Triton demands teacher salary give-backs to counter $7 million budget shortfall

By Bill Dwyer For Chronicle Media
Triton is faced with an $8.1 million state funding shortfall for fiscal year 2016, with $1.2 million of that in state Monetary Ward Program, or MAP, funding for some 1,100 financially needy Triton students.

Triton is faced with an $8.1 million state funding shortfall for fiscal year 2016, with $1.2 million of that in state Monetary Ward Program, or MAP, funding for some 1,100 financially needy Triton students.

Faced with a statewide higher education funding crisis fomented by the ongoing political stalemate in Springfield, the Triton College Board of Trustees is pressuring its teacher’s unions to give back millions in salary.

Triton is faced with an $8.1 million state funding shortfall for fiscal year 2016, with $1.2 million of that in state Monetary Ward Program, or MAP, funding for some 1,100 financially needy Triton students.

Triton covered the $1.2 million for the current school year from its reserves, but will not do so for the next school year.

There have been two meetings so far between the school’s administration and its faculty. The faculty unions will meet April 26 to discuss the negotiations, then will hear a presentation by board chairman Mark Stephens on April 28.

Depending on which side you speak with, the negotiations are either cordial and fruitful, or rife with distrust.

The person most deeply involved in the process — Stephens — is not speaking publicly. He was absent from the April 19 board meeting, and did not return a message left with his secretary seeking comment to the Cook County Chronicle.

Noting Stephens’ absence Tuesday evening, board vice chair Donna Peluso said she wasn’t going to “get into the complicated reasons” Stephens wasn’t present. She concluded cryptically that Stephens “loves his son.”

Unconfirmed reports are that Stephens was attending his son’s college baseball game. A check of the Beloit College calendar showed that there was, in fact, a junior varsity baseball game scheduled for April 19.

On Thursday vice president for Business Sean Sullivan phoned to discuss the situation. He noted that the budget crunch is a statewide college issue, one that only elected officials in Springfield can resolve.

“Somebody’s gotta come to the table and make decisions in Springfield,” he said. “It was virtually without warning. They just stopped the funding.”

On Friday that happened in part, after the state General Assembly approved some $600 million in MAP funding. Crain’s Chicago business reported that Gov. Bruce Rauner has signaled his intention to sign that legislation.

That would return the $1.2 million to Triton’s coffers, easing ,but not solving, the problem.

Sullivan, who noted that there is a projected $6.85 million gap in FY2017, said the board and administration have met with the seven unionized college bargaining units, and two non-union employee groups.

Sullivan said that while the negotiations are still in process, “I personally have been very encouraged by the meetings. We’ve had some fruitful discussions.”

He characterized all the parties involved as being “committed to working together.”

Sullivan did not mention that, despite the severe budget crunch, Triton has hired the former president of the faculty union to fill a newly created position this fall, at a reported $185,000 annually.

On Tuesday night one public speaker at the board meeting noted to the board that Triton employs 50 administrators and just hired a person to fill the newly created administrative position of “Dean of Education.” The speaker called that move “fiscally irresponsible.”

Triton faculty union president Stu Sikora did not return numerous messages seeking comment, and adjunct faculty union president Bill Justiz was out of town until Monday.

However the Chronicle spoke with one Triton faculty member who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.

“I am definitely concerned about my job due to what is going on at Triton,” the teacher said.

“The chairman has asked the faculty to give up our pay raise.” While noting that the give-back is purportedly temporary, the teacher added, “Nobody trusts that.”

The source also noted that the unions have been warned that in the absence of salary concessions, eight non-tenured Triton teachers will be fired.

Union leaders, the source said, haven’t been encouraging.

“They’ve been clear that there’s only one choice, and that’s to do what (Mark Stephens) wants.”

The source also was skeptical of Triton’s willingness to apply the same fiscal pain to the administration that it was demanding of teachers, citing Triton’s long practice of having a high number of administrators relative to teachers.

“Their salaries are huge but they have assistants,” the source said of the school’s administration.

Pointing to the hiring of former Triton Union president and current program coordinator Deb Baker as a top administrator, the source added, “That doesn’t really build our faith.”

“Given the promotion of Deb Baker to a vice president position that didn’t exist a month ago, in the middle of this crisis, that’s a question that should be asked,” the source said.

Baker will earn a reported $185,000 to take over part of the responsibilities of veteran Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs Doug Olson.

 

Reached by phone at the college Friday, Baker cautioned against coming to any conclusions “until all the facts are in,” and against listening to people “who have an axe to grind.”

She characterized the nature of the salary give-backs as a “delay (in implementation) and not a rescinding (of the contract).”

Baker said she is not an administrator yet, and that she hasn’t even yet informed her students that she would be retiring as a professor next fall.

“I am not an administrator today, so I’m not privy to any information,” she said.

Baker confirmed that she would be working with Olson. She said she will be the vice president of academic affairs, while Olson will become VP of student affairs.

Baker, who currently coordinates the school’s Ophthalmic Technology program, said she was proud of her 30-year teaching career and looked forward to helping develop other career training program as part of the next stage in her career.

She opined that historically, “Career programming always gets the short end of things,” and said she’d like to change that.

“I can grow enrollment for Triton and develop avenues to bring in students,” she said.

“I’ve been a successful academic. Now I’d like to stretch that a bit.”

Ironically, in 2010 as part of cost cutting, Triton eliminated a host of career programs, including a successful air-conditioning and refrigeration training program that helped student get well-paying jobs as stationary engineers.

That training was taken over by a local engineers union.