Chudzinski questions future of Terra art program

FREMONT – Recently dismissed Terra State Community College faculty member Dan Chudzinski said Monday that he is uncertain whether there will be an art program at the college this fall, as he and five other non-renewed professors continue to fight to keep their jobs.

But Terra President Jerome Webster strongly rebutted any suggestions that the program will disappear from the college, regardless of who is teaching the courses.

"We're going to continue to offer the courses he teaches," Webster said, adding that the college's academic programs are not based on the individuals teaching them and are focused on the students.

The art instructor's non-renewal, as well as the dismissal of the other professors, has rankled the college's faculty union and sparked public criticism of Webster's decision-making by the union's leadership.

Webster has repeatedly responded to the union by asserting that he has balanced their concerns with the college's mission to best serve students. At the college's last board meeting, Webster stressed that Terra officials take great care when making decisions on faculty retention.

Chudzinski said he found out he was one of the six professors not renewed by the college via a sealed letter delivered by a human resources representative. He said he was not given a reason in the letter for his dismissal.

Chudzinski said there had been constant restructuring in his department during his four years as head art instructor. He said he was shown a chart that demonstrated declining enrollment numbers in his classes, but Chudzinski claimed there had been some issues that contributed to the decline.

The art instructor said he had an issue the previous semester with the college not listing art classes that were supposed to be offered in the Terra course listings catalog. He said that, after he brought it to the college's attention, the courses were included in the catalog too late to generate significant enrollment and were subsequently dropped.

"It became clear to me that there wasn't the support there for the art program," Chudzinski said.

Webster said the college's contract with Chudzinski did not require Terra to give a reason for non-renewal of the non-tenured instructor. The Terra president affirmed that there had been an enrollment decline in classes taught by Chudzinski.

The art instructor said he was sculpting in Italy in 2011 when the offer came to launch a fine arts program at Terra, the first time the college had offered the program.

Chudzinski said he was in charge of the fine arts aspects of the Terra Celebration of the Arts Festival. He also equipped and maintained two art studios and founded the college's first art club.

Terra Faculty Association President Michael Smithback said Monday that the faulty union had filed grievances Wednesday on behalf of Chudzinski and the other five faculty members who were recently dismissed by the college.

Smithback said there are several steps in the process before the grievance is resolved, with final options of either appealing to Terra's board of trustees or going to a third-party arbitrator.

Chudzinski said that, although the union has filed a grievance on his behalf, he is looking around for other career opportunities after the non-renewal.

dacarson@gannett.com

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