This month, we say goodbye to our longest-serving EA board member, Mari Yancho. After nearly eighteen (!) years as one of our two Part-Time Representatives, Mari will be leaving the EA board to accept a full-time faculty position as an Academic Success Specialist. Thank you for your many years of service!
This interview with Mari was first published in the February 2014 issue of the Forward.
Faculty position at MCC: Long-time adjunct faculty in Music area, and academic advisor.
Educational Background: BME in Music Education from University of Michigan-Flint, MA in Music from Oakland University, EdD in Leadership nearing completion at Ferris State.
Why did you choose MCC? I’m a Flint native, and I came up through the Flint schools. I had a full-ride scholarship for my U-M education, and when I graduated, my guitar instructor - who taught at EMU, U-M Flint, and MCC - received a full-time position in Texas. When he left, he recommended me to fill his part-time position at Mott. I interviewed and auditioned, and I received the position.
How long have you been an EA rep? Since shortly after Steve Robinson became EA president in 1998. I was also a member of the bargaining team, as Part-Time rep, through several contracts.
What made you want to join the EA Board? Steve asked me to join the board itself - I don’t recall campaigning long and hard for the spot, let’s just say that. When I got on the board, I think I was a little skeptical about whether I would like being part of a union - I’d gotten into lots of arguments with rabid union supporters to whom their union was everything, and I think in Flint sometimes the unions forgot who they were working for. But the more I got involved with the MCCEA, what I saw was a faculty not trying to push their own issues, but always pushing to make things better for our students. Of course, I also felt that the part-timers needed more representation in matters like step levels that would make it more equitable for part-time faculty at the college. I joined the EA bargaining team because I felt that with a growing number of part time faculty, we needed to have a voice to address those kinds of things as well as our overall concerns with teaching. The full-time faculty was well represented on the bargaining team, but there wasn’t a strong voice to speak to part-time concerns.
You are a Part-time Representative. Can you explain briefly what that means, and what your role is on the EA board? I represent EA part-time members who come to me with issues they think need some attention, and I bring those issues to the attention of the rest of the board. I see my role as liaison between the part-timers and the full union board.
What’s your answer to those who say educators aren’t laborers, so labor unions have no place in education? Anybody who says that educators aren’t laborers should be forced to follow a teacher for a week and experience all of the duties and issues we have to do and deal with. I remember that when our EA voted to coaffiliate with the AFL-CIO, some people might have thought that teachers are on a higher plane than blue-collar workers. But are teachers really better than anyone else who works and raises a family? By the EA being affiliated with the other union, we have the support of that other union to help protect and advance our educational interests. And they have our support as well.!
What do you like about teaching at MCC? Working with our students and helping them to understand how music impacts and influences their whole lives, and helping them to turn on to that excitement. I also teach at universities where we don’t have the same level of need for developmental classes, and one of the strengths of the community college is that it doesn’t turn students away. It accepts them where they are and helps them to increase the skills they have, so that their adult lives can be more gratifying. Even before reading became mandatory at Mott, I would always advise my students to take the developmental reading classes when recommended, and tell them: “This is about improving life skills, like being able to buy a house or a car or deal with any kind of contract, with an adult reading level.”
What do you appreciate about being a member of the MCCEA? Overall, as a member of the adjunct faculty, I appreciate knowing that if I think there’s an issue that needs to be addressed, I have a place to go where there are people who’ll listen to that concern and help to resolve the issue. It’s hard to separate my board member self from my “just a teacher” self, but if an issue challenges my own teaching or work climate, it would be the same answer. I know there’s a group of people who look out for me. But as I said before, our union is important because it’s student focused. If I saw a group of people only trying to advance their own causes, I wouldn’t have been a board member this long.
Who’s someone you really admire and respect? Carolyn Mawby. She is Professor Emeritus and retired music faculty from the University of Michigan in Flint, and founder of the Carolyn Mawby Chorale, one of the premiere choral groups in the mid-Michigan area. She turned me from hating history of any sort into loving music history, and she created in all of her students a desire to share that passion and love of music with their own students. The Flint area has been truly blessed to have had her musical passion and expertise all these years, and she remains one of the strongest inspirations of my life.
Where do you like to go to relax? One of my and my husband’s favorite places is Mackinac Island in the fall. We went there on our honeymoon and fell in love with it. Since then, we try to go every year with friends whose kids grew up with ours–like a yearly pilgrimage.
What’s something that few people would guess about you? I’m basically a very shy person. But no one believes me. When I was asked this same kind of question in the Ferris doctorate program, I said that I was shy, and everyone laughed.