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Present: Chip Chandler, Katharine Harer, George Goth, Romy Thiele, Karen Olesen, Eric Brenner, Annie Nichols, Teeka James, Dan Kaplan, Victoria Clinton, Jenny Saarloos, Eric Brenner, Norman Prince, Nina Floro

Guests: Connie Beringer (District Academic Senate President-Elect), Jai Kumar (Canada bookstore manager), Sally Welch (Skyline bookstore manager)

The meeting began at 2:30 pm.

The minutes of April 23, 2003 were accepted.

Jai Kumar and Sally Welch briefed the Executive Committee about to outsource (AKA privatize) all bookstore services. The current employees may apply for the contract. The District says classified employees will be retained with current salaries and benefits but it is unclear what will happen with the supervisors. They did not believe that the impact on the community and the change from a not for profit to a profit institution have been properly studied. They stated that the Board of Trustees wanted the bookstores to enter into e-commerce and they said they wished to do that, too, but were unable to do so for the lack of a proper encryption system. They said that a study of the community colleges which had outsourced their bookstores, most lately West Valley, indicated they had been less than happy with the results. There were questions as to where shared governance was in all of this and as to what would happen with the funds the library provides to college organizations (they fund, for example, the library membership in the county wide library system and the armored trucks that carry District cash). They presented articles indicating that many large schools, after a period of using privatized bookstores, were returned to institutional bookstores. It was stated that it was necessary to get CSEA to move aggressively on this, which so far they have not done. A motion was made and passed unanimously to send a letter to the Board of Trustees in support of the institutional bookstores and protesting the lack of shared governance on this. We will also send an informational e-mail to the faculty.

Katharine Harer gave the co-president's report. She said that the Chancellor is seeking the right to involuntarily transfer faculty between campuses. It can currently be done if there is a surplus of faculty in a particular discipline, but there is disagreement as to the definition of surplus. The particular issue is that at Canada there are NO tenured English instructors and the Chancellor wants to transfer a full time instructor from either Skyline or CSM there. He says this will provide a 'faculty leader,' while we have said it will produce a very unhappy faculty member. At CSM the person most likely to be affected has been told that the AFT will fight the case. All Skyline and CSM English faculty have been asked if they would wish to voluntarily transfer and there were no takers.

Katharine Harer said she had had several meetings at Canada and had heard a lot of horror stories. The managerial style there is breaking lives and the AFT has been asked to take a role. Certainly we have been handling a lot of grievances there and it is uncertain what we should do next. The writing of a letter has been, for now, scotched because of the fear of retaliation. She said that the Chancellor seems to be unwilling to take leadership to address the situation. It was decided that we would seek an audience with some of the Trustees to discuss the situation. If there is no improvement, we will consider further steps, perhaps involving the press.

Victoria Clinton gave a report on how the nursing program had been moved from CSM to Canada, with out a fig for shared governance.

Dan Kaplan will do a survey of the members of the Exec to see when would be a good time for another retreat.

Jenny Saarloos gave a report on COCAL (Coalition On Contingent Academic Labor) meeting held at UCB several weeks ago. There were part-time instructors from the UC, CSU and CC systems. She said it was very up and gave her many good ideas for campus equity week. Teeka James said material could be developed for a teaching unit in such subjects as English, political science and sociology.

Dan Kaplan said that an attempt is being made to exclude the AFT from campus shared governance, although CSEA and AFSCME are included. Apparently there is some concern about the union and the Senate getting along so well. It was suggested that the AFT be given one of the Senates four seats but it was agreed that they needed all four (one from each campus, one from the District). Connie Beringer said she thought the AFT should be represented and that it would be.

Katharine Harer said that, regarding parity negotiations, there isn't even agreement on definitions. She doubts there will be any movement before September.

Connie Beringer said that the Board of Trustees and the District Senates have signed a letter of agreement to consult collegiality on 10+1. This can mean either a) 'primarily relieance' or b) 'multual agreement.' The Senates had voted to divide the 10+1 items roughly 50-50 but that the Senate wanted all a). The Board, by the way, need not necessarily do at the Senate's want. She said the agreement was excellent and very strong for the senates and faculty.

On Program Discontinuance, Connie Beringer said she had met with the Chancellor, had written the meeting up, had sent him a copy but had not heard back. She said the Program Discontinuance proposal had been well received by the Board of Trustees.

Dan Kaplan reported on grievances. We won one at Canada (where else?). A part timer had been told he/she would not get any classes because he/she had not turned in a performance form. He/she said he/she had and, in addition, had seniority. The individual has been given an extra class during summer school. Several other grievances are in the works at you know where.

Karen Olesen wants to plan a social for either October 3 or 10, although there was some concern about her suggestion it be at the CSI lab in San Mateo.

Teeka James said that, because of the violent student incident at CSM last fall and the way it was handled, the vice president on student services now has an advisor on student behavior.

Dan Kaplan passed out a 10 point program on community colleges prepared by David Mandelkern, who the Exec endorsed as a candidate for the Board of Trustees.

The meeting adjourned at 4:50 pm.

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