By Linda Cicoira — Twelve positions were eliminated Thursday at the Eastern Shore Community College as part of the three-year reboot initiative and three new jobs, that were not described, were created, according to a letter sent today to faculty and staff.
The changes were in the college’s administrative ranks, Interim President Billy Greer wrote. “There are no reductions among our faculty ranks.”
The decisions were “structural and strategic,” he continued. “Individual job performances were not a factor. Over the past day, I have met personally with every person whose job is being eliminated. Those are challenging conversations, as you can imagine. The severance package being offered to those individuals is only one way we will help them find their next success, be it elsewhere in the community college system or outside of it.”
“There will be no further ESCC job cuts for the foreseeable future,” Greer wrote. “This painful” move “is a critical element of the collaboration we are entering with Tidewater Community College, which will assume a number of our administrative functions.”
Other “efforts will create new career options for our students; new teaching opportunities for our full-time faculty; and better-skilled employees for Shore businesses, who need them,” he continued. Greer did not elaborate on those.
“In creating more win-win scenarios we will boost the college’s relevancy, protect its future, and enhance the region’s competitiveness.”
“We all breathed a sigh of relief when the State Board for Community Colleges reacted to ESCC’s detailed assessment by giving us three years to turn-around our college,” said Greer. “We are blazing a fresh trail, forging a new model for small, rural colleges to be efficient, effective, and sustainable. The simpler options — becoming someone else’s branch campus, or even closing our doors altogether — are simply undesirable to those we serve, and they deserve our very best effort.”
