Photo I Courtesy of Quinsigamond Community College
Luis Pedraja, president of Quinsigamond Community College
April 16, 2025
QCC union votes no confidence in President Pedraja following staff terminations
Photo | Grant Welker
Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester
Members of a union representing workers at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester have passed a vote of no confidence in QCC President Luis Pedraja, after the school declined to reappoint three faculty and professional staff members who are people of color.
Pedraja is defending the decision, saying the matter is being investigated but the non-reappointment was the correct decision based on available evidence regarding the employees.
Following the no-confidence vote, union members are now engaging in a practice of work-to-rule, where they only adhere to the minimum requirements of their contracts, said Margaret Wong, president of the Massachusetts Community College Council labor union and the leader of MCCC’s QCC chapter
Wong said the non-reappointment of the three workers follows similar actions taken against two workers in the past two years.
“It's just so rare,” Wong said of the non-reappointments. “I can recall maybe one instance in my 25 years here of a professional staff unit member being let go in the first year, and it had to do with the charge of a crime. That was maybe 15 years ago. So it’s just so rare for it to happen that it was a shock to us.”
In a Tuesday statement to WBJ, Pedraja defended the non-reappointments and expressed disappointment the union didn’t wait for an investigation into the situation to conclude before the vote.
“Ensuring our employees, as well as our students, are supported and treated without bias is the cornerstone of our mission at QCC,” Pedraja wrote. “To this end, I immediately asked John Holloway, our executive director of access and opportunity, to review these concerns and check for any pattern of bias. I am dismayed that the MCCC union did not wait for Executive Director Holloway’s findings to hold their vote.
“It is important to remember that we cannot comment on personnel matters to protect the privacy of the individuals involved,” Pedraja wrote. “The reasons for the non-reappointments were thoroughly documented, and they were the appropriate decisions based on the available evidence. I have conveyed to the college that there will be full transparency in Executive Director Holloway’s findings.”
Wong dismissed Pedraja’s call to wait for the conclusion of the investigation as a delay tactic, saying Holloway just started his role at QCC and the school has a sufficient amount of data points to reach a conclusion.
“You will not get anyone who's just started at the college to be able to give you the data to cover whatever you might need,” Wong said. “We're trying to persuade [Pedraja] that he needs to act now and not wait till these individuals are permanently gone.”
Marc Dinary, a student at QCC who said he has been mentored by a program coordinator impacted by the non-appointment decision, said the faculty member was playing an important role in keeping himself and other students on track.
“He helped me,” Dinary said of the program coordinator. “He kept me accountable. He was always there for me when something bad was happening in my academic life, or in my personal life. Ever since I met him, my grades spiked up.”
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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