Letter Writing Campaign – 50 Letters in 10 Days

Written by WVMFT

Speak from the heart and tell your story!

Over the last few weeks, many faculty have expressed their frustration with the District's proposals put across the table during negotiations. So many have said how demoralizing it is to work intensely during a global pandemic, keeping the college and students afloat, only to realize that the Administration and Trustees probably do not appreciate our efforts. Now that faculty have quite literally saved the college over the last 14 months, the Administration wants to chalk up our efforts as no greater than theirs. When we do the lion's of the work, they call it "team work" and put forth proposals that strip away our rights, as if we've let them down.

Ever wonder why the Trustees just don't seem to understand how much work it is to teach and how grueling this past year has been? There is certainly more than one answer to that question, however one simple answer is that the Trustees simply do not hear enough from the Faculty. They tend to rely on learning about us through the chain-of-command, which of course often distorts the truth. 

During the Union's membership meeting last Friday, we decided to write personal letters to the Trustees to let them know what is really going on.  This campaign is called "50 Letters in 10 Days". Once we get 50+ letters we will print them and hand deliver them.

Will you tell your story to the Trustees?

Four themes and sample letters (click on each one for a sample):

• Part-time Faculty Conditions (health care, parity, pay for ancillary activities, class cancellation payment, full inclusion for flex day)

• Stop the Dean-Power-Grab (Proposed elimination of Division Council, micromanagement of IR, VP approval of department chairs, respect Faculty voice and shared governance, binding arbitration/due process)

• Raises, income stability, and security (high cost of living, passing more of the property tax revenue to instruction, Equity)

• Equitable Lab Load Bases

Here's how you can get your letter to us:

(1) You can hand write your letter (even draw a picture if inspired) and mail it via US Mail to:

WVMFT, AFT 6554
PO Box 2954,  Saratoga, CA 95070

(2) You can hand write the letter and scan it; or

(3) You can write the letter in an email.

Send all e-versions to president@wvmft.org and all paper letters to the Union's PO box shown above.

Thank you all in advance for taking a few moments out of a very busy time in the semester to do this!   Everything makes a difference!

The WVMFT Executive Team

Karen Chan, Executive Director, executive_director@wvmft.org

Kate Disney, President, president@wvmft.org

Mel Pritchard, Vice President, melunionman59@gmail.com

Yanghee Kim, Treasurer, yangheekim77@gmail.com

Jory Segal, Secretary, segaljory@gmail.com

Jeff Cormier, Mission Full-time Faculty Representative, jeffreycormier@sbcglobal.net

Patricia Louderback, WVC Full-time Faculty Representative, PatriciaLouderback@comcast.net

Nick Barron, Mission Associate Faculty Representative, nmbarron5252@gmail.com

Ellen Yu Costa, WVC Associate Faculty Representative, lnucosta@gmail.com