Executive Committee Minutes
October 24, 2001
Present: Bess Chandler, Dan Kaplan, John Kirk, Katharine Harer, George Goth, Joaquin Rivera, Rick Hough, Romy Thiele, Paddy Moran, Karen Olesen, Victoria Clinton, Eric Brenner
The meeting began at 2:37 pm.
The minutes of the Sep 26 2001 meeting were not accepted as the members
of the Exec had only just received them. They, and the minutes of this
meeting, will be reviewed next time.
Joaquin Rivera and Katharine Harer gave the co-president's report.
Joaquin Rivera reported that the local had given $7000 to the bond
campaign and $2000 to Richard Holover's board campaign. Early polling on
the bond looks favorable but there are a lot of other bond issues on the
ballot this year.
Joaquin Rivera said that Kate Motoyama, president of the District
Senate, wants the Board to carry out a nationwide search for a permanent
chancellor. He said that he had found the current chancellor open and
supportive and had been working with us. For example, he helped get a
resolution in support of part time equity before the board. Katharine
Harer said that the true test of his ability to work with faculty will
come during negotiations. There was a question as to whether a procedure
analogous to that used to hire faculty is required (affirmative action,
fixed set of questions, etc). If it is not, the Joaquin said the search
would be meaningless as the Board likes the current chancellor and would
almost certainly hire him in the end. It is uncertain as to what the
District Senate is going to do on this issue.
Katharine Harer thanked Bess Chandler and Karen Olesen for arranging the
socials.
Katharine Harer said the quality of life survey was almost complete and
had been reviewed by the Skyline research committee and the head of
research at Skyline. It will be out next week. It will largely be done
on-line. All faculty will be notified by email, voice mail and with a
flyer. The information will include the location of on campus computers
for those without them. There was some concern the respond might be
skewed towards younger, more technologically adroit faculty.
Katharine Harer said that a petition had been sent from 21 members of
the CSM language arts faculty that addressed salary issues. She said the
tone of the petition, while not hostile, was not that supportive of the
union. She also said that many of the issues raised had been addressed
in the co-president's column in The Advocate but that the petitioners
did not seem to be aware of this.
Katharine Harer and Joaquin Rivera discussed negotiations. The first
meeting had been on Oct 8 at which the two sides identified the issues
they wish to be discussed. A memorandum by Jim Albanese, of the
District, and Joaquin Rivera listing these issues had been prepared. He
said that the number of issues raised by the District probably meant
that some of them would have to be dealt with in future years as each
side may have only one reopener this year. The next meeting is Oct 29
and will be devoted to process and ground rules. Negotiations themselves
cannot begin until the initial positions have been sunshined. Katharine
Harer said that the state will provide a free facilitator and we should
make use of this. Both said the District is going to have to reorganize
its priorities if they are serious about bringing faculty salaries up.
Dan Kaplan pointed out that one of the District's listed interest was
electronic education but that the District joint committee on that issue
had become moribund.
Paddy Moran discussed part time issues. She asked if any method for
distributing the $950,000 allotted by the state (see minutes 9/26/01)
had been established. Joaquin Rivera said that both the union and the
district want to rework the part time salary schedule and that, when
that was done, the money would be distributed and made retroactive.
Paddy then discussed the events scheduled for Part Time Equity Week,
which includes a state wide writing contest, with a $500 top prize, for
students on the topic of a favorite part time instructor. There will
also be a petition thanking Gov Davis for his support for part time
instructors and asking that he continue it.
Katharine Harer said that the CFT had sent a questionnaire about future
training needs. Dan Kaplan will send copies to members of the Executive
Committee.
Katharine Harer said there was no report form the Shared Governance
Committee. Later in the meeting, Dan Kaplan said that Holover was quite
interested in shared governance.
John Kirk reported on grievances. Another had been settled only one day
before it went to arbitration (which meant we still had to pay for the
arbitrator). A programs coordinator's hours had been upped from 30 to 36
per week. They are now back to 30 and the coordinator has dropped the
request for back pay. Coordinators of similar programs at the other two
schools work 37 hours per week and we may file a grievance in their
behalf. A level two grievance has gone to the chancellor on the issue of
part time seniority.
Bess Chandler said that the next meeting of the calendar committee had
yet to be scheduled as the deans are still drawing up 'mock' 15 week
calendars.
Dan Kaplan said that there needed to be more faculty and union
participation in the bond campaign phone bank.
Karen Olesen said that a meeting between Canada counselors and the
counseling task force had been rescheduled to a time few counselors
could attend. Joaquin Rivera said he would talk to Paula Anderson about
this.
The meeting adjourned at 4:15 pm.