By Samantha Lamb

(Photo of GSC Interim President Dr. Kathleen Nelson)

On the morning of March 5, 2020, four of Glenville State College’s seven department secretaries were laid off; they will no longer have jobs as of June 1, 2020. In fact, the entire position of department secretary will no longer exist. These secretaries were Sherry Jenkins, Leisa Dean, Brittany Benson, and Sarah Rollins. They were let go in an effort to save money on campus. The remaining secretaries will be moved to one administrative suite to oversee all academic administration needs.

According to Provost Dr. Gary Morris, these secretaries are being encouraged to seek jobs elsewhere on campus. He says there are currently two positions open on campus, and he expects several others to open up by June 1. These jobs will be held open until all four secretaries have been accommodated.

Several people, from faculty to students, are outraged by the decision to discontinue the department secretary position. Dr. Matthew Thiele is currently the chair of the English department, which will be losing Sherry Jenkins, a secretary that has greatly improved the way things run within the department in her short time there.

“It breaks my heart that any of these people are being heartlessly cast aside. The President and the Provost have shown through their actions that they believe that department secretaries are the most expendable, but they are essential to the offices they support, and the college won't function properly without them. Since Sherry Jenkins was hired late last October, she has become an invaluable member of the Department of Language and Literature. Brittany Benson taught me how to use Banner to enter my course schedule last semester when I didn't have a department secretary. Sara Rollins is a model of professionalism and kindness. Leisa Dean does the work of three people in the Department of Fine Arts. They don't deserve to be treated this way.” Dr. Thiele says.

According to Dr. Thiele, administration explained to them that laying off these secretaries as well as modifying the position of department chair would save the college $200,000, cuts that were necessary to keep Glenville State College from closing. However, they have yet to provide any evidence to support these claims.

Many faculty members in addition to Dr. Theile believe things could have been handled differently in this situation. Department chairs were not informed that they would be losing their secretaries until the secretaries themselves found out. Administration admitted that they had been planning this for months, but actively kept it from faculty, suggesting that transparency at Glenville State College does not truly exist. Faculty members have expressed that they wished administration would have held a meeting to discuss this months ago and been open to suggestions on other ways to work on Glenville State College’s debt.

Dr. Thiele also had this to say to students and all Phoenix readers, “This has been tried before at Glenville State College, and it didn't work. We have three months to try to convince Kathleen Nelson, Gary Morris, and the Board of Governors to do what is right. Assert your right to speak freely. Talk to everyone you can about this.”

According to Sherry Jenkins, administration appeared to be happy that they had managed to keep their plans from the Department Chairs. She plans to seek another job elsewhere on campus but is obviously upset that she will be losing her current position in the English Department. She says that faculty and students will be the ones most impacted by this decision. “If they ask us to do it, we’ll break our necks to do it, so the faculty is going to be at a loss.”

She said that the impact on the students and faculty will be so great that Glenville State College may lose students and faculty members in the aftermath of this situation and other proposed changes. “The picture might look good, but in the long run, the students and the faculty are going to suffer. And if we don’t have students, and we don’t have faculty, then we don’t have a college.”

Several other changes were made as well. One such change was reducing department chairs to department heads, a position that holds no administrative power. Instead of having several department chairs, Glenville State College plans to hire an assistant to the Vice President of Academic Affairs as well as make the Dean of Education position a full-time administrative position. The four secretaries may have been let go to make up the salary of one administration personnel, such as the new position of Assistant to the Vice President of Academic Affairs.

Professors have been told they will now have to teach fifteen hours a semester with no additional pay. Administration is also proposing a 7.9% increase in tuition as well as an additional $125 fee per semester to fund Student Activities. However, this must be voted on by the Board of Governors before it can be enacted.

“Glenville State College is no longer a democratic institution,” says Logan Saho, a senior at Glenville State College. It seems that even the opinions of faculty and staff may not be taken into consideration while deciding major changes to the college in the future. One thing is for certain, students and faculty will have to adjust to new procedures next year as all of these changes are enacted.

If you would like to file a formal complaint about these changes, follow this link: https://www.glenville.edu/academics/student-complaint

(Editor's note: a follow-up on this story will be published soon.)