Thread by @ssteingraber1

I admit: this news—long-predicted by @IthacaCollege faculty—has been retraumatizing for me. When I realized last summer that my workplace had become dehumanizing, I did so as a single mom…
google.com/amp/s/amp.itha…

…putting two kids through college by myself. As a cancer survivor whose academic job provides health insurance for us all.

I did land in a better place, but so many of my colleagues—who lost jobs and insurance policies in the middle of a pandemic—have not.

So now I keep recalling the axiomatic words we heard repeatedly last summer in an endless series of webinars: “The college must align the the size of the faculty in RIGHT PROPORTION. As if such a metric was doctrine, a fixed unassailable mark and not a value judgement. Not cruel.

And all of our smart professorial questions—why now? How did you arrive at these numbers? Can you show us your work? What are the alternatives to throwing 116 faculty off the boat?—went unanswered.

google.com/amp/s/cnycentr…

And it’s just keeps happening. This week I learned that the college archivist has been axed— along with our amazing campus sustainability coordinator. (Really IC?)

These are real people. My friends and coworkers. Even though I no longer work there I can’t not care anymore.

So today’s headlines—and the interviews I gave for the stories—bring back all the mounting terror I felt last year. The panic attacks. The hours of paralysis and disbelief. The hours of organizing and protesting. The growing sense of disempowerment.

I’m an environmental scientist. I work in many frontline communities where the human cost of a somebody’s business plan is discounted. But even as a woman in STEM, which can be hostile and unwelcoming, I’ve never witnessed SO MANY academic workers treated like discardable parts.

To bear witness to the execution of the Ithaca College austerity plan is to both see and suffer deep trauma. I’m speaking forthrightly because I know many of my coworkers are are staying silent and keeping their heads down, hoping they can dodge future APP bullets.

IOW, I know that I am not speaking for myself alone here. It’s been my lifelong practice—as a former ward of the state, as a cancer survivor, as a gay woman, as a foe of the oil and gas industry—to say something. To show the lives behind the data. It’s just heartbreaking…

…when it’s your college. Which has always been a mirror and a sanctuary for me.

Finally I want to say clearly that it’s wrong to refer to the president or provost of IC as “outsiders.” That’s not a word we use for white male CEOs and that’s not the problem. So stop.

I wish President Collado all the best in her new job serving historically disadvantaged college students.

For those who remain: we desperately need a commitment to shared governance and labor justice at Ithaca College.

chronicle.com/article/this-c…