CCRI senate voices dissatisfaction with president over observatory

By Mary Grady and John Howell
Posted 6/22/17

By MARY GRADY and JOHN HOWELL A dispute over management of public observatory nights at the Community College of Rhode Island Knight Campus in Warwick has brought to a head conflicts between the student body and the administration, leading to the Student

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CCRI senate voices dissatisfaction with president over observatory

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A dispute over management of public observatory nights at the Community College of Rhode Island Knight Campus in Warwick has brought to a head conflicts between the student body and the administration, leading to the Student Senate’s call for an emergency meeting last week on campus. The meeting, held on Wednesday afternoon, June 14 resulted in votes to censure and express “no confidence” in President Meghan Hughes and Vice President of Academic Affairs Rosemary Costigan.

In a statement issued Monday, the college administration said, “We are concerned that our students have chosen this method to object to issues that have no basis in fact. When the resolutions were received, CCRI President Meghan Hughes and Vice President Rosemary Costigan immediately contacted the president of the Knight Student Government to understand the basis of the students’ concerns and the root of this misinformation.”

That’s not how students see it.

“The observatory issue was pretty much the straw that broke the camel’s back,” student body president Charles Meserve told the Beacon. “The Meghan Hughes administration has had a history of ignoring students, and faculty for that matter. The observatory was a catalyst that prompted that move.” Calling a student senate meeting during the summer is very unusual, Meserve said. The meeting drew about two-dozen students.  

Student Senator Kacie Hyland introduced a Senate resolution expressing support for the continuation of public open nights at the Margaret Jacoby Observatory and also expressing opposition to the administration’s actions to replace Professor Brendan Britton as the observatory’s operator. During discussion, the students said Professor Britton had been told his compensation for running the observatory would be reduced, and after he sought advice from the faculty union the administration closed the observatory and then replaced him with a professor from the Lincoln campus, whose specialty is physics, not astronomy. Britton has managed the observatory for 10 years, and “his passion has ignited the drive in students to learn more about Astronomy, in many cases leading to students’ decisions to change their majors to astronomy,” according to one of the resolutions.

In its statement, the college administration said there are no plans to close the observatory and that more than $45,000 in renovations have been completed “to modernize the observatory space for our students and the many community members who enjoy our open observation nights.”

The statement goes on to say that Associate Professor Britton remains employed by the college and will continue to oversee the operation of the observatory for classes and public outreach.

“Another faculty member in our Physics Department will host our weekly observation nights on Wednesdays throughout the summer, weather permitting. We invite the community to join us at our open observatory nights and will kick off the season at an open house event for the community from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 8.”

Students rallied to support Professor Britton, and also to express their overall dissatisfaction about their relationship with the administration. Hyland’s resolution passed unanimously. After some discussion about student interactions with administrators, the Senate then voted to censure and express “no confidence” in Hughes and Costigan. “To ‘censure’ means we’re formally disagreeing…and expressing that we’re very unhappy with her actions,” Meserve told the Senate. All four “censure’” and “no confidence” measures passed with majority votes, several abstentions, and zero “nays.”  

Meserve said student senate meetings are open to the public and administrators are welcome but they don’t come. Since Hughes took office last year, administrators have been generally inaccessible to students, he said.

“When they make decisions, they aren’t looking at the interests of the student body,” he said.

During the meeting, students discussed several examples of what they considered “frivolous” spending by the administration and were dismayed that they would then cut the compensation of a long-time faculty member.

“The no-confidence vote was for all the behavior exhibited since [Hughes] has been president,” not just over the observatory issue, Meserve said.

The administrators and student leaders were scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon.

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  • RISchadenfreude

    No wonder Hughes tells us that everything is just peachy and "no problems" at CCRI- she doesn't listen to anyone.

    Like Cpt. Smith of the Titanic..."No need to panic...just stopping to take on a little ice!".

    Tuesday, June 27, 2017 Report this