College staff threaten to quit after administration orders them to return to office 5 days a week
Georgia's public universities are now requiring staff to return to the office five days a week, causing backlash from employees who claim the mandate will cause additional problems.
The University System of Georgia, which governs public university institutions in the state, announced at the start of the year that faculty must be present on campus during core business hours.
Last month, USG's chancellor Dr. Sonny Perdue told presidents and administrators at a Board of Regents meeting, 'If that's not what y'all want, you let me know, because that's where we're going,' the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Ron Johnson at Georgia Institute of Technology, which is a USG institution, said at a town hall, 'We don't want to lose anybody, but there's a chance we will.'
'That's the risk that the institute has to take.'
'The University System of Georgia (USG) values all our employees and the work they do to support our students. We want to emphasize the importance of working on-site to best serve our top priority — our students,' USG said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
'Being present on campus allows employees to focus on several key areas: enhanced collaboration, timely support and student engagement, accountability and institutional reputation.
'We have received numerous concerns and complaints directly from students and parents regarding their inability to connect with staff or faculty on important matters.'
Chancellor Sunny Perdue told presidents and administrators at a recent Board of Regents meeting, 'If that's not what y'all want, you let me know, because that's where we're going,' when discussing the new in-person mandate
Employees have questioned the motivation behind the new mandate, with some pointing out the flaws in having faculty on campus from Monday to Friday.
Jill Penn, an associate biology professor at Georgia Gwinnett College, rejected the notion that complaints regarding a lack of connection between students and parents with faculty members were a result of remote work.
'I know at Georgia Gwinnett College we're severely understaffed. When somebody leaves, retires or finds another job, they're not replaced. So that's a much more likely explanation,' she told the Atlanta Journal.
Penn also noted that the school doesn't hold classes on Fridays, and argued that the mandate didn't make sense with the school's schedule.
She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she believes each university should have the freedom to create its own guidelines.
Employees also noted that Georgia Tech is in the middle of downtown Atlanta, and the limited parking is already an issue without the in-person mandate.
Kim Toatley, the chief business officer for the university, spoke at a Georgia Tech town hall, noting the space problem.
'We're in downtown Atlanta. It's not like we can just take over a building or throw up a new building. So it's going to take time,' she said.
Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Ron Johnson at Georgia Institute of Technology (pictured) said at a town hall, 'We don't want to lose anybody, but there's a chance we will,' regarding the new in-person mandate
Perdue has defended the mandate, writing in an email to administrators, 'Having the ability to telework is not a right — it's an arrangement reserved for limited circumstances,' according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He told attendees at the April meeting that he expects employees to answer calls from prospective students, parents, or grandparents on a Friday afternoon.
'While we recognize that many employees and businesses around the country transitioned to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, it's crucial that students have access to in-person services while on campus,' USG said in a statement.
'Although institutions may permit telework under limited circumstances, we continue to prioritize in-person work to ensure the highest level of service and support for our students.'
Universities across the state have begun implementing the new policy, with the University of Georgia announcing that telework would be limited in the upcoming school year.
'All offices must be fully staffed during core business hours (Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Telework should be limited,' the university's website states.
The website echoes Perdue's statements about working remotely, reading, 'It is critical to note that telework is not a right: it is an arrangement that is approved voluntarily by the dean or vice president and Chief Human Resources Officer (or designee) only when it supports the mission and needs of the institution.'
Georgia Tech implemented a similar approval process, writing on their website that employees received a 'high-level email' on March 31 informing them that fully in-person work would be the standard by August 1.
'Telework will be available for limited, specific circumstances and only approved when there is alignment with Institute business needs and assigned job duties,' Georgia Tech said.
Employees at the university who want to continue working remotely were instructed to complete a telework request form by August 1.
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The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The ongoing fight to replace racist monuments in the US: ‘requires a lot of perseverance'
After nearly half a decade, Vinnie Bagwell, a self-taught sculptor-artist, is still waiting for the million dollars that the New York City department of cultural affairs promised for her to work on monument Victory Beyond Sims, after winning the artist competition to replace the monument of Dr J Marion Sims in 2020. 'It just requires a lot of diligence and perseverance,' she said to the Guardian. 'A lot of times, people don't realize how important and impactful art in public places is until they see it.' Sims was a 19th-century gynecologist known for experimenting on 12 enslaved and poor immigrant women without consent. City officials removed his monument in April 2018 after a unanimous vote by the Public Design Commission. Bagwell will be the first Black woman to have a memorial on Fifth Avenue. Bagwell began sculpting in 1993 and created the First Lady of Jazz in Yonkers, the first public artwork made by a contemporary African American woman commissioned by a municipality in the United States. Her 9ft (2.7-meter) monument is of a Black woman with 14ft wings, only the second Black Angel statue to be visible publicly in the US. The shape of Africa cut away from the woman's heart symbolizes the enslavement of 12 million people over hundreds of years. On her right side the braille will read 'My Soul looks back and wonders how I got over!' and on the left it will read 'Primum non nocere!' (First do no harm). To honor the suffering of Sims's victims, whose anguish brought advancement to the field of gynecology, there will be 12 women silhouetted on her back. A slave ship is also depicted on the back to illustrate the inhumanity of slavery. The names of the survivors we know will be emblazoned into the helm of the garment. Bagwell hopes that the monument, which will be across the street from the New York Academy of Medicine, will function as a vehicle of change for the community. 'Women are more under fire now than we were before. So many of us women have lost a lot of the right to control our bodies. New York is still safe, but [women in] Arkansas aren't,' she says. 'When you look at some of the things that this particular administration is talking about, they're talking about going backward; that is still something to be concerned about.' Bagwell's situation is not unique, with many other cities also stalling progress to replace Confederate statues and symbols. However, Vinnie has encountered many obstacles. First, a committee chose artist Simone Leigh as the winner, even though community members had voted for Bagwell. After a heated debate, the city ultimately reversed its decision. Then, the city attempted to cut $250,000 from its budget but failed. Bagwell has been waiting longer than the typical 90 days after signing her contract to receive the money. In a statement to the Guardian, the department stated its excitement about the project moving forward. 'New York City has taken bold steps in the effort to foster a collection of public artworks that better reflect who we are as a city, including this project – long called for by the local community – to commission a new monument for this site in East Harlem,' they note. 'This administration remains committed to fostering a diverse, vibrant public art collection that more fully represents the vast range of stories, experiences, and backgrounds that define New Yorkers. We're excited for the Victory project to move ahead.' On 23 June, the design commission voted unanimously to approve Bagwell's designs, and she can now begin work. Bagwell's situation reflects a broader failure to follow through on legislation and promises made following the 2020 racial justice protests, where Americans dismantled statues of Confederate soldiers that stood in their communities after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. In 2021, Joe Biden passed legislation to replace the monument of Roger Taney, a pro-slavery chief justice who served on the court from 1836 until 1864, with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American supreme court justice, in the United States Capitol. The intended deadline for the building of the statute was December 2024, but that month, a source familiar with the matter said the joint committee on the library had only just signed off on a memorandum to begin the process. Now, a 2025 executive order signed by Donald Trump mandating that the secretary of the interior restore monuments removed in the last five years puts in jeopardy the already fragile progress made by past laws to diversify the public landscape in the US. Jamaican sculptor Basil Watson said that it's 'very possible' that more people are now in support of removing objects that help tell Black stories. 'It's the risk we take that is part of the struggle,' he said. Watson worked to replace a Confederate monument with a John Lewis memorial in Decatur, Georgia. 'It would be a tragedy if it were to be removed, but then we'll just have to do it again,' he said. 'The journey cannot be stopped.' In 2017, Trump tweeted: 'the beauty [Confederate monuments] that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!' This debate on the rise and fall of monuments dates back to the 1870s. In 1876, Frederick Douglass called into question the making of the Emancipation Memorial, built by artist Thomas Bell in Washington DC. The creation of the statute was funded using donations from recently freed people. While the city created the monument to honor emancipation, it depicted a white man holding out his hand over a chained kneeling Black man, a design Douglass found problematic. 'What I want to see before I die is a monument representing the Negro, not couched on his knees like a four-footed animal, but erect on his feet like a man,' he said. DC officials removed the statute in 2021, and advocates are still discussing its replacement. Nearly 150 years after Douglass's speech, only 10% of the top 50 national monuments are of Black and Indigenous people, according to an audit completed by the Monument Lab, a non-profit public art and history studio. 'The story of this continent is not reflected in our monument landscape in full,' said Paul Farber, the director and co-founder of the Monument Lab. 'The monuments we have tell a partial story. Adding a monument or the selective removal of a monument can have a profound effect for a city or town. If we don't respond to the erasures, the lies by design we will be doomed to repeat. Our audit also showed that 99.4% of monuments were not taken down in 2021 or 2022.' The Trump administration's influence has now rolled back even that little bit of progress. This year, Pete Hegseth rolled back the names of two military forts to their namesakes of confederate soldiers. Following pressure from Republicans, Washington DC's mayor, Muriel Bowser, also ordered the destruction of the Black Lives Matter plaza in front of the White House. 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'That's what monuments are supposed to be about. It's supposed to be able to point to people and say: 'This is somebody you can look up to.'' McDaniel's bill to replace Davis in the Capitol is at a standstill as the Kentucky Capitol Arts Advisory Committee and other legislators must weigh in on who they believe deserves to be honored. Mississippi's Republican governor, Tate Reeves, has shown mixed messages about Confederate symbols in his state. During the 2020 election, almost 73% of people in Mississippi voted to remove the Confederate flag with a new state's flag. 'This is not a political moment to me but a solemn occasion to lead our Mississippi family to come together, to be reconciled and to move on,' Reeves said after the vote and before it was eventually replaced. In the same year, Reeves simultaneously opposed the removal of Confederate monuments. 'I reject the mobs tearing down statues of our history, north and south, Union and Confederate, founding fathers and veterans,' he says. 'I reject the chaos and lawlessness, and I am proud it has not happened in our state.' Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative who led the building of Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama, a civil rights museum that works to reshape the racist narratives about African Americans in Alabama, explains Reeves's messaging. 'I think it's a struggle, a competing narrative, and sometimes they give away a little something by holding on to something that makes what they're giving away feel acceptable,' he tells the Guardian. Stevenson says it 'is about power, because most of the people who are kind of in control of these things [are] aligned, in my view, with this problematic history. We can't accept just what [they're] gonna give' us. Some artists who have worked to replace Confederate monuments with ones that honor Black history have succeeded and received praise despite government resistance. In Roanoke, Virginia, the city sculptor commissioned Lawrence Bechtel to replace a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee with one of Henrietta Lacks. Lacks' cells, now called HeLa, were taken without her knowledge in 1951 and have now become vital to medical research; they have been used to develop polio and Covid-19 vaccines. It took about four years for the city to raise the money for the statue and a year from the contract being signed for Bechtel to build the monument. 'I had bought a veil to cover it over, and everyone was invited to come close as the veil was pulled off, and people just mobbed it. It was fantastic,' he says. 'It was just wonderful. It was very uplifting.' Bechtel said he has yet to receive a negative email. 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31 minutes ago
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