GREENFIELD — Fifty-three out of 62 voting members of the Greenfield Community College Professional Association, the college’s faculty and staff union, voted in favor of Provost Chet Jordan’s dismissal Tuesday after GCC allegedly suppressed a less-than-flattering diversity, equity and inclusion report from the college community.

Of the 116 eligible union members, 62 cast their ballots, which also included votes on bringing a list of 66 demands to GCC’s board of trustees, the next step in the process. The union’s vote this week followed its votes of no confidence in Jordan and President Michelle Schutt last week. A call for Schutt’s resignation also was put to the union’s vote this week, but failed to pass, with 29 members voting in support of a call for her resignation and 33 voting against it.

“Our chapter is willing to give this president a second chance, but we will not tolerate the same kind of disrespect and deception that we’ve experienced so far,” GCC Professional Association President Trevor Kearns said.

Alongside the GCC Professional Association’s vote for Jordan’s dismissal, 47 union members voted to eliminate the college’s provost position entirely, as some members believe the role is unnecessary for a small college.

“Organizationally, it never made sense to have that title for such a small campus. It also creates an unnecessary extra vertical layer in the campus structure that resulted in all kinds of dysfunction. … We had to wait longer to get approval for things, we had to wait longer to get information, to have questions answered. It really created a bottleneck in the organizational structure that has made GCC a lot less efficient,” Kearns said.

Other union demands that were approved include accountability when the president declares a failed search for a position and a system requiring the president to get feedback from “student-facing stakeholders” before signing off on policy changes.

Kearns said the union will bring its demands to GCC’s board of trustees in the near future. He noted that though the board’s next meeting is slated for August, he aims to meet with the board sooner.

DEI study suppressed?

The union’s vote of no confidence was prompted by allegations that college leadership suppressed results of a DEI study conducted from April to November 2023 by the Connecticut-based racial equity consultant RE-Center Race & Equity in Education.

With input from college staff, Schutt hired the RE-Center to study the campus and its culture and recommend possible changes and improvements toward advancing racial equity and diversity. In November, Kearns said the canvassers “disappeared” from campus, as GCC ended its contract with the RE-Center before the consultant was finished with its canvassing.

Kearns alleges Schutt did not disclose the consultant’s departure until February and kept the results of the RE-Center’s report hidden from GCC’s board of trustees, faculty and staff until it was brought to a trustees meeting earlier this month.

The 45-page report states that the college’s DEI efforts are largely “performative” and “superficial,” and often tokenize minority community members. It also states that “racialized harm is allowed to continue without being addressed,” citing a number of incidents between RE-Center canvassers and members of the president’s cabinet that included use of the N-word. Multiple people shared that they were disturbed by the use of the N-word in a play that the theater department put on, followed by “subsequent use of the word by white people during the audience talkback.”

In a three-page letter to the college community published last week, Schutt acknowledged the report, stating that the college ended its relationship with the RE-Center in the fall of 2023, a decision that was not communicated with the community because GCC was “waiting to receive raw data from that process.”

“While the DEI consultant’s credentials, proposed framework and intent of their intake work aligned with our objectives, we ultimately determined their consulting model and approach was not a right fit for GCC at this time,” Schutt’s letter states. “Unfortunately, instead of sharing the information in the requested format, the DEI consultant offered a document that included incomplete and, in some places, inaccurate information.”

Schutt wrote that the RE-Center’s report included information that was shared confidentially and “characterized participant comments and questions out of context and in a manner that is not consistent with a process that creates a safe space for learning and growing.”

The letter also acknowledged a college official’s use of the N-word in the college’s 2023 art installation examining perceptions of race in America. She noted that during the consulting sessions, an administrator asked questions about how to address the use of the word in art and literature, and, in doing so, said the word in reference to the artwork’s title.

“The college administrator has expressed regret at using the full title of the artwork and not appreciating at the time the potential impact,” Schutt’s letter states. “The individual subsequently proactively sought out coaching and additional resources regarding this topic.”

Schutt noted that the college’s DEI work will continue under the leadership of a newly created role: vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion. She also wrote that she “could have done a better job of communicating with our community earlier and with more details about the discontinuation of the relationship with the DEI consultant.”

“I have enormous respect for our faculty and staff,” Schutt wrote in a statement after the pair of no confidence votes last week. “My goal is a workplace environment that acknowledges contributions, works collaboratively to address challenges and builds relationships. I hope to continue working collaboratively with our faculty and staff around the values we share.”

Neither Jordan nor Schutt could be reached immediately for comment on Wednesday.

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.