The Academic Senate meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 13 drew attention to the conflict between City College faculty and Antioch University’s recent presence on campus.

Antioch University is a private, non-profit institution with locations in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, New England and Seattle.  

During the public comment section of the meeting, faculty from the anthropology, mathematics and English department at City College addressed their concerns with Antioch occupying spaces in the Interdisciplinary Center.   

“It’s very hard not to watch this happening and not feel as though our whole faculty and staff are somehow second class to Antioch’s,” said Professor of Anthropology and former Academic Senate President Tara Carter. 

According to Carter, during this year’s summer sessions at City College, Antioch used classrooms in the IDC building. These classrooms utilized a portable AC unit, which Carter states has not been a luxury for any City College IDC classroom in the past years.

“We’ve been told repeatedly that we could not have portable AC units as the electrical in the building couldn’t handle it,” Carter said.  

Faculty also discussed issues regarding a lack of communication from City College administration on the length of Antioch’s rental, along with the reallocation of resources in the IDC building.

“This lack of communication [from administration] is disrespectful, it’s demoralizing and it’s counterproductive, ” said Barbara Bell, associate professor in the English department. 

According to Bell, an email was sent from City College last June to adjunct English faculty stating that they needed to move their belongings from offices in IDC by the end of the week. Bell stated that most adjunct faculty were not teaching summer, causing many to not check their email during this time.   

“If someone had told us of the possibility [of relocating], we could have had adjuncts move their belongings in a far more respectful fashion than transpired, which did much to establish a negative tone about Anticoch’s space rental,” Bell said. “[The move] seems to prioritize Antioch over our own adjunct faculty and departments.”

According to Eileen Vlcek-Scamahorn, chair of the English department at City College, the long-term rental with Antioch was established to aid City College’s budget difficulties. 

Following the public comment, the Academic Senate elected Elizabeth Chisholm as their new vice president.

Chisholm has been a full-time faculty in the mathematics department at City College since 2017.

The senate will reconvene on Wednesday, Sept. 27 in BC-214.