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Letters to the Editor

Dan Smith: Faculty union trying to smear Merced College president, board

The lack of investigative journalism and continued attack pieces on Merced College President Susan Walsh and the Merced College Trustees is appalling. I’m starting my 19th year of teaching at Merced College and have held a variety of leadership positions, including Faculty Senate president and faculty labor negotiator. The current radical MCFA leadership you so happily quote has an agenda.

Our president and the board of trustees are trying to run our campus. They can’t run their mouths freely like your radical sources without violating the law. Workload and time spent with students are recent concerns of the president and board. Many of our current union leadership teach at other colleges. Which makes them unavailable for many classes at our campus. Ask the taxpayers about that.

The union president you love to quote teaches three times a week at CSU Stanislaus. Are the Merced students, faculty or taxpayers getting their best? The vast majority of my colleagues are not unhappy, don’t have agendas and work collaboratively across the campus. If you heard both sides, this same radical leadership would sue for breach of confidentiality. It’s easy to smear reputations, it’s much harder to lead and administer.

Dan Smith, Merced

This story was originally published August 3, 2016 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Dan Smith: Faculty union trying to smear Merced College president, board."

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