Opinion
Parma Research Station Opinion
By Nick Gier, New West Unfiltered 7-14-09
I don't agree. The article omitted the fact that it was lobbying by growers and a threat of legal action by the UI faculty union that forced the UI administration to reconsider closing this essential research station.
Furthermore, there are unconfirmed reports that the college committee ranked the Parma station third out of the nine stations. Why then was the Parma station the first one chosen?
Knowing full well that Duane Nellis would be assuming the reigns of the UI presidency in five weeks, why didn’t John Hammel, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, wait and let Nellis make essential decisions about the university’s budget? Hammel’s preemptive behavior tied Nellis’ hands unnecessarily.
During a meeting with Parma faculty and staff on June 16, Hammel was hammered about the closure decision and how it would negatively affect Idaho’s economy. For weeks growers and other interested parties have been lobbying their legislators and the governor to reverse the decision.
Ron Mann, founder of the Idaho Table Grape Association and former advisor to President Reagan, offered several viable alternatives to save money short of closing the station.
Putting all nine stations on a four-day workweek until the $3 million deficit is covered is a reasonable option.
In a column in the Idaho Press Tribune (6-22-09) Parma employee Kent Wagoner wrote that Hammel's "lack of preparation" at the June 16 meeting and "inability to adequately defend the UI's position should be an embarrassment to anyone who claims an affiliation with our state's land grant university."
A spokesman for the Symms Fruit Ranch, Idaho's largest apple grower, said that the UI "has an agenda that does not coincide with the purpose of a land grant institution, and if the dean cannot fulfill that mission, then he should resign."
Apple grower Jon Trail is so upset about the UI decision that he has revoked his agreement to provide scholarships for students from Southwest Idaho. In a phone conversation Trail told me that the endowment amounted to seven figures.
The Parma faculty will be transferred to the experiment station in Caldwell but the 16 staff employees will lose their jobs. The cost of building news offices for the faculty will far outweigh the $273,810 a year the UI now pays the Parma employees.
Parma Professor Saad Hafez says that he is glad that he still has a job, but at Caldwell, as he told a Moscow reporter, "I can't do my job." Hafez, fruit specialist Essie Fallali, and bioterrorist researcher Krishna Mohan need the Parma labs and technical staff to do their work.
Furthermore, there is no land at the Caldwell station for experimental plots and the 200 acres at Parma will not be maintained. An apple grower told me that if the Parma fruit is not sprayed, then there will be a threat to his own orchards adjacent to the station.
On July 7 the UI faculty union released a summary of a legal memorandum, which argues
· that closing the station may violate policies of the State Board of Education;
· that due process rights of Parma faculty and staff may be violated;
· that contracts with growers may not be fulfilled; and
· that the transfer of the tenured professors without their lab technicians to the Caldwell station will make them unable to their jobs and amounts to both a demotion and a violation of their tenure rights.
On July 9 the University Idaho announced that it would “delay any decision to close the Parma Research and Extension center. The length of the delay is undetermined at this time.”
The faculty union is gratified that lobbying and the threat of legal action has led the UI to reconsider a hasty decision. It is our sincere belief that better solutions, such as a 4-day work week, can be found.
Nick Gier is President of the Higher Education Council of the Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO. He taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. [End of article]