City Colleges faculty demand voice in selection of new chancellor

SHARE City Colleges faculty demand voice in selection of new chancellor
hyman_060816_06_61753831.jpg

City Colleges Chancellor Cheryl Hyman is stepping down from her post in about a year, and faculty want a voice in the selection of her successor. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

City Colleges faculty are demanding an immediate freeze on program closures and consolidations and a “meaningful role” in the appointment of a new chancellor — one with a background in education who will forge a partnership with teachers and students.

Chancellor Cheryl Hyman announced this week that she’s calling it quits after a one-year transition that will give the revamped seven-member board plenty of time to conduct a nationwide search for her replacement.

The board is scheduled to meet Friday to grant that $250,000 extension and get the ball rolling on the search.

Jennifer Alexander, president of a Faculty Council that represents 600 full-time and several thousand part-time teachers, plans to use that opportunity to issue a series of demands.

They include:

  • At least three faculty members on the search committee.
  • A new chancellor with an “education background” who will work toward “shared governance” and understands that Chicago’s seven city colleges are “academic institutions, not a business” and that “students are people, not statistics.”
  • An immediate halt to all “program closures, sunsets and consolidations” until faculty, students and administrators can “fully participate” in decision-making.
  • The appointment of a provost and restoration of the Department of Academic Affairs at the district level that Hyman eliminated.

Four months ago, faculty members took a vote of no-confidence in Hyman. They were alienated by the chancellor’s dictatorial management style, by program consolidations they viewed as callous and by a tuition increase that penalized part-time students who make up the backbone of the system.

The new demands are similarly motivated, Alexander said.

“I don’t know her. None of this is personal. . . . It’s a management style that’s top-down and completely unwilling to even discuss differences of opinion. We can have differences of opinion in higher education. That’s fine. It’s healthy. But our voices are not being heard. The attitude is, ‘Do as we say,’ ” Alexander said.

“In a true model of shared governance, educators and even students and community groups when appropriate are together when decisions are made — not after decisions are made. The current administration has refused to work with us in any meaningful way. Our chancellor has not spoken to us or with us for more than a year.”

Faculty members view it as imperative that Hyman’s replacement be an educator, Alexander said.

“There is a very wrong-headed idea that people from outside education who have never taught can make decisions about teaching and learning and students. We’ve seen from that how big decisions have been made that can hurt educational institutions. We want to stop that before it goes any further,” she said.

Earlier this week, Hyman, 47, made no apologies for her no-nonsense style.

She pointed to the colleges-to-careers makeover that aims to prepare students for jobs in growth industries and to a graduation rate that went from a dismal 7 percent when she arrived on the scene in 2010 to 17 percent today. That’s still short of the national average of 20 percent.

“There’s no way you can achieve the student and operational outcomes that we have achieved without challenging the status-quo. . . . It does not come without push-back. And you shouldn’t be afraid of that . . . When your No. 1 goal is student success, push-back . . . has to be the least of your concerns,” Hyman said.

“Re-invention involved collaborative teams. Everyone had a voice in this. Did everyone agree? No. Everyone did not agree,” she said. “But as a leader, there’s a time to listen and there’s a time to act.”

As for the tuition hike, Hyman noted that it was the first in nearly seven years and that the increase was accompanied by the elimination of 150 fees.

“It penalizes no one. . . . What it does is incentivize our students to make it easier for them to take more classes where it’s not a financial burden so they can get through our system in a more timely manner,” she said, noting that part-time enrollment has increased by 1 percent.

In 2010, Hyman arrived at City Colleges hoping the system’s 100,000 students would be motivated by her captivating personal story.

She’s a former Orr High school dropout who left home to escape drug-addicted parents. She’s a former student at Olive-Harvey College who went on to graduate from the Illinois Institute of Technology and earn master’s degrees from North Park University and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

“I’ve given many students hope. I hear it every day. I have also shown them the road map to my success — that I would let nothing and no one get in the way of achieving what I needed,” she said this week.

“What I want them to remember is my 24-block story from Henry Horner on the West Side to a Fortune 500 company to now chancellor of City Colleges. . . . I want them to know that no circumstance that they’re in today should dictate their destiny. Nothing and no one has to get in their way.”

City Colleges Board Chairman Charles Middleton said Hyman’s “courage and commitment” have been the “driving force behind the doubling of key student outcomes in a very short time.”

As for the search for Hyman’s successor, Middleton would say only, “We will make it a priority to find a new leader dedicated to reinvention and to building on the dramatic successes to date.”

The Latest
With Easter around the corner, chocolate makers and food businesses are feeling the impact of soaring global cocoa prices and it’s also hitting consumers.
Despite getting into foul trouble, which limited him to just six minutes in the second half, Shannon finished with 29 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Cowboy hats, bell-bottoms and boots were on full display Thursday night as fans lined up for the first of his three sold-out shows.
The incident occurred about 3:40 p.m. near Minooka. The horse was successfully placed back into the trailer, and the highway reopened about 40 minutes later. No injuries were reported.