The board of trustees of the City Colleges of Chicago voted in March to eliminate academic counseling at the seven colleges in the two-year college system. The day the board took the vote, it was hard to tell who was more distressed about the change--the 19 counselors who were about to get pink slips, the faculty who depend on counselors to act as academic conduits to students, or the hundreds of students who have used counseling as their academic lifelines.

All groups were out in force March 7 to protest the trustees' plan. The groups formed a picket line outside the main City Colleges administration office and were joined by city aldermen and members of the Cook County College Teachers Union, which represents the counselors. But despite their efforts, the trustees' minds already were made up, says CCCTU president Norman Swenson.

Last year, the board began acting on a mission to privatize services and academic functions at the city colleges. It contracted out the nearly $300 million financial services and data processing operations of the colleges. At the time, the board said it would be considering contracting-out possibilities for academic departments.

After asking employees to help assess the performance of such departments as business teaching, library services and academic counseling, the administration decided to leave the first two alone. But instead of privatizing counseling, which was having difficulties in its management, the colleges decided to kill the program.

Now, in place of $66,000 counselors, who, by state statute are considered faculty and have advanced degrees and years of experience dealing with students' school, work and personal challenges, the colleges are hiring "registration specialists" at half the salaries of their predecessors, Swenson says.

The change violates the contract on two fronts, says Swenson. "These people are entitled to due process before they are fired," he argues.

Also, with each passing week, the job descriptions of the registration specialists sound more like those of the counselors. The contract states that "because of newly created or changed job titles, no positions in the bargaining unit shall be eliminated where there is not substantial change in job duties or responsibilities."

CCCTU has filed a grievance with the City Colleges board and asked for expedited arbitration to have a decision within the next few months.

In the meantime, the union is working to ensure that the affected counselors have remedies. Those who are qualified will seek teaching jobs in the colleges. Six have retired. Seven people don't yet know what they will do.

The students know they've been shafted, however. "We are really distraught," says Claudia Trevoria, a student at Wilbur Wright College. "We are seeking an audience with Mayor Daley but are having no luck. This will have a detrimental effect on us." [Barbara McKenna / AFT On Campus]

[May 13, 2002]