The above quote is from Dr. Shirley Holloway, Board President of Sheldon Jackson College, taken from the September 10th Daily Sitka Sentinel. It's perhaps an expected moment, yet still hits hard for me. It's hard to imagine that just months ago many of us were preparing for a new semester.
The article also stated that food service will cease operations in November, once the contract with the safety academy ends, and Hames and the Childcare Center will close October 10th if new management isn't found. In addition, the article confirmed what I'd heard earlier: staff was reduced from 35 to six. Those remaining are President Dobler, his assistant Christina Gillenwater, Jim Sharpe, CFO, Debby Pucket, Account Manager, and Hatchery folks Dan Goodness and James Shewmake. The school will hire a property management firm to maintain the physical plant.
Here's what's troubling: The additional layoffs were part of an agreement with Alaska Growth Capital, in order to preserve the school's assets. What does this mean? My guess is that Alaska Growth said, "If don't want us to call in the loan, quit running up huge debt." I can't be sure, since this part of the Trustees' meeting was closed to the public.
More troubling still is the news that the College is $11 million in debt, not $6 million as reported by the College in the June 29th announcement of suspended operations. Where did this additional $5 million come from in just over 60 days?
The most troubling news of all: Board President Holloway stated the following: "the board of trustees will oversee the liquidation of as much property as is necessary to give us the time to establish programs here on the campus meet those needs (marine biology, teacher training, hospitality) while being financially sustainable."
This is unacceptable to me. As a 501c(3) non profit organization, the law requires the College's assets be transfered to another non profit or to the state if the organization were to dissolve. Dissolution of Sheldon Jackson College today would still require the loss of $11 million in assets (1/3 of all assets), with no guarantee that the College will finally find success or financial stability. The Board of Trustees has not met its fiduciary responsibiliies, there is no reason to believe that a massive liquidation of property will solve anything; in fact it suggests the opposite.
And what will become of the land and property sold? What was once Sheldon Jackson College is at grave risk of being squandered away by a Board of Trustees seemingly unaware of its own limitations. It's time for a change.
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23 comments:
I must say that this unforgiveable! How could Shirley Holloway, a high ranking Education person for our Great State of Alaska, allow this to happen? Get rid of this Board of Directors and let some other people, that care about SJ, do what needs to be done to Save Face. Sheldon Jackson must be rolling over in his grave, wondering How this Happened. I'm a shamed of what this board has done to us, and the City of Sitka.
Well!
What a farce.
I could say I saw it coming, but that doesn’t really help the situation.
Maybe it is time for Sheldon Jackson College to loose its name and be reborn as a true tribal College. After more then 100 hundred years of bringing western civilization to Alaskan Natives ( don’t let them talk their language, cut their hair off, and put curfews on endangered native freshmen) it might be time that “the college” changes its curriculum teach native culture and science under native rule (not under rule of middle aged, Caucasian males that always know what is best for natives).
Maybe the regional native corporations and other Alaskan native organizations could run the school as “Alaskan Native College”.
Why do I think it is important to learn traditional native knowledge and science?
- Once we run out of fossil fuel, we better know how to build our own kayaks and canoes
- I believe that capitalism and western imperialism (together with drug “Christian churches” which makes these overcome social systems digestible) are on their way out since they strongly rely on exploitation of people and natural resources. People are getting smarter and natural resources are getting diminished.
- Learning about more holistic and sustainable forms of living – like they are still practiced in the Alaskan native communities, can offer an alternative.
Question remains:
Who is paying the bill (11 million)?
Let the “owners” of the college pay half and sell it for the rest to a native consortium (if there is interest in that).
Just my ideas.
It would be interesting to know what the Presbyterian Church USA has to say about this action. A lot of money is being held by the Presbyterian Foundation with income going to SJC as beneficiary of trust accounts. This is to continue as long as SJC is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. Seems to me that there is a defacto separation by the recent action and statements made by the Board President. The school's mission statement has been negated.
I just got out of a class at UAS, in theater history where I'm repeating course work put forth last year to me by Dr. Allison. I was presented with a printout of Bryner's blog, by a fellow SJ student, Brandy Hebert.
I assure you that this is not taken lightly within the field of the students who were disposed of by the Board. I'm continually fielding phone calls and IM's from my SJ friends, the majority of whom wanted SJ back.
What we're most angry about is that we believe that had we had an opportunity to present our ideas to the board about how to run the school, and what changes we wanted to see, in a TIMELY manner, this whole situation could have been avoided.
We feel that we've been cheated by this, but in such a manner as there is zero recourse. We not only lost our school, but for many of us, we lost the only place where we fit in with our peers, and felt safe. There are many of us whose entire lifestyles and support systems, emotional, physical, and psychological, were ripped out of our hands by the original decision to close, but we held onto the optimistic hope of our professors, Tom Pennington, Dr. Cote, and others, that SJ would re-open and we would be able to return.
Many of us entered this semester with the idea that we were just being exchange students for a year. Now, we are homeless, for SJ is our home.
A big no vote on the Tribal college, lets finishing bankrupting our regional corporations first.
Obviously you haven't been to a soon to be empty village, where the young leave never to return and the bootlegger is the only one employed.
Maybe the local ANB could run it or the mayor of Angoon,(the paper says he's available).
Nothing personal just my 2 cents.
Dont forget we have Native reps on the board ,ever call one?
As for the current Board, who can fire them?
Why haven't you developed a Tribal college till now on native land? Why are you waiting for SJ to fail to have this brilliant idea, you are a victim and only want someone to blame. If you are fired up to do something about a tribal college you would have done something by now, you are a victim and happier to be succesful at that. Its what you are good at after so much practice. Are you going to wait another hundred years to let the old caucasian dudes tromp on you or are you going to step up,
but no i think you'll wait for the "college" to makes the "changes".
No one is stopping you from speaking your language now. Get started and good luck!
Regarding the above comments...
I will not remove comments from this site casually, because I value personal expression. However, I'd remind the person making those comments, and remind everyone for that matter that the point of this blog is to address the issues facing SJC and those associated with it.
remove at writers request
I thought I would get a rise out of some one with my comment.
I worked at SJ for almost two years for the National Science Foundation to bring more native students into STEM degrees.
During that time I had the chance to work with some really bright kids from very remote villages all over Alaska.
The goal of the program was to find an alternative way to bring native lifestyle and culture together with western science and technology.
These tools can be used by students to go back to their villages and be successful in jobs that outsiders hold or are contracted to companies from the lower 48.
The NSF funds these TCUP grants, not only for PR reasons, they are interested in the richness of perspectives that native people bring to science.
During my time with SJ I learned that several native educators from South-East-Alaska had tried to convert the college into a tribal college, several years back.
The same board of trustees that is now selling the college of in pieces did not give those educators a chance back than.
I can not but think that the situation would look brighter now if SJ indeed was a tribal college.
As for the remark on the financial situation of the regional corporation: I seem to remember an article in the local newspaper (in Sitka) which stated that all of the corporation where making profit last year.
It is to bad that SJ lost the TCUP grant in this downfall. The Tribal Colleges and University program could have moved the college in the right direction -- the board and the administration did see that -- the grant was seen as a pot of money to keep SJ a float not to change SJ.
Oh by the way "anonymous":
I was always able to speak my language. I am German
Haben sie einen schoenen Tag.
Bryner,
Can you post the article associated with this post?-at least the relevant parts from the Sitka Sentinel?
The Tribal College idea would work. I think it would be a perfect place for Natives and low income Whites to learn and grow. However, I think it should have more of a trade focus, rather than the Liberal Arts.
Much appreciated.
Wow, that was pretty funny Mell.
You always have been a great guy.
I can't believe you just got attacked . . . for being a lazy native??
Too funny.
Chris: You may recall interviewing me about a week before SJC suspended operations. IMO, the search committee was not very forthcoming when I asked specifically how SJC was financially nor how you expected to put SCJ on financial solid ground. However, I have, subsequently, corresponded (one way) with both Dr Dobler and Mr Sharpe. My perception of SJC's problems and solutions are quite at odds with several of your preceding commenters. Here's what I wrote to Dr Dobler and Mr Sharpe:
Dear Dr Dobler/Mr Sharpe:
I keep the both of you and the situation at SJC in my prayers. I trust that the path forward is becoming clearer each day. I would like to share with you some basic thoughts on a possible path, one that I would be very interested in helping with. As I indicated in my 3 July email, I would be very interested in being part of the rebuilding effort of a Christian college.
I believe that we need to publicly recognize that SJC has strayed from its Christian roots and then to rally support of the Board and the community to recommit to those Christian roots by:
a. Creating a public, board-approved institutional mission or purpose statement that is Christ-centered and rooted in the historic Christian faith
b. Ensuring curricular and extra-curricular programs reflect the integration of scholarship, biblical faith and service.
c. Hiring as full-time faculty members and administrators only persons who profess faith in Jesus Christ.
These steps would open the door for SJC to join the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities (www.cccu.org ). By doing so, SJC would be able to call upon CCCU resources. I am thinking here primarily of member institution faculty and staff who could be recruited to serve at SJC while on sabbatical from their institution. It would also open hearts of retirees, missionaries and others to respond to the call to help SJC recommit to its Christian heritage.
Initially I would recruit, beyond the present admin/staff, only committed Christian volunteers to fill out the faculty and staff of SJC. Food and housing would need to be provided, but the costs would be minimal if no salaries were paid. I would envision these volunteers coming from four basic sources: CCCU Sabbaticals (primarily faculty), Retirees (professional staff/faculty), Missionaries (for faculty and staff), and VIMs (where needed). The volunteers would be asked to commit to a period of from one to five academic years.
Classes would be offered for and students would be recruited for one year at a time (freshmen for Fall 08, Freshmen and Sophomores for Fall 09, etc) until the college was built back up to a four year institution. Excess funds (from salary savings) would be used to pay down the debt. As income becomes stable, volunteers would be transitioned to or replaced by paid staff and faculty.
For effectiveness and to save monies, the Student Development Model should be exchanged for the Hillsdale College model (ie Student Development would consist of Dean of Men, Dean of Women, Housing manager, and house parents(missionaries?)...counseling/in loco parentis provided by faculty/staff mentoring).
Clearly, an institution of 300 students (actually any school under 600 students FTE) must rely upon significant outside resources...it can never be self-sustaining. Significant effort must be extended to obtain those resources. Chair endowment (of all faculty and administration positions) would lessen the pressure on the O&M Budget and should be a priority if we are to keep costs low for future students. Student, parents of students and alumni understanding of the fact that others gave sacrificially so that they might attend should engender the attitude that they have a moral obligation to give so that others might have the same opportunity that they received.
If the preceding is along the lines that you are considering, I would be happy to “flesh-out” the ideas that I have expressed. I get excited about opportunities to advance the Kingdom, so I will apologize in advance if I have overstepped my bounds in presenting this to you. I would love to keep the dialog going.
Your servant in Christ, John
That’s just a great idea. Only hiring people who will sign a piece of paper that says they are Christians. It is obvious that the pagans ran Sheldon Jackson College into the ground. We all know that people who claim to be Christians never lie, fire people without notice, take pregnant women’s health insurance away, and put families with children out of their homes.
For justagirl:
Please let me clarify...
By dedicated Christian, I mean people who have trusted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. These people have a personal relationship with Christ and live out that relationship in their work, their families, their communities and their daily lives. I am not talking about religous people, I am not talking about church membership. I am sorry that your experience has been with counterfits. Unfortunately, that seems to be the majority in the mainstream churches today.
My letter was a call to the SJC leadership for confession and repentance for straying so far from the Christian roots that established SJC.
I hope this helps clarify what I meant. John
John, what were you applying to do on the campus?
I'm about as heathen as they get, and I still think John is right. The school failed for a myriad of reasons, but one was a total lack of focus.
I loved SJ as it was, and I liked being accepted as myself, but I knew it couldn't remain a small college without a focus. The school needs a directions, and honestly I think it's a horrible place for a native college. The history of hatred and oppression just doesn't set the right mood.
But, good luck to anyone trying to get those idiots to change the mission statement.
God save us and God save the school from people who think that magic words are the solution to everyone's problems. Let me ask who showed the love, care, and acceptance of students at the college, the ones who spouted magic words or the ones who actually lived lives of love. It isn't the words ("by their fruits you shall know them").
Sitkan:
I speak not magic words. I really do know what I'm talking about. Perhaps my 3 July email to Dr Dobler may shed some light.
Dear Dr Dobler:
First, let me express my profound sadness in learning of your decision to suspend operations at Sheldon Jackson College for the upcoming school year. I know that the decision was not lightly taken because of its horrendous immediate impact on the students, staff and faculty of SJC as well as the long term effect on the viability of the institution.
Second, I am sorry that I was not afforded the opportunity to interview directly with you and with Mr Sharpe. I would have given you my candid appraisal of Sheldon Jackson as well as what part I would be willing to play in getting the institution back on its feet.
Finally, I encourage you to use this time to consider a "success story" of a sister PCUSA institution that faced a similar bleak future in 1986: Belhaven College in Jackson. MS. The VP of students relayed this story to me. Dr Newton Wilson became president in 1986. The college enrollment had dwindled to near 400 students and the college had become financially nonviable. After assessing the situation, Dr Wilson went to the board and to the faculty and staff with this message: Belhaven came into the world as a Christian college and if God chooses to close us, we will leave this world as a Christian college. We have strayed from our Christian mission. If you are not a committed Christian, you need to resign from the college. Over half the faculty, staff and Board resigned. God immediately honored that decision and Belhaven has thrived from that point to the present. Will God do the same for SJC? I don't know, but it was very obvious during my visit that SJC has strayed far from its Christian beginnings. Personally, I would love to be part of the rebuilding effort of a Christian College.
I remain...your servant in Christ, John
John R Garrison
For Anonymous: I was applying for the Dir of Fin Aid position. My background also includes: Dir of Physical Plant, Pyschology Instructor, Career Counselor, and Personal Counselor at colleges, HS Guidance Counselor at a Vo-Tech HS and 20 years military (twice in command positions (think student services)). I saw that SJC needed personnel that could function in more than one roll (unlike most high ed institutions that insist on only one "hat" be worn by its faculty and staff) and was looking forward to contributing in more than one area.
After getting bashed for mentioning the idea of a Native College and seeing the conservative Christian fraction taking over like so often at SJ.
I say good bye
To sad to see SJ drifting off into medieval world views.
I believe that others wanted to make or see SJC become a conservative Reformed/Presbyterian institution.
If this would have brought in leaders who could have saved the college--I have no problem with that. I mean small colleges need to have special themes or indentifying specialities or they just don't survive. My problem is I saw Christianity being explemplified by more progressive Christians and non-Christians--than conservative believers at SJC.
A siege-mentality would not have worked. I think people like Chris, Duna, Jan, and others really showed their Christianity by their actions. I appreciated the support for the GSA and for diversity. I remember those experiences fondly. SJC was truly a unique college.
Thanks
I was raised in the Presbyterian Church, as many of my fellow students know. For years I sought to throw off the title of "Pastor Rick's Daughter", but as I've matured I've come to realize that the Church's stances on certain things, more along moral issues regarding life and personal safety do make sense to have in such a small school, but some other more archaic things needed to be done away with, and were in the process of being removed.
I've come to believe that the old rules of a lot of denominations need to be done away with, because of the culture that we live in. I'd like to see SJ re-open pretty much as it was last year, but with a clear concise vision as to what students can expect from their time at SJ, as well as an organized plan for building up in the future.
There are many things that students can do to put more into the school, and in turn get more out of the school, but I've yet to hear any voices on these ideas, except for from other students. Some of my ideas, and some other people's ideas will be posted on my blog on my Myspace page.
Does Sitkans really want SJ to open again?
I'll almost agree with one thing that "anonymous" said, though in a perverse way. Sealaska and Shee Atika and a number of other SE ANCSA corporations are far from bankrupt when it comes to the growth of their financial resources and the extent to which their Boards have fulfilled their perceived fiduciary responsibilities. But I would say that there's a certain degree of bankruptcy when it comes to investments in the social fabric of the communities in which shareholders live, or at least the communities that are the ancestral home of the Native peoples whose familes are now scattered around the U.S.
I can hardly blame the Boards of Directors for doing what most corporations feel they must do - maximize profits and distribute some percentage of earned wealth to shareholders. So, the more I think about it the more I believe that the bankruptcy is one of imagination, leadership and will.
Clearly the status quo has not led to significant positive input into the communities where shareholders live. One model that may make sense for Boards to consider is that developed by the Clinton Foundation. In a nutshell it proposes that corporate and governmental forces can be marshalled to solve problems without harm to the bottom line, so long as leaders have the will and imagination to think of solutions together.
In other words, if the ANCSA corporate and tribal government leaders of Southeast got together and organized themselves to solve the educational problems faced by Native people, they could succeed, and without hurting their bottom lines.
One solution is a tribal college. There are resources available from federal agencies - as authorized by acts of Congress. Their are private resources available as part of a consortium of tribal colleges. The corporations and tribes have additional resources. And Clinton and his partners learned early on in the fight to solve the AIDS problem in Africa; the solution isn't simply money, it is organization and efficiency as well.
So should Sheldon Jackson College be re-organized as a tribal college? Yes, if the Native leadership of SE Alaska have the will and the imagination. If not, then no... it won't happen no matter how hard anyone tries to make it so. The effort must be comprehensive, powerful, and immediate.
Do I think it will happen? Well, I've been in Sitka two months now and will remain one more. So far a few people have come up to me and asked me why not organize SJC as a tribal college. My answer has been that I have moved on to other issues and I'm waiting for other leaders to step-up.
Will they? I don't think so... Will I? Not sure... I have used so much of my energy, emotion, money and will over the years I'm not sure I have enough left in the tank. I will, however, organize a meeting to at least see if folks will talk about the possibilities.
Stay tuned for location, date and time of that meeting. I expect it will be mid month in Sitka.
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