Category Archives: Front Page

College Community Responds to The Planned Overruling of Roe v. Wade

Samuel Boudreau

News Editor

 

 

 

On May 2, Politico reported that the Supreme Court of the United States plans to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 1973 case that established the constitutional right for a woman to have an abortion, under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.  The 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling relied on this clause when it concluded that prohibiting abortion violated a right to privacy under the Constitution by restricting a person’s ability to choose whether to have an abortion,” said Orlando Mayorquin of USA Today.  

In a leaked draft of the court’s decision, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

The leaked draft of the court’s decision sparked protests throughout the country, including Wooster, Ohio.

On May 3, Désirée Weber, an assistant professor of political science, announced a Reproductive Rights Political Advocacy Session from noon to 4 p.m. in Kauke Hall’s second floor lounge on the same day. Weber set out a few goals for the session, goals which called for Congress to pass federal abortion protections, drive people to local polls for the May 3 primary election and to research and/or support reproductive healthcare providers locally and nationally. 

A number of students and faculty members attended the session, writing letters to Congress, drawing posters and discussing future steps for demonstrations. One of those students, Samantha Harrison ’23 put the finishing touches on a poster stating, “Abortion Saves Lives.” “Banning abortions affects people of all gender and sexual orientation and is most likely going to cause people to die,” said Harrison. 

At the next-door table, Rachel Catus ’22, Veda Massanari-Thatcher ’23, Grace Braver ’23, Riley Smith ’22 and Katherine Yordy ’22 made plans to hold a demonstration against the Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday, May 5th at the Kauke Arch. “We plan to have an opening speaker come up and help people feel comfortable if they want to speak,” said Catus. 

Numerous faculty members stopped by the second floor to help meet the session’s goals. Beatrice Adams, assistant professor of history, sat down alongside Zoe Carter ’22, Isaac Schwartz ’23 and Beth Ann Muellner, Professor and Department Chair of German Studies and Russian Studies; Global and International Studies. “I am most scared with what this means for a host of other rights and things we assume are already set,” said Adams.

One of those faculty members, Tom Tierney, professor of sociology and anthropology, wrote a postcard at one table. “After waking to the appalling, but not surprising, news that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn a fundamental reproductive right,” said Tierney, “I was heartened by how quickly students (and faculty colleagues) sprang into action.” Tierney continued, “I was glad to be able to spend some time today supporting their efforts, although I wish I could have stayed longer, but I do plan to continue offering as much support as I can in the upcoming days as they organize rallies and other forms of resistance to this impending decision.”

President Holds Town Hall to Address Concerns About Outsourcing

Jonathan Logan

Editor-In-Chief

 

 

 

On the afternoon of Tues., May 3 a small group of faculty members and a handful of students gathered in the Lean Lecture Room of Wishart Hall to hear President Sarah Bolton speak on her administration’s decision to outsource Dining and Custodial Services. A larger group of faculty and staff members also gathered remotely over Zoom. Bolton began the meeting by rehashing the decision-making process and addressing questions that have frequently come up with regards to outsourcing. She described the decision as one driven by a need to “meet the demands of students” in addition to “managing complicated staffing needs.” While the meeting focused primarily on the outsourcing of dining, Bolton mentioned that they are still much earlier in the custodial outsourcing process. In an email sent out on the same day, the College informed the campus community that two final candidates for the outsourcing of custodial services, National Management and Marsden/Scioto, would be presenting on May 5 and May 6 respectively.

President Bolton continued her opening remarks by reiterating the expertise that Creative Dining Services (CDS) demonstrates and by summarizing the driving forces behind the ultimate decision: “The priorities in making these decisions were really, first, [based] around the needs of our students, and also, very much on supporting our staff.”  She concluded by restating that the these decisions were made in response to student demands as well as stating that CDS’s “main goal is to find the right ways to make themselves a place that people want to work – that good people want to work and stay – so, they are not financially motivated to cut costs.” Following Bolton’s opening statement, the meeting took on a town hall format and opened up to questions.

With regards to the outsourcing of Custodial and Dining Services, Dr. Amyaz Moledina, Associate Professor of Economics & Business Economics; Global and International Studies, asked President Bolton “does urgency justify the way folks have been overlooked?” Moledina framed his question by remarking on the lack of transparency and collaboration, “the things we are supposed to teach our students.” Bolton responded by admitting that “there are ways to do the process better than we did it.” She continued, “I can’t responsibly, and I know that the board feels this way as well, we can’t responsibly say we’re [going to] hit the pause button and redo.” Later in the town hall, Moledina also pressed Bolton on why the faculty had not been presented with financial data or a financial report regarding the outsourcing. This was part of the faculty’s demands in the petition released on April 12.

Mark Gooch, the Collection Management and Discovery Services Librarian, followed up by asking President Bolton how she intends to alter the process and include the broader campus community. “There are [going to] be important things for us to think about next year. For example, faculty bringing us their thoughts about financial stability, and there were really important conservations raised yesterday at the faculty meeting about faculty and staff retention,” Bolton responded after saying she is in conversation with incoming Interim President Wayne Webster about issues such as these and how they ought to be included in a new “governance arranged around these questions.” Bolton concluded by saying that she certainly believes they can do better in the future and detailed how some of Wooster’s peer institutions are “formalizing a shared governance process that goes beyond what we have in the Statute of Instruction, which is a document that lays out the particular rights and responsibilities of the board and faculty.” Shared governance lays out a framework for decision-making, advising and how consultation is carried out in conjunction with those roles beyond formal College statutes.

Dr. Ng Wee Siang Margaret, Associate Professor of History; Archaeology; Chinese Studies, inquired about the College’s plans for there being a hypothetical need for the College to breach the contract with CDS. Concerns were further raised over potential financial penalties or other sanctions placed on the College by CDS. Bolton stated that she believes the real penalty would be their inability to provide the campus community what it needs. “The financial penalty is actually not the thing I would worry about. What I would worry about is providing dining to our students; there is a financial penalty because we have a signed contract.”

Also present at the town hall was Jim Prince, Vice President for Finance and Business/Treasurer, who was asked by Voice reporters about his previous role as Treasurer at Kalamazoo College where, under his tenure, Kalamazoo outsourced with CDS (they had already been outsourcing with another company, but had grown dissatisfied with their performance). Mr. Prince was asked if their partnering with CDS was at all connected with Wooster’s decision to partner with the same vendor. Prince responded by saying “My relationship with Creative Dining had nothing to do with my connection to my last institution.” He further elaborated on how the College originally engaged with a consultancy that independently gauged the College’s list of potential partners. Prince continued by saying that this consultancy helped the College “think through who are some of the best companies out there?” Bolton and Prince, throughout the town hall, continued to express their faith in CDS’s future relationship with the campus community.

College Administration and Board of Trustees Respond to Outsourcing Petition

Samuel Boudreau

News Editor

 

 

 

Bolton and Staley defend the College’s decision-making process and outsourcing.

After an anticipative week, President Sarah Bolton and Sally Staley, Chair of The College of Wooster’s board of trustees, responded to the “Statement Against Outsourcing at the College of Wooster, April 19, 2022,” a petition started by Laura Burch and a group of faculty. First, Bolton and Staley addressed the petition’s clause which  states that the administration made the decision to outsource their services without mission-based rationale.” “As shared with the community over the last four months, the decision to work with outside partners to lead dining and custodial services was entirely mission-based,” wrote Bolton and Staley. Bolton and Staley cite food preparation along with “caring for spaces and health” as central to their mission-based reasoning for outsourcing, stating that “…the College has been really struggling to provide these crucial services, and facing increasing difficulties in doing so over multiple years (including before the pandemic),” In a January interview with the Wooster Voice, Bolton cited COVID-19 and the College’s “Connect, Create, Discover” strategic plan for reasons to outsource. “[O]ne of the pieces of  [the strategic plan] is that  we would carefully think about whether there were any places where the college should think about working with outside partners or contractors,” Bolton said in January. 

Staley and Bolton then took on the petition’s claim that the outsourcing decision did not use“precise data.” Our due diligence, involving interviews with people from many campuses, was thorough. While Bolton and Staley did not specifically name these “people from many campuses,” Jim Prince, Vice President of Finance and Business at the College, had experience working at institutions that outsourced their dining services. “My role was to bring to the president some thoughts on [outsourcing],” said Prince in January. “Part of that was due to the fact that I worked at other institutions where we have outsourced so I brought to her my background in both the positive and negative aspects of outsourcing.” One of those institutions was Kalamazoo College, where Prince served as a Vice President for Business and Finance from 2009 to 2019, who also partnered with Creative Dining Services. 

A contradiction emerged from the response and previous statements made by Bolton, as Bolton told the Voice in January that outsourcing dining and custodial services “Once we understood that we really felt we needed to go this direction, we certainly included other people on campus, like Marjorie Shamp and Mike Taylor in our conversation, but the decision is mine and I want to be super clear that that shouldn’t lean on somebody else.” 

While Bolton told the Voice in January that outsourcing was an administrative decision, Staley and Bolton’s response to the petition frame the outsourcing decision as “the Board’s decision. “Once we understood that we really felt we needed to go this direction,” Bolton said in January, “we certainly included other people on campus, like Marjorie Shamp and Mike Taylor in our conversation, but the decision is mine and I want to be super clear that that shouldn’t lean on somebody else.” 

“The last thing I would say is that we did share with the board that we were leaning in this direction but again this is not a board-level decision, it is an administrative decision,” Bolton also told the Voice in January. Staley and Bolton’s response to the petition appear to contradict Bolton’s January remarks, as the response states, “The Statement Against Outsourcing states there is no clear-mission based reason for the Board’s decisions to outsource dining and custodial services.”

One of the petition’s major concerns was  staff benefits, including tuition exchange and sick time. Bolton and Staley assured the community that tuition benefits will continue for dining and custodial staff members. Other benefits, however, are under CDS’ administration. “Partner companies may well have benefits that differ in some ways from ours – perhaps being stronger in some areas and less strong in others.” Several staff members expressed concerns over sick time, as the College will pay out 10% of an employee’s sick time by June 30, 2022, and CDS will honor unused sick time until June 20, 2024, forcing some staff members to spend all their sick time in a limited time frame. “It is unlikely that I can use 960 hours off [sic] sick time in two years,” said one dining employee. 

One of the petition’s main points was “shared governance,” which “refers to the joint responsibility of faculty, administrations, and governing boards to govern colleges and universities.” 

While Bolton and Staley said they “value” the concept, they stood behind the exclusive decision to outsource their services. “The responsibility for effective campus business operations, including the safety and well-being of all members of the Wooster community in support of our mission, lies with the administration and the board.” 

Regarding the petition’s demands, Bolton and Staley wrote that “We cannot responsibly allow the difficult situation with these critical operations to continue when it is clear that outside companies provide the support we need.” 

The College will hold an in-person meeting to discuss this topic on Tuesday, May 3, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. As of April 26, the College has not announced a location for the meeting. 

College Struggles to Meet Sustainability Goals

Caroline Ward

Staff Writer

 

 

 

In the fall of 2018, President Sarah Bolton commissioned the College’s first campus sustainability committee to create a five-year sustainability plan. The plan aimed to bring the College up to speed with the rest of its peer institution’s sustainability measures. In May 2019, the Campus Sustainability Committee (CSC) initiated the “Sustainability Plan for the College of Wooster” and detailed the “why’s,” “what’s” and “how’s” of Wooster’s new sustainability initiatives. The plan listed five “Major Recommendations for Immediate Implementation,” other specific suggestions, a proposed preliminary timeline and a quantitative and qualitative comparison of Wooster’s sustainability efforts with those of 11 of our peer institutions. The plan’s major recommendations are “to hire a sustainability coordinator, form a renewable energy exploratory committee, conduct an external energy audit, create a revolving green fund and incorporate sustainability into campus culture and establish relevant goals and targets.”

 “The College needs to be sustainable in every sense of the term,” wrote the committee. “By taking deliberate, mindful action to address environmental challenges, we have an opportunity to distinguish ourselves in a positive way with prospective students and to make considered changes [sic] rather than reacting to changing conditions as they become urgent.”

Three years later, the College has not met the majority of the plan’s major recommendations.  Cory Horgan ’23, a former CSC member, and current president of Greenhouse Club, a sustainability and environmentalism club on campus, expressed his disappointment at the lack of progress. Horgan argues that the College’s culture is “not one of environmentalism,” citing the administration’s inaction. “The biggest problem is that it’s absurdly clear that the board does not  care,” Horgan said, “and the President’s office does not particularly care.” While the President regularly meets with Greenhouse at least once a semester, Horgan said it rarely results in tangible change. “Typically in meetings with her, you leave feeling really excited, but in the end, she doesn’t have the power the trustees do.” While Bolton initially agreed to comment, she was unable to reach the Voice. Horgan added that student development meetings with the trustees fail to create action. “Greenhouse is often listened to, and gets a lot of questions, people are very receptive, but it kind of dies there,” he said about the meetings. “The reality is we can make as much noise as we can, but we leave in four years.” On an Instagram post in honor of Earth Day, WooInsider received several comments from the student body. “We could really improve sustainability on campus if we hired a sustainability coordinator,” said Carly McWilliams ’22. Horgan agrees with McWilliam’s comment. “It begins with a sustainability coordinator,” he said. “Without a formal and respected channel within the College, it is far too easy for administration, the service center, grounds, dining, the president and anyone else to dismiss Greenhouse, Environmental Justice Coalition (EJC), or anyone who tries to push for a more sustainable campus.” 

While COVID-19 created unique challenges, Horgan stresses the environmental crisis’ own challenges. “I will commend the College on how much they have done, but I think it’s time to stop prioritizing the pandemic over the environment, and start to understand that they might have to live in coexistence for a while.” He points to actionable steps that can be taken without compromising the safety of staff, students and faculty: small steps such as the return of sustainable to-go boxes and an increased discount for the use of sustainable mugs to incentivise student use, and bigger steps like the appointment of a sustainability coordinator, or a sustainability department, like in many Ohio 5 schools. “It comes down to it being a priority,” Horgan says. “And I don’t think it’s a priority.”

Group of Faculty Rally C.O.W. Community Against Admin’s Outsourcing Process

Samuel Boudreau

News Editor

 

 

 

Petition divides college community as administration welcomes Creative Dining Services. Many staff members have condemned outsourcing since last 2020, when the College partnered with ABM Industries for custodial services.

As Outlook’s signature notification sound hit their eardrums, The College of Wooster’s faculty members found an unusual email on their screens. “Significant decisions have been made that affect the College and our work as faculty,” read the email. “Do you feel like your voice and perspective is being actively sought in governing the College? Is your perspective being incorporated into decisions? How effective is Wooster’s culture of shared governance? Whatever your answer, please consider coming to an informal/open meeting of the faculty at 5 p.m. on April 1.” The email, signed by Jeffrey Lindberg, Amyaz Moledina, Madonna Hettinger, Pam Frese, Joan Friedman, Laura Burch, Greg Shaya and Jeff Roche, advocated for “shared governance” at the College. According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), shared governance is “…the joint responsibility of faculty, administrations, and governing boards to govern colleges and universities. Differences in the weight of each group’s voice on a particular issue should be determined by the extent of its responsibility for and expertise on that issue.” 

While the email indicated no single incident on behalf of the administration, signs point towards a flurry of emails sent by President Sarah Bolton to the campus community from Jan. 5 to 11, including her resignation from Wooster, a rise in comprehensive fees at the College and the outsourcing of the College’s custodial and dining services. The latter decision particularly led to criticism from dining and custodial staff employees, as the decision was only made by Bolton, Mike Taylor, Marjorie Shamp and Bolton’s “senior team,” including Jim Prince, Dean Hernandéz and Provost Lisa Perfetti. Bolton’s team also notified the College’s board of trustees before the decision to outsource services was made by the administration. The College’s custodial and dining staff did not know about the move to outsource these services until after the decision made by the administration. “No one in campus dining or custodial knew what was going on,” said one dining staff member, as members of the College’s administration broke the news to custodial and dining staff in Scheide Music Center over winter break. 

A week after faculty members met at an unknown location to discuss Lindberg et al.’s email, Bolton announced that the College decided to partner with Creative Dining Service (CDS) as their new dining partner. “As we plan this transition, which will take place in July, the thriving of our people – our students, our dining staff, and our campus as a whole – is our very top priority,” said Bolton. CDS, a Michigan-based company, met with the campus on March 10 in the Governance Room. While the event was mainly attended by the College’s administration, members of the College’s living wage campaign also attended the event. At the meeting, CDS executives promised staff members the retention of current benefits, specific and expanded meal plans for various groups on campus, open communication with the community and a complete overhaul of “the entire dining ecosystem.” The College’s Living Wage campaign posted an infographic summary of the meeting on instagram, stating that “CDS has established partnerships with companies that employ prison labor.” 

On April 8, Bolton and Prince met with dining staff members in the “Lowry ballroom” on the same day, announcing CDS as their new employer. One dining staff member claimed that when Bolton was asked what would happen to their sick time, she said CDS would answer the question on April 12. “I believe she did not want to answer because the answer was not favorabl[e] to us,” said the staff member.

A document obtained by the Voice lists CDS’ benefits for staff members: 

 

Options for individuals transitioning to Creative Dining 

a.) An employee can elect to take a 100 percent payout of their current vacation bank on or before June 30, 2022 with the understanding they can request time off but may have some days that would be unpaid because they have not accrued enough vacation time.

b.) An employee can elect to take a payout of their current bank and keep up to 80 hours (if they have that much left over) of their vacation time to be placed in vacation time to be placed 

c.) An employee can take 100 percent of their vacation bank and transfer into the Creative Dining PTO bank to be accessed at their discretion effective July 1, 2022.

Sick Time: 

For those transitioning to Creative Dining 

-10% of the remaining sick time will be paid out by the College as of June 30, 2022.

-Unused sick time accrued at the College of Wooster will be honored by Creative Dining through June 20, 2024 (two years.)

-Employees will begin earning PTO at Creative Dining on July 1, 2022, based on their seniority. 

Health Insurance Deductible:

-For those transitioning to Creative Dining 

From July 1 to Dec. 31, 2022, staff can transfer over remaining deductibles.

-Once staff move over to Creative Dining insurance program (by Jan. 1, 2023), premiums will remain at the level being paid by The College of Wooster employees going forward, as long as employee continues to work for Creative Dining on the College of Wooster campus. (Similar to what you are paying this year.) 

Tuition benefits: 

For staff transitioning to Creative Dining on the Wooster Campus, [sic]

-Dependent eligibility for Tuition Exchange Benefit continues with the same requirements as for College of Wooster employees.

-Staff and dependents are eligible for full tuition scholarship to the College of Wooster employees.”

 

While CDS said staff members are eligible for tuition benefits, one faculty member told the Voice that taxes may hinder these benefits, due to the staff members no longer being an official employee of the College. 

A campus dining employee also claims staff members will also lose money from their medical insurance’s flex spending account. “One staff member is going to lose $2,000 of [their]  own hard-earned money,” said the dining staff member.

As students finished lunch on April 12,  Burch and “a group of faculty” sent an email to the campus community, condemning the College’s outsourcing decision-process. “As you may be aware, the College of Wooster’s administration has recently decided to outsource our dining and custodial services.” Burch also said the College “reorganized” their copy center, a decision not publicly announced by the College. “A group of faculty have drafted a statement opposing these decisions, and we are seeking support from the larger campus community: staff, students, faculty, retirees, and alumni,” said Burch.

The petition denounced the College’s decision due to a lack of transparency, disrespect towards the College’s staff through an ongoing pandemic, and a “contradiction” of student graduate qualities. The petition called for shared governance along with the “immediate cessation of all outsourcing efforts for all labor sectors of College of Wooster employees.”

While the petition received 698 signatures, the majority of faculty, staff and students did not sign the petition, many citing an overabundance of faculty power, a lack of details and outsourcing benefits. 

James Moline, a receiving clerk in Campus Dining/Conference Services, believes members of the campus community acted too late. “I personally am in favor of the process moving forward at this point in time. I believe halting it now, especially to [the] Custodial Department which has lost half its staff and is in a crisis mode, is counterproductive and harmful to the effectiveness of either service.” Moline continued, “These points of halting the process should have been brought forward early in February. Now it’s like trying to steer a semi truck going 50 miles an hour to make a U-turn on a two-lane highway.” According to a source familiar to the situation, the Custodial Department currently has only 17 out of 48 custodians necessary to maintain the College, with upwards of six custodians quitting per week. “We want out for the fact that we’re not good enough to work for the College anymore,” said one custodian.

As of April 19, Bolton has yet to respond to the petition, as her Wooster presidency dwindles down amidst a fractured and frustrated campus.