Tuesday letters: Pick City Colleges leader with faculty input

SHARE Tuesday letters: Pick City Colleges leader with faculty input
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City Colleges faculty want a voice in picking a successor for Chancellor Cheryl Hyman, who is stepping down in about a year. Sun-Times photo by Ashlee Rezin.

From my unique perspective as both a faculty member and an administrator during my 33 years in the City Colleges system, I unequivocally support Faculty Council President Jennifer Alexander’s articulation of the need for faculty to be heard and involved in the selection of a new chancellor with a background in education (“City Colleges faculty want voice in picking new chancellor” — June 10).

Throughout its history, the City Colleges, which is an academic entity, has been run by the mayor of Chicago as a political entity. This is the system’s tragic flaw.

The faculty of educational institutions is the foundation and backbone of the process of educating. That Chicago’s mayor has continued to appoint the board and dictate to the system’s chancellor has undermined the role and purpose of academics and in this sense, has created a broken political organization that has lost its educational mission. That the Department of Academic Affairs has been eliminated at the district level is not only unbelievable but also unconscionable.

It is time that the citizens of Chicago backed its City Colleges faculty whose voice is the last call for help in keeping the mission of the City Colleges community based and focused in serving  young adults who are Chicago’s future.

Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow, distinguished professor emeritus, Wright College and founding general manager, WYCC-TV/PBS Ch. 20

SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes.

Rooting for Rauner

People like former Gov. Jim Edgar made Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Don’t follow this guy’s advice (“Ex-Gov. Edgar: Civility, compromise, compassion keys to fix mess — June 7). Stay the course and on the platform that got you elected, Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Bob Foley, Kenilworth

The real facts on lake water and shipping pollution

Recently, several articles, editorials and letters have perpetuated exaggerations and inaccuracies about the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA). We believe the public deserves the rest of the story.

VIDA consolidates vessel ballast water regulatory authority under the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), confirms the current USCG ballast water regulations, and provides for a periodic process to upgrade the USCG ballast water discharge standard (BWDS) with input from states and the EPA.

Some VIDA opponents claim it eliminates current requirements that vessels treat their ballast water, inferring that only judicial enforcement of the Clean Water Act (CWA) drives this requirement. Others claim this consolidation would make the Great Lakes vulnerable to more aquatic non-native species (ANS). Most cite the Lakes’ experience with zebra mussels as an example of what will happen. We agree that ANS introduced into the Lakes years ago caused harm, but the rest is hype.

What they do not say is that Lakes ANS were all introduced before 2006, when the USCG, under a separate authority than the CWA, began requiring vessels entering the Lakes from outside U.S. waters to exchange their ballast water with ocean water. Since then, no new ballast water-borne ANS were introduced into the Lakes, despite thousands of foreign vessels entering the Lakes since then.

These articles, editorials and letters claim the USCG’s rules for treating vessel ballast water are too weak, but they are just beginning to be implemented so their effectiveness cannot yet be fairly assessed. Also, ballast water treatment is in addition to the Lakes’ already highly effective ballast water exchange requirement. Equally important, the USCG and the EPA independently determined that the technology doesn’t yet exist to meet a more stringent BWDS. VIDA opponents also claim VIDA would freeze the current USCG discharge standard. This is a wild exaggeration of VIDA’s process for reviewing and improving the USCG BWDS. Also, contrary to some statements, the USCG has far greater experience regulating vessel discharges and inspecting vessels than the EPA or the states.

Some VIDA opponents claim it’s exemption from ballast water treatment for vessels serving only Lakes ports (“lakers”) will spread ANS among these ports. However, current EPA and USCG regulations already exempt lakers from ballast water treatment and instead require extensive best ballast water management practices. Since the USCG began requiring mid-ocean exchange for other vessels, lakers have discharged approximately 66 billion gallons of ballast water from the lower Lakes into Lake Superior waters. According to the EPA, U.S. Geological Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, no ANS have been moved anywhere in the Lakes by lakers. Clearly, lakers are not the problem.

Why is there opposition to VIDA? Some groups focused on general environmental goals see lawsuits against Federal, state, and private entities as their preferred mechanism of change and confuse competing and conflicting regulations with progress. However, laker operators were one of the first groups to sound the alarm on ANS. In 1993 we instituted our own best management practices to prevent ANS inter-lake movement. Laker operators work with government agencies, universities, research institutions, and environmental and engineering experts to move the state of science and technology forward. The Federal government is establishing ballast water management technological standards, inspection and monitoring criteria, and enforcement capabilities. We see few signs that VIDA opponents are working equally as hard for solutions that really work.

CWA was specifically designed for fixed industrial facilities handling substances such as industrial wastes, sewage, and garbage, not the Lake water used as ballast by lakers. Commercial aircraft and trains do not have to meet varying equipment requirements for each state they serve or pass through; they meet nationwide Federal standards. Applying the same approach to vessels will not have a disastrous effect on the health of the Lakes; it will just reduce conflicting and redundant regulations that cost good-paying jobs and increase consumer prices.

VIDA is well-reasoned, common sense legislation, and it will result in significant new protection against ANS threats. VIDA keeps the gate closed to aquatic non-native species and gives the Coast Guard, the agency who closed the gate, primary responsibility as our national invasive species gatekeeper.

Steve Fisher

Executive Director

American Great Lakes Ports Association

Tom Curelli

President

Great Lakes Maritime Task Force

Jim Weakley

President

Lake Carriers’ Association

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