 "Photo: Carlos Restrepo")
In high school there is always drama. Craig Larson, elected on April 6 as a new Board of Trustee member, dealt with secondary-education issues for a good portion of his life: 27 years in Parkway, three years in Clayton and seven years at Rockwood.
Could those 37-plus years prepare him for a board meeting, “STLCC-Style”?
At around 7:30 p.m, at the Forest Park campus, the board prepared to welcome their – as one member put it – “new addition to the family.” There was fruit punch, coffee and vanilla cake with his name written in bright blue icing. Not part of the welcoming scene, were the faculty and students that had come to the meeting to express their grievances with the college in two main issues, the dismissal of Stephen Petersen and the closing of the child care center.
“I am speaking tonight as a proud faculty member. My pride is not in myself. It is and always has been in my profession and in this institution, but because of the abrupt, mid-semester dismissal of vice president Stephen Petersen, my faith and confidence in this institution has been shaken,” said John Messmer, Ph.D., political science professor at STLCC-Meramec.
Messmer, who had been recognized earlier at this meeting for an award received, said that the recognition from the board did not mean as much as it would have meant before.
“It was an honor, but I must be perfectly honest: being appreciated by this body today doesn’t mean as much as it would have in the past,” Messmer said. “Because in the past I had greater pride in this body; I had greater respect for its leadership; I had a more profound confidence in its ability to do what was right for my campus. I lack that confidence today.”
Another one to speak at the meeting was Meramec student Gyla Myers, who has attended every board meeting since the decision to close the child care center was made in November 2009.
“Welcome Dr. Larson, you will get to know me very well because I come to each and every meeting,” Myers said. “And I am not planning on stopping.”
At the meeting, Myers had a PowerPoint presentation of emails sent to and from the STLCC Chancellor, Zelema Harris, Ed.D., and Meramec president Paul Pai, Ed.D.
In one of the e-mails, which Myers obtained through Sunshine Law requests, Pai warns Harris that Myers and other students are planning to attend a board meeting to protest the child care center closing decision as well as the Petersen decision.
“The SGC only planned to submit their support to Dr. Petersen, but nothing else… [part of the email had been blacked out]…but they may do something,” stated Pai in the e-mail. “My thoughts are that they may join the students on Thursday at the board meeting. I will discover more and keep you updated tomorrow… Gyla Myers returned to SGC today as part of PTK club representatives, still trying.”
Myers said she felt this was a personal attack.
“I would like to know what ‘still trying’ means,” Myers said.
However, smiling at almost all times, Larson made it through the meeting. At the end, Larson said in an interview that as a high school principal he wanted to see his students involved and at tonight’s meeting he was impressed with the passion of the students.
“An overall impression I get is the passion in the room; people care about issues; they care about their own education; they care about the community college system; they worry about various issues and decisions” Larson said. “That’s a wonderful thing.”
He said there was a difference between the way high school students and college students voiced their opinions about different issues.
“High school students seem to get so involved in their own immediate issues; they don’t always rally to the defense of a particular issue at the school level,” Larson said. “I find what we are seeing here is a healthy sign for America.”
Larson said he knows he is a brand new member and cannot make promises over what the outcome of the issues concerning the students will be.
“But one thing I heard tonight that I think the board is going to be responsive to… is the healing that Meramec needs,” Larson said. “Because there’s been some difficult things – several different issues – that have made the people at Meramec feel uncomfortable…I think there is no question that the board needs to expect to respond to that issue.”
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