Since voters elected President Donald Trump, citizens across the United States have gathered in the streets, while others have chosen more indirect ways of protesting the policies of the nation’s top elected official — and the instructors at Northern New Mexico College are not any different.
Northern’s Faculty Senate passed a resolution, at its November meeting, declaring the school a sanctuary campus. A sanctuary, in the strictest meaning, signifies an institution’s unwillingness to help federal authorities identify undocumented students.
However, Faculty Senate President David Torres said the resolution is symbolic and doesn’t carry much weight without approval from Northern’s Board of Regents.
“It is a resolution, nothing is official,” he said. “We are trying to protect all the students and we understand there are two sides of the story.”
Torres said he and his colleagues are somewhat concerned that such a designation could have an adverse financial impact on the school. His concerns are probably based on the Jan. 25 executive order the president signed, which ensures “jurisdictions that fail to comply with applicable Federal laws, do not receive federal funds, except as mandated by law.”
While the executive order doesn’t specifically list colleges or universities, Northern is considered a jurisdiction and receives discretionary funds from the federal government.
“We are a little bit worried it could affect pell grants,” Torres said. “We are interested in all students, not just undocumented students. We have to make sure we are not affecting other students. We are just interested in the College’s welfare.”
Northern President Richard Bailey told the Board, at the Jan. 26 meeting, that while he applauds the Faculty Senate for taking a stand, it would be unwise for the Board and the College to follow the Faculty Senate’s lead and declare the school a sanctuary campus. It is too early to determine how such a designation would, or could, impact the school’s ability to renew and secure future federal funding.
“I want to credit the faculty for having a voice,” he said. “I would say institutionally, we are going to be a bit cautious. There is still a little uncertainty as to what, institutionally, declaring ourselves a sanctuary campus might do to our federal funding and to our students’ federal funding and pell grants.”
He said the school’s administration has an obligation to make decisions in the best interest of the student body.
“We want to protect all of our students,” he said. “I think the key is to allow the faculty and anyone on this campus to express their opinions and to support all of our community members, while at the same time, institutionally, we are protecting a very delicate fiscal environment.”
Northern Instructor Tim Crone has been a vocal critic of many decisions the College’s administration has made in recent years, but not this time.
Citing the possible financial uncertainty, Crone said he supports Bailey’s decision to exercise caution before throwing the entire weight of the institution behind the resolution.
“I think it (Bailey’s presidency) is going in the right direction,” Crone said. “I think Bailey shows great promise and I think what he has done, so far, is positive.”
Faculty handbook
The administration’s efforts to draft a new faculty handbook also suffered a setback at the Jan. 26 meeting.
Regent Damian Martinez expressed concerns that the administration’s rush to draft a handbook could create legal troubles for the school.
“I have concerns with the faculty handbook that was presented to us on several levels,” he said. “First, I don’t know what is in the old faculty handbook. Second, it is my understanding that the faculty operates under a Collective Bargaining Agreement and absent of that Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Board can’t really do anything with that faculty handbook without buying a lawsuit.”
Martinez said it is important to review the Collective Bargaining Agreement ahead of drafting the faculty handbook because the Agreement takes precedent over any policy outlined in the handbook.
“If we agree to something that violates the Collective Bargaining, this school is going to get sued,” Martinez said.
He said the Board and faculty representatives should have had a couple of work sessions to go over the document “line by line” and ask questions before it was presented for Board approval.
It’s an idea seconded by Northern’s attorney Tony Ortiz of Santa Fe’s Ortiz and Zamora law firm.
“I am concerned the Board is headed down a path that puts the cart before the horse,” Ortiz said. “Essentially, what you need to be doing is asking, ‘What do our CBA provide to the faculty, in terms of rights under collective bargaining?’”
Sanchez said he and Provost Ivan Lopez-Hurtado have reviewed the process and were prepared to sit down with Ortiz to make sure the document doesn’t expose Northern to any legal violations.
Lopez-Hurtado said they presented the incomplete faculty handbook to the Board so they could see what was being drafted and approve what was done, to advance the project.
He said it’s needed because it shows the school’s instructors that their needs aren’t being ignored.
“This document has become a morale issue,” Lopez-Hurtado said. “It has been five years since we tried to move a similar document forward and basically, it never came to the Board.”
He said the staff is concerned because it has been some time since many of them had salary increases.
“In a time, after eight years, where faculty haven’t got a raise, it has become a morality issue that they haven’t been heard by a prior administration,” Lopez-Hurtado said.