Three candidates accepted nomination to stand for election to the Bellevue College of Higher Education Executive Council according to an email addressed to the college from BCAHE President Douglas Brown. The nominees have been identified as Philip Benson from the science department and HSEWI, Mary Corcoran from IBiT, and Tobi Rosenberg from arts and humanities. Two of the candidates will be elected to fill the vacant Executive Council positions that are specifically reserved to assure representation of adjunct colleagues. Balloting began on Monday, Dec. 2, 2013.
The currently vacant adjunct positions were left open following the resignations of Tom Gibbons and Paula Sebastian within a week of each other.
Previously, some adjunct faculty have expressed concern that,given the sudden nature of the resignations and the deadline approaching to elect new representatives, there is not enough time to ensure adjuncts received the best possible recognition.
There have been recent concerns over inequality between adjunct, full-time and tenured positions which further highlights the importance of representation for adjuncts on the Executive Council.
Sebastian stated, “[the Executive Council] and the bargaining team are perhaps the only committees on campus that truly have the power to represent adjunct concerns and to work for changes on our behalf.”
Brown stated that BCAHE is the best means to reaching a resolution of the issues surrounding faculty inequalities.