Minutes of
General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting
April, 2007 at
Present:
Guests: David Clay, Scott Haine, Jane Hetrick, Anthony Perez, Lesli Sachs, Michael Stanford, Lezlee Ware
Meeting began at 2:23
Facilitator: Yaping Li
- Welcome and Introductions
- Statements from AFT members on
Non-Agenda Items
Ø Rick will facilitate our May meeting.
Ø When will copies of the contract be ready? Dan said maybe next week; let him know if you want one.
- Minutes of the March 14 EC meeting
Approved.
- Concurrent Enrollment
Motivations:
a.
b. CSM is facing a $1,000,000 budget shortfall (the total shortfall is actually higher, but the District intends to take care of part of it). This shortfall will result in 55-60 sections taught by adjunct faculty being cut in Fall 2007.
Initially all three campuses were going to expand concurrent enrollment in the same way; now, Skyline and Cañada will continue to offer a few SMCCD faculty in the high schools while the District wants CSM to develop a “blended” system.
Jing Luan and Harry Joel promised to form a task force, but this did not happen. In April Ernie received a draft of an agreement between CSM/SMCCD and the high school district. AFT’s attorney recommended that AFT demand immediate negotiations with our District.
Ernie asked for the EC’s permission to begin an informal dialogue with the District (which was granted) and volunteered to co-author an invitation to the following constituencies to discuss possible concurrent enrollment models:
CSM, Skyline, and Cañada Academic Senates
CSM, Skyline and Cañada Administrations
AFT
It turns out, unbeknownst to AFT, that an arrangement similar to the one proposed for CSM has already been implemented at Cañada. A high school history teacher is currently teaching a Cañada course. The instructor was apparently resistant to being evaluated by Cañada faculty and was offered a Political Science course even though he didn’t meet minimum qualifications. The high school (Carlmont) has been empowered to make hiring decisions. There has been no consultation with Cañada’s Academic Senate or Committee on Instruction, and there is concern that the Senate is not fully aware of what has been going on. Ernie agreed to contact the Senate Presidents at Cañada and Skyline to update them.
Concern: It seems that our District wants CSM to rubber stamp existing AP courses with our course titles.
- Distance Education Advisory Committee
Removed from agenda; Committee hasn’t met.
- AFT Website and Logo redesign
- P/T Office Hours Update
The District still will not call the supplemental, one time payment to P/T faculty “interest.”
Harry Joel had said that we would have to wait until the next round of negotiations to deal with the issue of office hour payments for P/T faculty who taught short courses. However, Ron Galatolo agreed that we do not. A meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 16, to be attended by Ernie, Katherine, Vicki and Harry Joel, to look, on a case-by-case basis, at each P/T faculty member who taught a short course in Fall 2006. AFT thinks that approximately 20-50 P/T faculty were affected.
- Grievances
Ø Only one is continuing (see March 14 minutes). P/T librarians were not give contracts for the current academic year. Though the District is arguing that past practice was not to give contracts to P/T librarian, at least five P/T librarians have had contracts over the last 25 years. AFT has until April 20 to respond.
There will be a PERB hearing.
Ø On an unrelated note, a question came up about P/T seniority and what happens when classes are cancelled. If a class is cancelled three weeks or more before the semester begins, a P/Ter can “bump” another P/Ter with less seniority. If a class is cancelled less than three weeks before the semester begins, the scheduled instructor cannot be “bumped” even if he/she has less seniority than another P/Ter.
- Negotiations Survey Results
Removed from agenda, as Joaquin was unable to attend meeting.
- Compressed calendar preliminary EC
discussion
Cañada is very interested.
Given the past divisions among faculty regarding a compressed calendar, the EC agreed that we need to gather data regarding the impact of compressed calendars, and survey faculty. (See article distributed in March EC packet, “What Can We Say about the Impact of Compressed Calendars and Courses on Student Success?” in Senate Rostrum, February 2007.)
When the District last considered changing to a compressed calendar (2001), there was a good deal of opposition from Math and Science faculty at CSM. Katherine suggested that it would be helpful to hear from Math and Science faculty at Cañada who favor a compressed calendar, specifically to hear how they envision making it work for their students.
Most current opposition comes from Vocational Ed.; the longer days resulting from a compressed calendar would be a greater burden for these students, who already have a full day.
The calendar gets negotiated starting in October 2007 for Fall 2008.
Eric will create a survey and Cañada faculty will write an article for The Advocate.
- AFT Office at CSM
The District had floated the idea of moving the AFT office to the District office, claiming that we are facing a space shortage in the new faculty office building at CSM. They have even argued that since AFT represents faculty in the entire District, CSM shouldn’t have to bear the burden of housing it. The District is now proposing to move the AFT office to the new Administration/Student Services building at CSM.
Dan will write a strongly worded letter to the District stating that the AFT office must be located in a faculty office, as originally negotiated.
- CFT-led May 7 Negotiations Workshop
To be held Monday, May 7 from 1:00 – 5:00 at CSM, Building 18, Room 205. The workshop will be led by Julien Minard, CFT Training Director). All members of AFT 1493’s negotiating team will also be present. Ernie emphasized that negotiations are the heart and soul of our strength as a union. Currently we have only three members on our negotiating team; ideally we would have 6 or 7.
Dan also announced a Union Leadership Institute Negotiations Workshop this summer (June 25-27) and encouraged EC members to attend.
- Open discussion/meeting critique
All agreed that suggested time limits have made meetings more efficient.
Meeting adjourned: 4:19
AFT 1493 Executive Committee Minutes