Statement to Board of Education from Kenny Ascheri, LCCEF Vice President

Good evening, Board of Education members.

I am Kenny Ascheri, Vice President LCCEF and Software Engineer primarily tasked with supporting our Human Resources department.

First I’d like to thank you for your daily dedication to our college and our community. I appreciate the time and effort that all of you invest into the growth of this institution and its’ wide variety of cultures.

Sue and Sue in 2016 identified microaggressions as brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to a target group, such as people of color; religious minorities; women; people with disabilities; and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals. These exchanges can be verbal, nonverbal, visual, or behavioral in nature and happen automatically and unconsciously.[1] The thing is even the nicest, most well intentioned people can perform microaggressions and can sever a relationship.

I was overjoyed when I found out that BP520 Cultural Competency was up for review at this month’s meeting and also excited to hear the latest status update on the implementation of education by Greg Evans. I’m thankful for the work that Greg and his team have accomplished and I look forward to hearing the update soon.

My ask of you is, please review BP540 – Monitoring President’s Performance and add Cultural Competency, BP520 as soon as possible. In Feb of 2016 the board suggested the addition of BP520 during the first reading but the policy passed unanimously in March without it. **long pause**

I am concerned about our students and employees and I worry that not enough is being done to help each other to understand, empathize, and embrace the cultures of our community.

The second item I’d like to share, and I’m sure Robin will elaborate on later as well, is about ongoing conversations with Administration about opportunities and possible employee reassignments among the entire college, and more specifically the three service departments (Foodservices, Titan Store, and CML). We have been engaged by administration in a labor relations capacity with respect to outsourcing. Also we are collaboratively working together to move some employee labor expenses to other, more appropriate locations which would relieve some of the fiscal responsibility from these service areas.

While we are working together, it is clear to me the reluctance of administration to make changes and to provide the space and support for middle managers to make changes. This small amount of shifting a few employees has taken a great amount of continued pressure from the union. So I wonder, why is administration recommending to adopt a model of outsourcing rather than truly oversee operations?

I think other options to consider are Titan Court and the formerly used but still maintained downtown campus, which is also on the agenda tonight. We are wasting valuable resources and costly labor in areas that don’t have nearly as large of an impact to students.

Thank you for your time.