Furloughed Texas college staffers worked months without pay
(CNN) - Nearly all of the staff at the oldest two-year college in Texas was furloughed Wednesday morning because of "financial and liquidity difficulties," according to a letter sent by the college to its staff and obtained by CNN.
Lon Morris College, a faith-based private school in Jacksonville, Texas, with an enrollment of slightly more than 1,000 students, notified its employees that - with the exception of a core group of 11 - all staff would be furloughed indefinitely. About 100 employees are on the school's payroll, according to local news affiliates.
"Given insufficient cash flow, the college cannot continue to employ personnel and further cannot allow employees to continue to work even on a 'volunteer' or unpaid basis," a letter sent to the Lon Morris staff by Director of Human Resources Carolyn Nanni said.
Before the announcement Wednesday, the staff had not been paid for three payroll periods, according to staff members
"For this to happen...it's really hurtful. About three months we haven't gotten paid," Lon Morris defensive line football coach Eric Morris told CNN in a phone interview.
Related: Student News
CNN Student News is ten minutes of commercial-free, cost free news for middle and high school classrooms. It is available on line on our website, as a free downloadable podcast on iTunes and on HLN at 4:00 a.m. ET weekdays during the school year. Go to www.CNNStudentNews.com@CNNSchools on Twitter
Favorite Videos
Faith based - in action.
Sheeple suckers being taken - the American Religion, Inc. way.
Nothing new, move on people...
I hope they completely eliminated all sports, and cut top administrators' pay before making staff go without pay.
Very doubtful – that is not the way these kinds of people think/operate. Yes, it is disgusting.
Regressive bible thumper business at it's worst.
idiot.
Thats OBAMANOMICS for you!
--
Yep, put your faith in an invisible being that doesn't exist and you will fail.
It is sad to see little private colleges going belly-up. I am not a religious person, but I love freedom of thought. The fewer sources of thoght there are, the poorer our society is.
The free market?
yes Texas does recieve more Federal aid then it pays in to the system in taxes. As a "Faith" based school it is not subject to government oversite or help on its operations. The staff went without pay in an act of faith that their employers would make up the pay at a later time once the current situation stablized. Nothing in the law sias if you were naive enouth to give them free labor that they acrually have to pay you. In our capitalist system naivity just meens you are a statistic waiting to happen. No one has to keep their word either in voice or on paper if you have a good lawyer to get you out of it.
"Lon Morris College, a faith-based private school... "
Well, so much for the "faith" part.
Why don't they cut the college president's salary in half first? Many top admin in colleges/universities got paid too much even when they don't have money to pay other staff or teachers.
Does anyone else notice that one of the quoted staffers is a football coach??? A tiny religious-based 2 year school that doesn't have any money yet they had a football team. Really??????
Sports is a big source of revenue. Where have you been the past 40 years?
II work for myself and II have volunteered at lots of places in my life. So what? When you work for some one only for money they own you. You are their b#@ch for money. It doesn't matter how much they pay you. You see a monkey with a diamond is still a monkey. Just like a B#@ch with a large paycheck is still a B@#ch. Until you work for your self or are employed doing what you beleive in and get paid ony as a secondary necessity you will not be free. At least volunteers that answer to only themselves are their own masters. Unlike you B@#ches scraping and crooning for someone else s dollar because you don't have what it takes to work for yourself. So do something that you think matters and join the human race. Or just go chase your little dollars being the little B@#ches that you are.
I guess welfare trash "works" for me, then???
This is the Republican ideal. Keep voting against your own interests.
You checked wrong. According to The Economist, which is one of the most reputable information sources, Texas generally pays more than it receives.
I would not work for no pay....after the first non payment I would be out the door and looking for a job that WOULD result in a pay check. Work for no pay or stay home with no pay....I'm staying home and using that time to find someone that will pay me for my work. No matter how much you enjoy your job or how much you "believe in" what you're doing, you still have to eat and have a roof over your head.
Said like someone born to work for someone else. Me...I work for myself.
I do work for "someone" else and they pay me well. Working for yourself can put you in touch with some of the dumbest bosses out there.
If I didn't see a paycheck after the first week, I would have immediately called my local or state labor board. To continue to be naive and report for work indicates acceptance of the non-payment conditions on some level and is incredibly stupid. The reason that these small colleges and VoTech's are failing is because they've mined the tax dollars enough and people have come forward to stop it. They loan the homeless money for classes at these schools! I certainly want people to get an education and be productive, but there have to be smarter guidelines in place. Not everyone can attend college or should, and certainly, not at my expense.
They should keep praying for their paychecks; however, having faith in the integrity of their Christian overlords didn't work out so well.
Why would you continue to show up to a place where they weren't paying you?
Maybe because the teachers care about the students and wanted to finish out the school year so the students could get their credits and graduate. I was in the exact same situation 3 years ago at a small private high school, and I worked for 2 months without pay. Out of over 50 faculty and staff at our school, only 5 left during that time. Call us foolish, but we had our reasons. Part of it is caring for students who you've gotten to know well, part of it is that we had contracts that ran through August, and if we left, we would void any chance of getting back pay. In the end, we did get our back pay, and our students were able to have prom, graduation, and receive their credits. It was not an easy 2 months, but I would do it all over again for my kids.
Moron:
1. it is a private faith based college.
2. while I don't agree with the president on everything, He is actually tring to prop up education.
3. With "let Detroit bankrupt" Romney, More tax cut, more tax cut for the wealthy. you will end up with less money for education.
4. Last time I checked, Texas has a Repulitart government, and the entire stated gets more money from the Fed government then it gives in taxes.
so... really... you blame the president for this????
Your Moronic, infantile language makes it difficult for me to think you actually came here to communicate. If you did however then it would be important for you to be aware that you are full of crap about Texas, we are one of the few States that send in more money than we get.
Another thing you should remember is that most of us here in Texas are Independent voters and even the registered Democrats and Republicans hardly ever vote a straight party ticket.
Looks like someone exposed Texas' dirty little secret!
Is that a bad thing?
Thats OBAMANOMICS for you!
Please explain using logic how this is attributed to Obama. As an independent voter, people like you are the reason I vote for Obama.
Yes, Obama decided that out of all of the national crisis that he had to worry about, he would somehow come up with a plan to cut the funding to that small school. For no good reason. He'd do it just because. You're a fcking idiot.