NIC trustees tackle tenure issue

COEUR d'ALENE - It took a series of board maneuvers to straighten it out, but in the end the North Idaho College Trustees, the taxpayers and the NIC faculty will have an opportunity to fully vet the issues of tenure and sabbaticals at the community college.

The issue of NIC sponsoring a public forum to discuss the pros and cons of tenure for college faculty and how the sabbatical process works became controversial last week when it was discovered that the idea for the forum was hatched in violation of Idaho's open meeting laws.

"I've been doing this for a long time, and I will readily admit that lawyers make mistakes," said Marc Lyons, legal counsel for the board of trustees. "This was indeed a technical violation of the open meeting law, and I take full responsibility for that."

During a regular trustees' meeting on Wednesday, Lyons explained how three board members met on April 6 in executive session to discuss specific personnel issues related to tenure and sabbaticals. After that session, the three trustees opened a public meeting of the board and decided to hold a public forum to discuss whether NIC should be granting tenure or sabbaticals to specific faculty.

The issue of the forum was discussed and decided on without legally notifying the public that a decision would be made on the subject.

Board Chairman Ken Howard said, in light of the situation, he would entertain a motion to render that decision null and void in an effort to remedy the legal violation.

"There is indeed a penalty for the violation. It is $50," Howard said. "I would encourage the board to acknowledge it is void and move forward, so Mr. Lyons doesn't have to pay the $50."

Howard went on to say that if the board votes to nullify the illegal action, he would entertain a new motion to hold an open public forum on tenure.

"I made the (original) motion to hold the forum, and I stand by that," said Trustee Ron Nilson, adding he is a proponent of discussing these issues in full public view, but said there never was any ill intent by any of the trustees to decide on the forum behind closed doors. "We need to rectify that."

The board unanimously voted to rescind the original motion, and a new motion to reinstate the original motion was made.

During the discussion of the reinstatement, Trustee Christie Wood argued that, as policy makers, the board should hold a workshop to learn about the policies and procedures of tenure and sabbaticals before bringing the issues forward for public input.

She successfully won a vote to change the public forum into a board workshop, but Nilson came back with an amendment to add the public forum back in after the board workshop. That motion passed as well, but it didn't pass unanimously.

"I have a furrowed brow because I believe that (policy making) is what we are elected to do," she said, before voting against the public forum.

Wood also voted against the public forum, saying "Let's just get through this workshop and decide where we want to go from there."

Howard cast the deciding vote to approve the public forum, and then offered an amendment of his own.

"I think it is healthy to discuss this in public," Howard said, explaining that tenure is used by colleges and universities all over the country for various reasons, and as such, the public has many different perceptions of what it is.

He wanted to ensure that if the board was going to discuss the issues, then the board should also have a discussion of how the college would deal with "employment security" if NIC decided to do away with the tenure system.

"If we don't have tenure, what would it be then?" he asked.

The trustees agreed unanimously to add that discussion to the forum as well.

In the end, the board approved a motion to first hold a board workshop to educate the trustees on tenure and sabbaticals, and follow that up with a public forum to educate taxpayers on the issues, and to discuss alternatives to employment security in the event that it is decided that tenure was not the best fit for NIC.

"Well now, it looks like we just saved you 50 bucks," Howard quipped, addressing his comment to Lyons.

Trustee Todd Banducci asked to say a few words after the motion passed.

"I would just like to encourage the public to limit their public discourse on issues like this, especially without having all the information," he said, explaining how some of the comments he made on the meeting were criticized by some community members who did not have all of the facts.

"Please restrain yourself and get the facts before you pass judgment," he added.