Letter: OCC Charges 'Baseless'

Letter to the editor as submitted by Prof. Botein Furrevig:

Recently, the leadership of the faculty union of OCC, in its infinite wisdom, deemed it professionally and ethically appropriate to hold a publicizing the still unproven and damaging allegations leveled against the president and Board of Trustees.

This latest and baseless charge du jour by the usual small cabal of discontented faculty calls for a full FBI investigation and the resignation of Dr. Jon Larson and unspecified members of the Board of Trustees.

This witch hunt is, in this writer's opinion, retaliation for the employment contract recently offered by Dr. Larson, negotiated with and endorsed by union leadership, but rejected by the rank and file.  

It cannot be denied even by those with selective memory, that under Dr. Larson's leadership, has evolved into a premier community college in terms of innovative academic programs, state of the art technology, e-learning, campus growth, institutional partnerships and global initiatives.

That the source is a disgruntled ex-employee who has a propensity toward whistle-blowing is in itself suspect. In their eternal quixotic quest to uncover perceived administrative criminal misconduct and spin grassy knoll theories, some of my esteemed colleagues are merely perpetuating and immortalizing  hostility and standoffs between faculty and administration.

Such enmity benefits neither the faculty, the institution, nor the community. It certainly does not serve the best interests of our students.

Ali Botein Furrevig, Ph.D.

OCC English Professor

Brick, NJ