AFT Pennsylvania - Moore Federation of Teachers Votes No Confidence in College President

PHILADELPHIA – Eighty-three percent of the full-time faculty at Moore College of Art and Design voted no confidence in the college’s president, Moore Federation of Teachers announced at a news conference on Feb. 11.

With dozens of students waving signs and banners in support, faculty members called on college president Happy Fernandez to step down, saying she is jeopardizing academic excellence and stifling academic freedom at the only women’s art college in the country.

“Moore College has a 160-year tradition of academic excellence, which was fostered in large part by attracting the best artists and professors and working with them to maintain a high-quality academic program,” MFT president Steve Sherman said.

“Moore’s current president has undermined that tradition by intimidating faculty members and politicizing the academic environment,” said Sherman, who was flanked by faculty members and students.

Using a portable sound system in Aviator’s Park across the street from the Center City campus, Sherman said he had been fired by Fernandez on charges that were “completely without merit” and barred from campus without the prior approval of the college’s attorney.

“This is an unfair labor practice which denies the faculty right to representation by their elected representative,” he said.

Sherman, a respected artist and professor of 20 years, led the Moore College faculty to take its first strike vote ever during negotiations for a new contract last year. MFT negotiators and the college reached agreement last fall without a strike.

The union, Local 2208 of the American Federation of Teachers, filed a grievance calling for Sherman’s reinstatement with back pay.

“The college has always had an academic processes designed to ensure that the best professors and courses are maintained. Under this administration these processes have been largely ignored and undermined,” Sherman said. “Happy Fernandez has substituted the judgment of political allies and amateurs for the collective judgment of a highly qualified and accomplished faculty.”

The 500-member student body has collected approximately 300 signatures calling for the popular professor’s immediate reinstatement.

“Neither the faculty nor the students have confidence in Happy Fernandez’s ability to run the college,” said Professor Deborah Warner. “The ability to speak one’s mind on a college campus is at the very heart of academic freedom. Under the current administration, faculty members no longer feel comfortable speaking their minds or making decisions in their own classrooms for fear of retribution.”

Under Fernandez’s leadership, the ratio of full-time faculty to adjunct (part-time) faculty has decline to 1:4 and crucial decisions about academic direction and course content has been taken from the faculty and given to people with no background in art or education, the faculty said.

Fernandez has refused to acknowledge the Moore Federation of Teachers as the representative “voice” of the faculty, and instead has tried to substitute a hand-picked “senate” to be the faculty’s proxy with the administration.

“This administration has failed to give faculty members the resources they need to provide students with high-quality educational programs,” Sherman said. “It has consistently used money on the façade of the building at the expense of basic classroom needs such as studio space and lighting. We are concerned about maintaining the academic quality, high turnover among part-time faculty members who have little or no hope of becoming full-time employees, the lack of professional respect and the low morale.”

Moore College, which has 32 full-time and about 80 adjunct faculty members, was founded in 1848 by Philadelphia artist and philanthropist Sarah Worthington Peter to create a school for women to learn textile arts, which was a major industry in Philadelphia at the time.

In 2002, a no confidence vote was called for and held in abeyance after Fernandez promised to allow faculty processes to operate normally. Several years have passed with no improvement, Sherman said. “The faculty and students have no faith in Happy Fernandez keeping her word.”