Echo Times

Issue date: 12/9/09 Section: Letters to the Editor

Media Credit: Armando Morales United Professors of Marin President Ira Lansing.

It is unfortunate that losing candidate Annan Paterson is still displaying the same behaviors and blind eye after the election that she showed before the election. Perhaps some clarifications from United Professors of Marin would allow your readers to decide for themselves just what really is going on.

First, the process UPM used to interview candidates for the board of trustees for possible endorsement was open and transparent. Any candidate who contacted UPM (Ms. Paterson did not) asking for an endorsement was given an interview in a question and answer format. These sessions were open for observation and participation by all faculty in the union-and more people than the UPM officers were present. This is no more a small group of renegades making a decision than are the seven elected members of the Board of Trustees.

Second, to believe that a small group of UPM members is bullying the faculty, the administration or the trustees into this current labor stalemate is ludicrous (now moving into its third year with no resolution). The membership of the Union-and currently there are over 300 members-provide the direction, determine the issues and set the boundaries by which the bargaining team may proceed.

At a general membership meeting last semester the faculty directed the bargaining team not to change their position at the table. In addition, all current bargaining circumstances are communicated to our membership through e-mails and monthly newsletters. Our UPM process would seem to be more open and friendly than that used by Paterson and her colleagues on the board when Trustee Treanor attempted to institute a gag order to prevent trustees from making public statements (see Marin Independent Journal editorial March 31, 2006), or the claim by Trustee Dolan that important information has been withheld from some trustees by the Board majority (see Twin Cities Times Sep. 28, 2009).

And finally, it was Annan Paterson and the current board majority that cost the taxpayers of Marin County $1.8 million in fines, interest and back pay over litigation with the faculty that could have been settled for $0 (yes, zero!) if things had been done properly.

Regardless of who won or lost the recent election, it is the desire of the faculty of the College of Marin that there will be a board of trustees willing to engage in a meaningful dialog with them, since this has not been the case so far.

Ira Lansing, President
United Professors of Marin

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