Cries of Union Busting at a Florida College
Professor says he was trying to raise his colleagues’ pay and lost his job in the process.
By
David Walton
Lake-Sumter State College in Florida opposed the unionization of its full-time faculty. Then it refused to meet with the new union virtually for contract negotiations during the pandemic.
This summer, the college sent two members of the faculty bargaining team packing on the same day. One of those professors served the college on an annual contract only, meaning it didn’t have to explain itself or allow for an appeal. But the other professor, David Walton, was supposed to have tenure-like protections under the college’s continuing contract system.
Lake-Sumter State College faculty on edge after the sudden dismissal of a tenured professor and key union member orlandoweekly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from orlandoweekly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
And UCF was No. 2, just behind California State University-Long Beach. Institutions like that elevators of social mobility and equity became Scott s focus as she, one of the world s richest women, went on a philanthropic mission.
Scott, an early employee of Amazon and the ex-wife of its founder, Jeff Bezos, identified 286 organizations to donate more than $2.7 billion, among historically underfunded and overlooked fields. Higher education is a proven pathway to opportunity, so we looked for 2- and 4-year institutions successfully educating students who come from communities that have been chronically underserved, Scott wrote in a blog post on Medium.com.
As the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the middle class continues to grow, access to the most elite universities remains limited for students with less means.