CCRI President Hughes Responds to Faculty’s Call for Resignation
Wednesday, December 05, 2018
Just hours after the faculty at the Community College of RI called for President Megan Hughes to resign, she issued a statement in which she said she was “disappointed” and claims that the Community College was creating positive results.
On Monday night, the results of the no-confidence motion before the CCRI Faculty Association {CCRIFA) saw out of 271 eligible voters, 219 ballots were submitted. 160 votes supported the motion, 34 votes did not support the motion, and 25 ballots abstained.
"After careful consideration of the very serious issues raised by this Motion of No Confidence, that impact so greatly on our students' education, the faculty, in great solidarity, have made their voices heard by this vote. Of the faculty who voted "Yes" or "No", 82% (160 out of 194) voted No Confidence in President Hughes, VP Costigan and Dean Sabbagh," said Steve Murray, CCRIFA President, on Monday night.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTREAD: Hughes’ statement in response to the faculty union vote:
I remain invested in the work the administration and faculty has accomplished together; work that is successfully driving substantially improved student outcomes. While I am disappointed that the leadership of the CCRI faculty union chose to advance this vote, I am committed to advancing the progress CCRI has accomplished over the last nearly three years.
Vice President Costigan and I have worked closely with faculty and staff, piloting new approaches based on nationally tested best practices. We have launched a collection of innovative and bold student success initiatives that will provide our students with expanded academic and career opportunities, and we are actively applying our learning from these pilots in order to serve our students more effectively.
We are seeing results – last spring the college achieved its highest graduation rate in nearly 20 years, and we awarded the highest number of degrees and certificates in 20 years.
With these accomplishments, I understand that our work has brought about change. Change, coupled with open contract negotiations, can be hard, and I believe that this vote reflects our ongoing effort to define who we are as a college, and who we want to become.
It serves as a reminder that we must continually evaluate how we engage and communicate with each other, and I commit to doing so. My team and I remain dedicated to working with the faculty and staff to advance the mission of CCRI, and to continue to build upon our accomplishments together to ensure all our students achieve success in the classroom, the workforce and our community.
This story was first published 12/4/18 2:39 PM
