Columbia College employees received an email recently from Dr. Kim, praising us for “delivering a vibrant educational experience for our students” during “very challenging and stressful times,” and announcing that the Office of the President had chosen to award a bonus to members of the faculty and staff.

Dr. Kim’s gratitude doesn’t extend far, however, as his bonus is only for non-union workers:

“As part of recognizing these efforts, the college is issuing a one-time discretionary bonus to full-time faculty and non-union full-time and non-union part-time staff, which will be included in their February 28 paycheck. This bonus covers only non-union employees (unionized employee compensation is determined through a collective bargaining process).”

Dr. Kim didn’t invent the idea of pandemic bonuses — he’s following well-worn paths laid out by other institutions. Schools around the country recently issued bonuses to their employees for the same reason (Michigan State, the University of Michigan, Purdue, Dartmouth, Duke, Florida State, and Cornell College in Iowa, to name a few).

Where Dr. Kim’s message differs is in its anti-union animus. Many of the institutions listed above have unions and still managed to offer a bonus to all employees, union and non-union. Unions represent roughly half of the workers at Columbia College. Nothing in our contract limits the administration’s ability to issue a bonus to us.

Once again, Dr. Kim and his administration stand alone among their peers in their unnecessary hostility towards union employees. Sadly, Dr. Kim’s choice to exclude union workers from his discretionary bonus is part of a long line of administrative aggression directed towards the faculty and staff of our school.

When the pandemic began, we had to fight to secure basic protections other institutions treated as a given, such as allowing teachers the ability to opt out of in-person instruction if they felt it would jeopardize their health. We’ve seen this administration attempt to bar parents from bringing their own children with them to school. We’ve witnessed as faculty-created content is illegally downloaded from online courses in direct violation of intellectual property rights. And we sounded the alarm when Dr. Kim attempted to use a college-wide antiracism taskforce — of all things — as a power grab to wrench protected decision-making capacity away from the union for their own gain. Our members have been dismissed, intimidated, and even publicly ridiculed by high-ranking members of Dr. Kim’s administration.

Dr. Kim’s message may be out of step with his peers, but these aggressions have become commonplace at Columbia College. We demand Dr. Kim reward all employees for their work, bargain with our union, and offer the same bonus to unionized Columbia College faculty and staff.

If he chooses to decline, it will serve as more undeniable evidence of the hostility Dr. Kim and his administration have for our efforts and as a reminder to all faculty and staff—union or otherwise—of the need for even more collective action to protect ourselves. 

In solidarity,

Columbia Faculty Union Steering Committee, CFAC
Diana Vallera, CFAC President, Photography
Lisa Formosa-Parmigiano, CFAC Vice President, CTVA 
Deb Doetzer, CFAC Secretary, Communications 
Susan Van Veen, CFAC Treasurer, Business
Magica Bottari, Membership Chair, Theatre
Clara Fitzpatrick, Negotiations Chair, HHSS