Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Under fire: Rose Tseng

Faculty pursues concerns about West Valley's chancellor

Colleges' teachers cite lack-of-confidence vote

Tseng defends record

By Sarah Lombardo

The West Valley and Mission Community College faculties continued their attack against Chancellor Rose Tseng last week at the board of trustees meeting, asking that their complaints be put on the board's next meeting agenda, June 19, for a closed session.

Faculty members said they want to discuss with the board a number of problems with Tseng's management of the district.

"We want to bring to the attention of the board the climate on the campuses," Joan Sarlo, president of West Valley's academic senate, said.

Both colleges' academic senates passed resolutions of "no confidence" in the chancellor in May. Mission College's academic senate president Don Cordero even went so far as to say that the senate wants her to resign by the end of the year.

At issue, teachers said, are a number of factors tied to the chancellor's management style. Tseng's ignoring faculty recommendations, her jeopardizing the quality of the colleges through the budget, her perceived aloofness and a district staff overloaded with new administrator positions are all on the list of teachers' complaints.

Faculty members claim Tseng has put the quality of education at risk at both schools by continuously cutting their budgets, while adding staffers at the district level."It's been a kind of lack of confidence over the last few years," Sarlo said, adding that the teachers' feelings about the chancellor are not new but have been building up for some years. "It's an unwillingness to assume responsibility. There have been several instances of passing the buck."

One West Valley teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, said Tseng is always adding more administrators to her district staff, while the teachers at the colleges are working with reduced staffing--and have been for four years.

"It seems that every time we turn around, the chancellor is coming to the board with a new position," the teacher said.

Sarlo said another concern among faculty members was a lack of shared governance. Teachers, she said, don't feel as if they have any influence over the district's operations.

Tseng denies the faculties' charges.

"First of all, we have more shared governance than any other college in the whole world," Tseng said. Tseng mentioned the fact that both West Valley and Mission had shared-governance councils.

Tseng also called the idea that the district is top-heavy with administrators nothing more than a rumor.

"We have so few at the district level," she said, adding that it only seems as if new positions have been added since the district has been streamlining its operations.

Tseng chalked up the tense relations between her and the faculties to ongoing salary negotiations.

"We have been at an impasse," Tseng said. "The faculty really feel that we didn't give them enough money. I'd like to give them as much as we can, but we couldn't do a lot. We couldn't give them money that we didn't have."

Teachers are angry over the fact that they have only been given a 1 percent raise, while Tseng's salary has increased by $12,000 since her arrival in 1993, but they insist that salaries are not at the heart of the matter.

"People say we have been in the process of salary negotiations, and it really isn't the salaries. That's a separate issue," Sarlo said. "Teachers don't have confidence in [Tseng]. There have been several people who have left the district that we thought did a good job, and we suspect they have left because of her management style."

Sarlo refused to say if she and the teachers will push for Tseng's resignation at the next board meeting. "I think that's the board's decision," she said. "They have to give us direction. We are just informing them on our feelings and perceptions of the district."

Tseng said she believed the situation could eventually be fixed.

"There are some real frustrations there," she said, "and we are going to work on them."

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