DATE: June 10, 2013 TO: White Earth Tribal Council Members FROM: Jasmin Larson and Dianne Kier, Save Our School Protest Coordinators RE: WETCC Boycott and Petition We are formally requesting that you take needed action in removing WETCC President, Dr. Vince Pellegrino, Academic Dean, Ann Brummel and Council of Trustees’ Chair, Betsy McDougall immediately, and that you reinstate fired faculty and staff. We have officially organized a reservation-wide boycott – asking current and new students to withdraw from WETCC. We are also gathering signatures in support of our demands to remove WETCC administration. We will present our petition to the Tribal Council and again, formally request that the Council remove Pellegrino, Brummel, McDougall and re-hire our faculty and staff that Pellegrino fired. Our reasons for our boycott and petition are as follows: 1. Dr. Pellegrino was recruited by Betsy McDougall on the basis of a close association with Brummel. No qualified Native and non-Native faculty applicants were interviewed for the position of president. No faculty, staff, students and community were involved in the hiring process of Pellegrino. This is a major violation of WETCC Policies. 2. Out of retaliation for speaking up against administration’s failure to adhere to WETCC policies and procedures, and for questioning Brummel’s job performance as Academic Dean, faculty and staff were fired. 3. Dr. Pellegrino violated WETCC Personnel Policies by not informing faculty about contract renewals. Pellegrino fired all Native faculty and nearly all Native staff without explanation or due process. Furthermore, he has publically slandered faculty. His slanderous remarks are caught on video by Dianne Kier. 4. Dr. Pellegrino has informed the Tribal Council that the college is on probation. This is a brazen lie. The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) site visitors’ report only RECOMMENDS probation in an effort to help the college retain accreditation. Pellegrino has lied to the Council in an attempt to push his own mission and vision for the college. 5. Dr. Pellegrino has stripped our college of our Ojibwemowin, Education and Human Services programs. While the HLC report only suggests adding more liberal arts courses, Pellegrino has revamped our entire programs, mostly in an effort to keep fired faculty from returning to the college. Sadly, while he has publically stated that our Ojibwe language classes will be offered this fall, the reality is he is not offering it for academic credit. He is offering it as a recreational campus club. Students wanting to move on to a four year college will have to take Spanish, French or German because WETCC cut its Ojibwe language classes. 6. Dr. McDougall continues to be involved in the day to day operations of the college. This is an absolute violation of COT policies. She has begun recruiting new faculty and redesigned our college website. And she has become the Administrator for the WETCC Facebook page. Furthermore, under McDougall’s leadership the COT is in violation of its membership rules. Polices state there must be seven COT members. There are only five. Five of COT members MUST be enrolled/descended from White Earth. There are only two COT members who are from White Earth. 7. In retaliation of our protests Pellegrino has locked students out of their WETCC email accounts. McDougall refuses to allow any concerned posts by students and community members on the WETCC Facebook page. WETCC is a tribal college, not a mainstream university. We are a unique institution. The HLC recognizes this. The foundation of accrediting tribal colleges begins with a culturally-integrated curriculum, community involvement and the teaching of the tribe’s language for academic credit. Pellegrino has and continues to stomp on our Anishinaabe culture and values. He does not believe that it is our culture that makes us unique. If Pellegrino, Brummel and McDougall are allowed to continue on with this corrupt course WETCC will surely lose accreditation. Until the Council intervenes we will continue our boycott and petition drive to have this corrupt administration removed from WETCC.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:47:51 +0000
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