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AFT 1493 Survey Report: How well are we communicating with faculty?

 

At the end of March 2009, AFT 1493 conducted an online survey asking all district faculty to tell us what you think about our communications with you--what you like and donÕt like about The Advocate, the AFT 1493 website, aft1493.org, and whether you would prefer to receive more of your news from the union via our E-News email messages.

 

In general, you gave us positive feedback about The Advocate and our E-News and you told us that you thought our website needs improvements.  We are listening and we plan to redesign our website this summer to, hopefully, be ready for the beginning of the Fall semester.  There were also many specific comments and suggestions from the survey that we plan to act on in the near future.  Below are the results of the survey questions, with some selections from the close to 200 individual comments we received.

 

Participants:
Full-time tenured faculty members                                                                                                           69         60% 

Full-time non-tenured faculty members                                                                                                     2          2%

Part-time faculty members                                                                                                                      41         37%

Retirees                                                                                                                                                2          2%

Total                                                                                                                                                     114       100%

 

How do you access and read The Advocate:  

in the print version delivered to your faculty mailbox                                                                                   98         88%

in the online version by clicking on the link from our email announcement                                                   48         43%

in the online version by going to the aft1493.org website and clicking on The Advocate link                           9         8%

 

Do you find AFT 1493 E-News email messages useful?

Yes, I usually read them when I receive them and I usually find them useful                                                74         67%

No, I look at them, but I don't usually find them useful                                                                               29         27%

No, I don't usually read them at all                                                                                                           7          6%

Total                                                                                                                                                     108       100%   

 

Currently, The Advocate comes out three times a semester and AFT 1493 E-News email messages come out occasionally.  
Would you prefer to receive information from AFT 1493 through more frequent E-News email messages and
less frequent Advocate issues?

Yes, IÕd prefer more frequent AFT 1493 E-news messages and fewer Advocate issues                                 18         16%

No, IÕd prefer to continue the same frequency of both                                                                                 86         77%

No, IÕd prefer less AFT news altogether-- less frequent E-News messages & fewer Advocate issues              7          6%

Total                                                                                                                                                     109       100%

 

Please check any of the following article topics in which you are interested in reading about:

Faculty contract and negotiations issues                                     96     86%

Faculty grievances and faculty rights issues                                 84     76%

Part-timer issues                                                                       63     57%

District and state budget issues                                                  61     55%

Faculty profiles                                                                          36     32%

College programs, events or issues                                             44     40%

Pedagogical issues                                                                    45     41%

Union/labor issues                                                                     54     49%

Political and election issues                                                        29     26%

Education policy and Academic Senate issues                             64     58%

RetireesÕ issues                                                                         38     34%

 

Please check any of the following types of articles you like to read:

news articles                                                                             93         86%

editorial and opinion articles                                                        69         64%

feature articles                                                                           77         71%

columns                                                                                    48         44%

                                        

Please briefly describe what you think we could do to improve The Advocate.

Among the 60 responses to this question, some of the suggestions included the following:

- Include information on issues brought up by faculty in individual programs/divisions at each college that other faculty may not be aware of.

- Creative ideas to improve teaching conditions.

- Tell more about your variety of grievance issues handled

- More investigative/critical reporting on full-time and part-time issues in education and working conditions

- Better explanation of the District/College budget shortfall when we are growing in student FTES and have made substantial cuts

- More information for part-time employees

- More information regarding other ventures in which our faculty are involved so we could support our colleagues

- Provide a reader response column to union issues for questions or opinions

 

Have you accessed the aft1493.org website?

Yes, often                                                                                 12         11%

Yes, several times                                                                     27        24%

Yes, once or twice                                                                     38         32%

No, never                                                                                   37         33%

Total                                                                                         112       100%

 

If you have you accessed the aft1493.org website, why did you go there?
(Please check all answers that apply.)

to read our faculty contract or salary schedules                            50         67%

to read The Advocate                                                                  29         39%

to access sabbatical information                                                 10         13%

to access a faculty survey                                                          25         33%

to get other AFT 1493 information                                                29         39%

to read other districtsÕ faculty contracts or salary schedules          18         24%

to find links to other union, faculty or college information                20         27%

 

If you have you accessed the aft1493.org website, please briefly describe what you think we could do to improve the website.

Among the 36 responses to this question, some of the suggestions included the following:

- Update, redesign, organize content in a more user-friendly and attractive manner.

- Have a place for input. How can AFT help the community? Union members have a responsibility to working people and each other.

- The color scheme of the home page is jarring and difficult to read

- 1) links to officers e-mails; 2) better navigability; 3) more logical organization and layout 4) user friendliness; 5) easier on the eyes

- Make sure that it is up to date with the most recent information.

 

Do you have any other comments or suggestions regarding what you like or what could be improved in AFT 1493's communications with faculty?

Among the 49 responses to this question, some of the suggestions included the following:

- More opportunity for faculty feedback

- It would be nice to see what the other colleges nearby us earn for comparative purposes

- An explanation of what officers are responsible for or what they're about (something about them).

- It would be useful to have some information on what the status of conditions are and perspective from the union for upcoming challenges and issues.

- Perhaps an annual flyer/email to faculty with union contact info and a bullet list of things that one could contact the union about.

- It would be helpful for Academic Senate and AFT to look for places to work together more.

- Small seminars that offer educational opportunities regarding contract issues and other pertinent issues applicable for part time faculty.

- I would like some sort of introductory information about AFT.  Sometimes I feel the articles are written for people who are already well versed in labor issues.

 

 

 

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last updated 5-5-09 by Eric Brenner