May 7, 2019
Dear President Kington:
Thank you for your email. We are, of course, disappointed and frustrated to hear that the Board has chosen to take this course of action, especially since we had been under the impression from our earlier meetings that the Board of Trustees was on board with the partial expansion as you had presented it.
We see the agreement as it was on the table as a significant compromise, on both our parts, yet something mutually agreeable. Given that we were able to bring our members about to an agreement, we are curious about the concerns that Trustees raised during the session which brought about this change in opinion.
We are especially curious about next steps. The letter from Board Chair Maxwell seemed to indicate both that the Board would like more time to discuss the matter, but also that they would not discuss it until their October meeting. This seems both counterproductive and counterintuitive to developing the greater consideration of the issues that they seem to desire. If there is any room to move forward in discussion about how to develop such understanding, either at an organizational or individual level, we would be more than open to such talks.
To reiterate a point Jacob Schneyer made in a phone call with Angela, given that talks are being suspended for months by order of the Board and the public statements made by Grinnell College, we no longer feel beholden to our agreement at the table to keep the details of our discussion private.
We maintain hope that, at this time, we are both able to move forward in a way which bring us to another mutually beneficial resolution to the issue of student employment representation on our campus.
Regards,
Quinn Ercolani
President
UGSDW