retaliation. Ask any of the employees who have raised their voices, and suddenly found themselves dismissed…

If an employee is convicted of a crime, they must report it to the school, who may also punish them (including termination).

Ask yourselves how a well-paid HR director could let such a document come into existence?

Ask how the HR director could hire a replacement assistant without an open job posting?

Ask why the current HR assistant has publicly admitted to having little/no prior experience?

[comments omitted] Ask why the HR director would be used as some sort of thug, for the staredown and enforcement of policies not under his purview (Chilling, as Joan called it)

Ask why the HR director is presenting budget issues, not the CFO. Chilling again…

Ask anybody, who he reports to. Nobody seems to know. His authority is dangerously unbridled…

Again, don’t be mired in the little issues. Things are worse than you know. Have the courage not only to ask why problems came to be, but also why they were allowed to exist in the first place? It has been know for years that PNCA does not pay its employees well. No improvements have been made, but still nobody can answer why this issue exists at all. Dig deeper.”

#PNCA #hr #boli #union busting #Art School #fair labor #submission

What do you think of the new Presidential choice?

Of the 3 who came for visits he seems the most reasonable choice. We’ll see how he does in this new environment, but the most important thing now is for students, faculty, and staff to make their priorities clear, to set a tone for what needs to change and how they want him to help run the school. This article gives a basic rundown and touts his fundraising ability, which PNCA could certainly use help with.

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