Union Petitions to Remove Associate Vice Chancellor
By: Onyx Hunter
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1021 has distributed a petition of no confidence against the current City College Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Technology Officer Ellen Rayz, with support from American Federation of Teachers (AFT) 2121.
The petition, dated Sept. 21, urges the board of trustees and chancellor “to take appropriate action immediately” against Rayz, and outlines 17 bullet pointed allegations of “anti-union behavior”, abusing power, incompetence, and poor leadership skills, that they find concerning for the welfare of the IT department, the “security of our confidential data,” and “the greater good of the entire College community.”
Specific allegations include that Rayz “mandates subordinates to delete emails of potential evidence,” “willfully ignores established SFCCD protocols, practices, and labor contracts, as well as not “cares more about making herself look good than getting the actual job done,” and “does not understand or know how to create, read, or adhere to a budget.”
AFT has stated that it “has received reports that Rayz has tried to undermine union power by hiring unrepresented workers instead of SEIU members, and that her treatment of classified staff in IT has been unacceptable.”
The Administrators Association Executive Council (AAEC) released a statement disagreeing with what they called SEIU 1021’s “continuing practice of soliciting members to support a petition, as a means to determine the fate of an Administrator,” noting that there “are established grievance and complaint procedures to address personnel matters” the union should be using instead.
Moreover, AAEC says that such petitions have a “chilling effect” on administrations which “instills a fear of who might be next should one make an unpopular decision.” They instead urge the board and chancellor to “rebuke this practice of circumventing established grievance procedures and reject this pattern of public crucifying any employee.
The Guardsman has reached out to both Rosie Zepeda and Ellen Rayz to receive comment on the petition, as well we have corresponded with a member of Service Employees International Union 1021 Jennie Smith-Camejo who has been helping arrange an interview.
Rayz has been an employee of City College since at least Oct. 22, 2020, and before her tenure at City College, Rayz was Executive Director of IT Services at San Francisco State University.
Ellen Rayz was never the Executive Director of IT Services at SF State. Ellen was the Director of Network & Telecom and oversaw a very small team (nine staff) of Network & Telecom professionals, currently being led by Leah R.: https://its.sfsu.edu/content/organization
Ellen Rayz lied on her resume about her experience in her interviews to get the Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Technology Officer job at City College. How does one go from overseeing nine IT staff to being a CTO of an organization?
Staff at SF State was thrilled when Ellen left SF State because of the many union issues including the ones City College is seeing. Ellen Rayz is just a weird/strange person and there is no going around that. We feel sorry for the IT staff at City College and what they have to deal with.