Rally To Save County College Of Morris On Saturday

DOVER, NJ — On Saturday, faculty, students, and supporters of the County College of Morris will march through the streets of Dover to JFK Park on the Dover Commons in a rally to save their school from a dangerous pattern of mismanagement that threatens the quality of education for students and teachers.

"CCM is a tremendous resource for this community and we can’t allow mismanagement and administrative greed to undermine a college that for decades has been a pathway for thousands of students," said Ian Colquhoun, president pro tempore of the faculty union.

CCM has fallen into crisis under the administration of President Tony Iacono, whose leadership since 2016 has been marked by strained relations with faculty and chairpersons.

That tension came to a head in April when Iacono fired the head of the faculty union and six other union members prompting a vote of no-confidence from both the faculty and chairs unions and a call for the president’s resignation. NJEA lawyers followed with an unfair labor charge.

Rally-goers will meet at noon at the Morris Street parking lot adjacent to the Dover Train Station and march through Dover to JFK Park on Rt 46. The NJEA-sponsored event will include free food trucks, music, and a slate of speakers including NJEA president-elect Sean Spiller as the keynote address, along with representatives from other New Jersey institutions of higher education. The event will run from noon to 2 p.m.

"The rally is a chance to engage this community in questioning how their tax dollars are being spent to undermine the quality of education at CCM and in effect the community in which
they live," said Colquhoun.

CCM is receiving nearly $13 million in federal stimulus and Iacono was recently rewarded mid-contract with a 6 percent pay increase and a $10,000 performance bonus. Tuition has increased 18 percent under the current administration and administrative vice president positions have swelled 126 percent with double the number of vice presidents that existed under the former president Edward Yaw, who served CCM for 50 years. The college has blamed low enrollment for the firings, but faculty say the cuts are not financially warranted and severely undermine the quality of education.

"Students can't learn effectively in a campus under constant strife and so we have repeatedly tried to work with the Iacono administration to mitigate conflict," said Colquhoun. "But there is no working with this administration nor the Board of Trustees," he added. "They fire anyone who challenges their corrosive self-serving agenda."

— Submitted by FACCM Officers