What happened and why -- a beginning

Regular readers and most students and former students will already know that Aimee and I were among a large group of Unity College faculty who were laid off August 3rd 2020 because of low enrollment due to the Covid19 pandemic. A little later that same week a local news article reported that the college campus would perhaps be sold.

Since then neither of us has said much about this. Aimee has been occasionally active on the Unity College Alumni Community FaceBook page, while I've been essentially silent. The reason for this is that we were waiting on our severance contracts to be fulfilled.

As condition for, essentially, "going quietly," the college offered us a severance package. As a consequence, we agreed not to take part in any lawsuit against the college. Contrary to rumors, there is no non-disclosure agreement or NDA. There is only the agreement that we not sue the college. We remained silent for so long because we didn't want to stir up any trouble that might hinder the severance contract being fulfilled by the college. There's a lot of bad feeling and some definite paranoia and we felt that stirring up this hornets' nest might just perhaps work out badly. At least we didn't want to take a chance.

We agreed to all this because, of course, we are parents. Our teaching jobs were likely forfeit in any case, and we have a kid to look after whose school has been delayed and, once it finally starts, will be be less than half time, two days a week. One of us at least has to look after the kid, and so cannot work a normal full-time job, even if the other one might. The severance offers a lifeline for the next few months while the pandemic continues or possibly worsens into fall.

The contract is now fulfilled, meaning that Aimee and I and possibly other faculty members in the same situation may now discuss the college's situation with less fear. (It would be fairly difficult for the college to find a way to take the money back now that it's safely in our accounts.)

I choose to hold this discussion on my blog, not the alumni page or other social media. This blog is mine and always has been. It dates to 2007, prior to the time when the college had easily-accessible facilities to host faculty web pages or social media. It contains a record of nearly fourteen years of my twenty years teaching at Unity College. I was told a long time ago, long before the current administration, to get rid of it, because it wasn't part of a centrally-controlled college PR program, but didn't. I did begin to use it less, and so skated "under the radar" with it. But I never completely stopped using it, and still control it under my own passwords and encryption.

So, despite a long association with my work at Unity College, the blog is mine, privately owned by me, and not easy to hack. Blog commentary is under my control. I can enforce a certain decorum, and, what is more important to me, employ reason rather than emotion in deconstructing what has happened. This is of course an emotional situation, but adding fuel to those flames doesn't help us repair the damage.

First up, there's a limit to how useful any of this can be. We are not going to bring back the old Unity College. It's probably gone for ever. But those of you that know anything about the Quaker tradition will have heard of the idea of "bearing witness." That's what I want to do here, bear witness to the injustice and wrong-headedness of what has happened, and lay out the poor consequences.

Second up, Covid 19 was primarily responsible for the closure of the traditional academic programs of the college and the close of the residential campus. I'm content to stipulate to that. Doing so was a provision of the severance, and I agreed to it, but I wouldn't have agreed to it if it wasn't true. But it was never the only explanation and never could be. The background is complex and lengthy. Most readers won't have patience for it. But I tend to lay it out, or as much of it as I can do, right here for posterity. Not exhaustively, but comprehensively. It will take a good while to document it all.

That's all I have for today. I have work to do. I may not be employed by the college any more, but I am still employed, rebuilding a fixer-upper house that Aimee and I bought this spring to use as a rental.

You'll need to keep coming back.