Today over 100 students, faculty & staff demonstrated on the lawn of the SIT Graduate Institute (formerly The School for International Training) expressing concerns about the process in which the new strategic plan is being implemented. On campus there is growing concern with the decision-making styles that have been employed by the new administration leading to loss of faculty, programs, participatory leadership and morale.
The demonstration began at 4:30 and lasted until about 6:00pm with students marching in circles around the Administration building and around campus. The demonstration included a morale-boosting song by Bredan Ries, a note from the faculty assembly in support of the creation of a special task force to evaluate the strategic change process AND several inspiring talks by current and former MAT students noting their valuable contributions towards creating peace in our country and abroad.
In the spirit of continuing the educational integrity, traditions and values of the school the students are asking for a task force to be created to monitor and evaluate the past, present and future executive decisions and processes regarding the strategic plan with a firm belief that we can learn and grow as a community from this process. Twenty-one of twenty-seven faculty members (2 abstained, 5 not responded) supported the creation of the task-force in a proposal submitted to the Board of Trustees.
CEO of World Learning Carol Bellamy was present at the demonstration and spoke with students regarding their requests, initial dialogue has occurred with future meetings in the planning. Near the ending of the demonstration Carol Bellamy answered questions publicly and presented limited rationale for the current strategic plan.
Please visit http://www.solidarityintraining.com/ for more information.
Pictures and Videos
http://picasaweb.google.com/SITsolidarity/DemonstrationApril30th2008/
http://www.youtube.com/v/Ucha-KqV7Lk
previous article concerning this issue http://www.ibrattleboro.com/comment.php?mode=view&cid=50719&query=world%20learning