by Ivanhoe
A&E Editor
Three separate plans for a restructuring of the campus reporting hierarchy were unveiled at an all-campus meeting on Friday, March 9.
Shoreline Community College President Lee Lambert explained to a group of mainly faculty and staff that, in order to make the campus run more cheaply and efficiently, some staff will be reporting to different people.
The purpose and goals of the restructure were laid out in a memorandum from Lambert.
“There are two primary goals,” the document said. “To pare down the size of the organization in response to our shifting enrollment patterns, and to improve the effectiveness of our staff to provide services to our students in accordance to the College mission.”
Student Senator April May described how difficult it can be to navigate the bureaucracy at SCC. May was researching the parking situation on campus for the Sustainability Committee, and hunting for information.
“I was trying to get the ZIP codes of students who park on campus,” she said in a telephone interview.
May was sent from sustainability, to human resources to the Director of Institutional Effectiveness to Safety & Security, and finally to the Cashier, who sent her back to Safety & Security, and then to Technology Support Services, who had to call Safety & Security for further information.
May said she was able to pick up bits of information here and there, but no one had all the information she needed, or knew who had the rest.
“Everybody was nice and willing to help,” May said. “But they just weren’t able to.”
“My hope is students will experience a better level of service and an understanding of where to get the service,” Lambert said in a telephone interview.
Karen Toreson, president of the SCC Federation of Teachers, attended the all-campus meeting.
“Frankly, it looks like the dean that’s not going to be re-hired is in the Business Administration Division,” she said.
Classes under Business and Administration, which include automotive, cosmetology, and manufacturing classes along with more office-oriented classes, will be dispersed among the existing divisions under the new plan.
“As far as instruction in the classroom goes, that won’t change,” Toreson said. “To whom [faculty] will report, that will change.”
Peggy Lytle, SCC’s Shop Steward for the Washington Federation of State Employees union, expressed that some staff on campus are critical of some of the proposed changes.
“When we first heard there was going to be a restructuring, we thought it meant we’d be less top-heavy administratively, and that doesn’t seem to be the case,” she said.
Two of the new scenarios will have assistant vice presidents working under vice presidents. Lytle said that some of the staff wonder if that will further insulate the president’s office from the realities of the campus.
President Lambert explained that the vice presidents’ and assistant vice presidents’ responsibilities will include helping resolve personnel issues that have in the past gone directly to the president’s office.
“This allows me to walk around campus and interact with students more, and staff in their offices rather than my own,” Lambert said.
He described his job as being a balancing act between the internal campus community and the greater community, and that he hopes the campus restructure will allow him to achieve a better balance of the two.
Three possible scenarios for the restructure were developed in order to give the college’s stakeholders an opportunity to comment on them before a final determination is made of which will best serve the school. The final decision will be announced at another all-campus meeting on April 6.
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