The council meeting to renew the contract of Meghan Hughes will be held on Zoom this evening June 8, at 4:30pm. You may use the following link in order to attend:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89478470045
If the link should change, the updated version will be within the updated agenda pdf on the RI Secretary of State’s Open Meetings website at
https://opengov.sos.ri.gov/OpenMeetingsPublic/OpenMeetingDashboard?subtopmenuId=201&EntityID=2708
It is likely that there will be no period for public comment. However, your attendance in itself is an indication of concern to the council over this matter. In order to justify this special meeting (rather than renew the contract during the normally scheduled meeting) the agenda includes a COVID item which is scheduled to be heard before breaking into executive session. Please hang in there on the call. This is a common tactic to reduce the number of attendees during a controversial meeting topic. The clock is simply run out until people lose interest. They may also change the order of the agenda if few people are on the call early enough and skip straight to the contract renewal.
The volume of attendance to this meeting and your punctuality will help to bring this issue to the attention of media and government officials. It may also convince the council that the issue should be held until a later meeting date. Hope you can all make it! Feel free to make comments here if there is no forum for public comment at the meeting. Comment moderation is turned on, but I’ll do my best to keep it moving during the meeting. Anything that seems offensive and/or that could put this site’s continuation in jeopardy will not be allowed. You may also chose to post on Twitter or Facebook.
Looks like they’re just coming out of executive session.
The contract has been renewed for 3 years by unanimous vote.
I attended the meeting – late, unfortunately- but prior to the adjournment behind closed doors for deliberation. I was somehow removed and not allowed to rejoin the meeting, despite trying twice. However, I would be greatly astonished if the decision was other than to renew Hughes’ contract. This council has never shown any interest in considering the myriad issues CCRI faculty and staff have tried repeatedly to bring to an open discussion. Even a vote of No Confidence by two separate unions has not been deemed worthy of investigation. I ,too, feel confident the council members have never taken the time to read the comments of faculty and staff in the PACE report (p116). (They are overwhelmingly negative) I’m not convinced the administration has, If they have, it never propelled them to change their approach., which speaks volumes about their style of leadership. The council’s actions are as autocratic and lacking in transparency as President Hughes and her administration’s. The discussion of Hughes’ renewal should have been open – with public comments permitted. The council, like President Hughes, has apparently decided that CCRI is rife with “contrarians” who are only motivated by “struggle with change” and self interest. How convenient.
The tabled legislative bill that required a majority of council members to have higher education backgrounds rather than the current majority of business, financial, and legal backgrounds and the Chair to be elected by members rather than appointed by the governor might be a good first step towards real openness to dialogue.
Does DelGiudice even have a degree?
I am not at all surprised. This council has been indifferent to a vote of No Confidence by two separate unions, as well as the faculty objection and protest of the three week Winter Session that includes developmental classes, the runaway administrative bloat, and as you mentioned in your other post on the PACE report (p116) the overwhelmingly negative responses of faculty and staff. As you suggested, I’m not confident the council ever took the time to read them. In fact, I’m not convinced the administration read them. If they did, it never motivated them to alter their approach – which speaks volumes.
Unfortunately, a bill Representative Greg Amore put forward a couple of years ago was tabled. It was designed to require that the majority of council members have higher education experience. Currently, only one or two members have such background, I believe. The members are appointed by the governor, and the majority come from business, law, and finance, which frames their perspective. The bill also required that the chair of the council be elected by council members rather than appointed by the governor. Perhaps it is time to revisit that bill.
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