News
Briefs
Worker’s Union Files Grievance
The
Oberlin College Office and Professional Employees Union filed a
grievance against Executive Director of Facilities Operations Mike
Will for refusing to allow an employee in his office to attend a
monthly union meeting.
According to First Vice President for OCOPE Tracy Tucker, the member
was the least senior employee in the Facilities Operations office,
and was asked to cover for the lunch hour. In the past, Facilities
Operations has closed for the lunch hour for these meetings, Tucker
said.
Since Will refused to allow the member to attend the OCOPE meeting,
the entire union brought the meeting to her. Seventy-two union employees
entered the Service Building and gave the minutes of the meeting
to the employee.
“The members marched to the Service Building to show their
solidarity, and to deliver a Step III grievance on this issue,”
Tucker said.
OCOPE’s contract with the College stipulates that all members
are allowed to these meetings, held the second Tuesday of every
month during lunch hour.
“This is not only a right under the National Labor Relations
Act, but is also stated in the collective bargaining agreement with
OCOPE,” Tucker said.
John
Byrne
Economic
Diversity at Oberlin
Oberlin
ranks third among highly ranked liberal arts colleges in the percentage
of students receiving federal Pell Grants, reports this month’s
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
Because Pell Grants are reserved for low-income students, the report
uses them as a rough measure of economic diversity at colleges.
According to the report, 17.1% of Oberlin students receive Pell
Grants, compared to an average of 11.8% at other schools ranked
in the top 25 by US News and World Report.
The report goes on to laud Oberlin for its “long history of
support for black higher education and for admitting students from
lower and lower-middle socioeconomic classes.”
Jesse
Baer
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