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Tonight’s hurtful comments by the board president implying that the entire board approved of our terminations made me realize that, as suspected, the board does not have the full story.
Since no single media piece tells my full story, & the board seems to be getting information from the president but not letting me present my case, here is my story as transparent & truthful as I can be with the information I have.
I was terminated for challenging the college’s reopening plan where I spoke up requesting faculty input into delivery methods & safety measures. We did NOT ask for classes to be 100% online. This is easy to verify by reading the Faculty Council white paper.
Also, they say I represented myself as speaking for the college because @txstateteachers had my personal email linked to the college on a campus list page. I do not have login credentials for that website & didn’t put it there or know it was there as my job on the state board
Of TFA does not involve me ever checking the state website. They also said our local listed that we were the Collin College chapter of TFA in the description. I am not on our social media committee & have no login info to that site. I have never posted a FB post for our local.
I was asked to have my personal email taken off the state website which I called and had done in 48 hrs. I was never told I was in trouble & no discipline was taken. I was never even asked to have anyone reword the local FB page or told anything about this until last month.
The college is saying these infractions, on sites I don’t have posting credentials for, were strikes against me since I was asked to not use the college in my signature on a letter to remove confederate statues in 2017. I have never done that since I was told & never disciplined.
In March, I learned that they have a screenshot of a post from Jan in a private fb group (not my personal page but a private group page) where I talk about the Jan reopening where many students and faculty were required to return face to face.
This was a private group where members were very concerned with rising cases and hospitalizations. I did not misrepresent this information because if you look at our faculty council minutes 1 week later, many faculty reported being told we were to encourage or require
Students to attend class. We asked how and were given suggestions on how to do that. Due to many faculty reporting this, Faculty Council was worried enough to send it to our task force and their minutes reflect this discussion as well. The VP said “that was not her intention.”
However, that didn’t make my post one week prior in the private group false because at that time, unless we had accommodations, we were required to return f2f & we were told to encourage or require students to as well.
That is it. That is the extent of why I was told 20 years of service, excellent appraisals, wonderful student evaluations, and above and beyond college service would be terminated. AD, Dean, and Provost had all signed my contract extension and I have that in writing.
The only one of these reasons I knew was an issue was signing the confederate monument letter with the college in my signature in 2017, but even then, I was not disciplined in any way, just told don’t do it again & I didn’t. Here is some extra info the board might not have:
9 faculty members from my college signed the letter with the college in their signature. 5 are published in the DMN and 4 added their signatures later when it went to the City Council (it was summer). This might be information left out of the board’s information as well.
The day our VP found out about our local @txstateteachers chapter, the college printed the 2017 confederate monument thread & put it in my personnel file. There is a time stamp showing this printed thread & an email introducing our local that same exact day.
Another timing issue is that Audra & I were non-renewed on the day of our first recruitment mtg for our local chapter. We are 2 of the 3 local officers.
Another point I heard in March was that Faculty Council is one form of shared governance but we should also use our chain of command to share concerns I have 5 emails where I did just that.
The local FB page nor the private group post were in my personnel file that I received via FOIA, but they were presented to me in March. I had never heard of these issues before that.
Each one of these reasons are 1A issues. Still, I ask to be reinstated because this job is so important to me. I don’t believe the entire board approved our terminations as the chair said tonight, but I also wonder if they got this full story.
For anyone saying I am a trouble maker, plz note that I NEVER spoke to the media prior to being fired. I followed every rule & the only time I was asked not to do something, I never did it again. I have always had the best intentions because I care deeply for this school.
I had never tagged the college or posted anything to “bash the college” in any way. I did speak out on health and safety measures. I did not ever misrepresent facts because there is proof many of us were told to encourage/require attendance.
I should not be held responsible for someone else’s website or Facebook page that I do not even have the credentials or login information to post on.
My heart is broken & mental health is suffering. The board should get the full story from both sides which is all we have been asking for since day 1 when we decided to go public & shine a light on what was happening.
