Minutes of
General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting
October 11, 2006 at
Present:
Meeting began at 2:25
Facilitator: Rick Hough
1.
Statements
from AFT members on Non-Agenda Items
N Dan reminded those who ordered tickets to El Teatro Campesino to give him a check to pay for them.
N Karen Oleson bought and displayed a very nice plant to publicly thank Annie Nichols for all her years of service to our faculty union. Thank you, Annie!
2.
Minutes of
the August 10, 2006 and September 13 EC meetings
3.
2007-2008
Academic calendar: Joaquin Rivera
Joaquin presented the EC with two calendar options, both preserving the four weeks between semesters. The decision was whether classes should start Aug. 15 or Aug. 21 and end May 23 or June 2. There were good arguments for both versions and a straw poll revealed the EC to be perfectly split: 7/7. Chaos ensued. Then Eric proposed we vote over email after polling the faculty on the calendar issue. We all liked the idea; we haven’t done a poll on a specific issue like this, and it is just the type of issue a poll can be helpful with resolving.
Ü Action: Eric will send out a poll to faculty. When that’s finished, Dan will send us the results and we’ll do an e-vote on the calendar.
4.
Concurrent
enrollment initiative: Ernie Rodriguez
Ernie reported that Ron Galatolo hopes to build our District’s enrollment (but only briefly) through concurrent enrollment, whereby our colleges would offer and teach courses at local high schools. The District promises that faculty would not be forced to teach these courses or to teach at high school sites and claims that the high school local unions are fine with this proposal. Jing Luan, the new vice chancellor, wants to meet with the EC because the District wants to move on this idea quickly. The following discussion was rich and varied. Some felt that we should have no part in concurrent enrollment—“it’s union busting!” one proclaimed—others felt it could be an enriching opportunity for faculty if we aren’t forced to participate. In fact, we are already doing concurrent enrollment in a limited fashion now. One concern was that this is another move like borrowing FTES; the law will change shortly and we won’t be able to do the double dipping anymore. We also wondered what Academic Senate has to say about the issue. Patty Dilko reported that at Cañada they hadn’t talked about it yet though Jing Luan is making the rounds to do so. Concurrent enrollment sounds a lot like program development, so we wondered if it wouldn’t be part of the 10+1 Academic Senate areas. We also questioned the value of putting time and energy into developing a concurrent enrollment strategy if it’s going to be outlawed in two years. The District is rushing to get this idea into practice, but we resolved to not be hurried along unnecessarily.
Ü Action: Let’s form a joint Academic Senate/AFT committee to look into this.
Ü Decision: Yes, Jing Luan can come to our next EC meeting.
Ü Decision: We will reach out to high school unions to see if they really are ok with this.
5.
AFT Local
1493 Budget Report: Dan Kaplan
We tabled the budget report till next month.
6.
November
2006 Ballot Propositions discussion
Dan passed out a table of proposition endorsements by CFT, CLF (California Federation of Teachers and California Labor Federation, respectively), and the two major-party gubernatorial candidates and wanted to have a discussion of the propositions. However, most present were not really ready or informed enough to have much of a discussion. Dan explained that Prop. 89 was being dodged by the CLF and was not endorsed by CFT because they want to be able to lobby and use campaign contributions as leverage—for good stuff, but as leverage just the same. Corporations outspend the unions ten to one, Dan pointed out, but the CNA (California Nurses Association) is behind 89 and they hope to leverage a single payer health initiative through it. Dan asked that we vote to endorse Prop. 89. We did so unanimously.
Ü Action: In a break with CFT, the San Mateo Federation of Teachers endorses Prop. 89.
7.
Department
of Construction Planning: Ernie Rodriguez
Ernie met with Harry Joel, who reported that the District wants to create a new department of construction and planning. Apparently Swinerton was swindling the District, so the District wanted to save $20 million in overseeing costs by managing the bond millions themselves with a new, six-position department. Ron is very concerned that AFT 1493 not suspect the District of empire building. Harry Joel led Ernie to believe that this department had not yet been created, but in fact, the Board had already approved it by the time Harry met with Ernie. Dan reported with much emphasis that there was not one word of public discussion held on the creation of this new department.
The department will not be paid completely with bond money and will perform some other duties beyond managing the construction (though it’s not at all clear what those duties will be), and Jim Keller will manage the group. The funding “model” looks like this:
|
|
Bond funded |
District funded |
|
2
executive directors |
90-95% |
5-10% |
|
2
project directors |
? |
? |
|
2
support staff |
? |
? |
Jeremy Ball, CSM Academic Senate president, suggested to Ernie prior to our meeting that the District give some faculty release time to be liaisons to this new department so there would be faculty input built into the management of the bond millions. We liked this idea.
We do not want money for this new department to come out of our pockets. We think the job announcements should state that the positions are bond funded and that they will disappear once the project is finished.
Ü Action: We are fine with Harry coming to talk with us, but we want more details, in writing first. Ernie will email him with our questions.
8.
Signatures are needed by January 22, 2007 to get this initiative on the ballot. Our Local gave $2500 to the cause, and SMCCD contributed $12,500. CTA is trying to sabotage the initiative for reasons this note taker either missed or didn’t understand. Dan requested that we all help gather signatures and that we give completed petition forms back to him. Anne asked for a short statement about the initiative to help explain it to potential petition signers. Dan said he’d send one out via email. It was also suggested that we collaborate with the Academic Senate and send out a flyer to all faculty. We all like the idea, but no one said they would take on this task.
9.
P/Ter
Reports: all 3 campuses
There were no part timer reports.
10. Campus Reports
CSM: Teeka raised a safety concern with the new student desks brought into the school. Classrooms are difficult to navigate, especially were there to be an emergency. She’s going to bring it to academic senate and to the safety committee, if there is one on her campus. She’ll let us know what happens.
Skyline: Some faculty are wondering if the new dues are factored into overload work as well. Yes, is the answer.
Cañada: Cañada is having a hard time forming tenure committees. If we’re asked to help out, please encourage our colleagues to do so. Dan needs the class size resolution electronically. Monica will write it up and send it to the negotiating team. Also, the fifteen-week calendar idea is coming up again at Cañada.
11. Grievances: John Kirk
Labor practices: In the nursing and broadcasting cases, we almost have settlements. In the part time librarians’ case, we are in talks still: John met with Harry Joel and Mike Claire, and they claim that lots of workers have variable schedules. But, John points out that hours of employment are one of our negotiated items. John will file an unfair labor practice complaint and a grievance. Apparently the contract doesn’t say they can’t vary librarians’ schedules, but past practice and human decency suggest they shouldn’t.
Sick buildings: It seems that the cancers are likely not linked to the storage closet at Skyline. OSHA’s investigation is in progress still. We will get a report from them when they’re finished.
Professional development: The District may have been shorting our professional development funds. They’re supposed to put in $50,000 per year—it’s in our base spending in the budget! —and it’s supposed to carry over from one year to the next. It seems they may not have been doing the carrying over. John is looking into it.
Hybrid courses: Faculty in CIS at CSM are being asked to teach two sections of one course for the FLC load of one section. (They are collapsing an online section and an on campus section into one section, but making the teacher continue to provide both formats while crediting him/her for only one class.) John has a meeting scheduled on this issue a couple of weeks hence.
12. Retreat planning follow-up: Teeka James
The social committee has El Teatro Campesino in full swing, but besides that hasn’t met again. The training committee is in process of making the first grievance-training workshop happen at Cañada. The activism and governance research groups haven’t gotten started yet.
Teeka expressed concern that we are headed toward our same pattern of not being able to follow through on our plans because we feel over extended in all our other roles on campus. Although we all have lots to do, are we choosing to prioritize our other committee work over our union committee work? Katharine suggested we take a half hour of the next EC meeting to regroup and re-energize.
13. District Committee on Budget and Finance
Report: John Kirk
Right now the District contributes to the retirement benefits fund on a pay-as-you-go basis, only funding the District’s current liability. The District has $24,000,000 set aside in an irrevocable trust, so the money can be used for other needs (and the District does use the money for other things). A study needs to be done to ensure we’re set for up to thirty years down the road. (This note taker [Teeka] is not at all confident she’s got this right.]
14. District Shared Governance Council Report:
Teeka James
The smoking policy went around in circles in the last DSGC meeting, for the classified representative, Charles Jones, was adamantly opposed to having the language “or to ban smoking” in the policy. Carla Campillo, Skyline Academic Senate President, said she would be adamantly opposed to NOT having that language in the policy. The result was an excellent example of the power of consensus decision making; we chewed it over and over and ended up with something we all liked better and could all live with: the campuses can decide to extend the 20 foot minimum distance from doors, windows, and vents as they see fit, even to the edge of the campus.
Jing Luan is now co-chairing the committee with Nick Kapp. He made a small speech at the last meeting stating that as far as DSGC structure goes, he thinks the group can be more efficient, and he wants us all to reflect on the purpose of the group (to advise, not to draft policy). He did not think Barbara Christianson was right in taking it upon herself to draft the smoking policy revision.
15. Affiliation Reports:
The SMLC is doing
phone banking and precinct walks; let Dan know if you’re interested in participating.
The Bay Ten feels that the Community College Initiative may be our last chance
for good community college funding. Dan also urged anyone who was interested to
consider attending the monthly Bay Ten meeting (in
16. Open discussion
No further discussion. Teeka James will facilitate the November meeting at Skyline. Anne Stafford will facilitate the meeting in December.
Meeting adjourned, 4:45.
Respectfully,
if lengthily, submitted by,
Teeka James
AFT 1493 Executive Committee Minutes