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The faculty union at Yakima Valley College, a community college in Washington State, recently gave the college’s president a vote of no confidence, according to a news release from the union. The union called a press conference Thursday to discuss the results of the vote.
At an April meeting, 88 percent of union members voted to say they had no confidence in Linda Kaminski, the college’s president, and 12 percent abstained, the release noted. The faculty union represents 300 full-time and part-time instructors at the college.
The union alleges campus leaders have insufficient policies around promotion and hiring and have failed to follow procedures related to reporting and investigating instances of harassment and retaliation. Faculty members were also upset by the closure of the college’s bachelor’s of applied science in teacher education program, a move approved by the college’s Board of Trustees in March. The board also approved not renewing the contracts of seven full-time faculty members.
“We didn’t want to do this, but all of our other efforts have failed,” Rachel Dorn, the union president, said in the release. “We have been trying to reach out to the school leadership and the Board of Trustees about our concerns for over a year, but there has been very little dialogue and we get the impression that leadership is not taking these concerns seriously.”
Board of Trustees chair Castulo Arteaga said in a statement to The Yakima Herald-Republic that he and the incoming board chair met with faculty leaders and were in the process of obtaining more information to address faculty members’ concerns.
“We appreciate the work and leadership of President Kaminski,” he wrote. “As trustees, our focus is on making sure that Yakima Valley College is fulfilling its mission to serve our students and to strengthen the entire Yakima Valley.”
