San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493
Minutes of
General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting
April 11, 2012 at Cañada College
EC Members Present:
Eric Brenner, Chip Chandler, Victoria Clinton, Dave Danielson, Sandi Raeber Dorsett, Nina Floro, Katharine Harer, Teeka James, Dan Kaplan, Yaping Li, Monica Malamud, Lisa Suguitan Melnick, Lucia Olson, Joaquin Rivera, Doug Sherman, Anne Stafford, Masao Suzuki, Elizabeth Terzakis, Lezlee Ware, Rebecca Webb
Other Attendees:
Margaret Hanzimanolis (Cañada), Michelle Kern (CSM), Eugenia Lau (Cañada), Karen Olesen (Cañada), Carole Rhodes (Cañada), Zev Kvitky (CFT Field Rep)
Meeting began: 2:30
Facilitator:
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Statements from AFT (non EC) members on Non-Agenda Items
Margaret announced that the 10th annual COCAL (Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor) conference will be held in Mexico City August 9-12.
Margaret also announced the nationwide The Adjunct Project blog, a place where adjunct faculty can share information about salaries, working conditions, and union membership.
3. *Minutes of March 14, 2012 AFT Meeting
Approved unanimously with one correction.
4. Section Cuts in the District for the Fall 2012 Semester
At CSM Division Deans have been asked to cut 5.5%.
At Skyline, at least one Division has been asked to cut 7%.
At Cañada there have been no reports of class cuts.
A related issue: there is no clear answer yet about whether there is a direct connection between the number of students lost as a result of the Plan Ahead, Pay Ahead program and the size of the class cuts on the two campuses.
5. PERB Complaint Update
PERB ruled initially that AFT 1493 has a solid case in its Unfair Labor Practice suit against the District for its insistence that participation in development and assessment of SLOs be used in faculty evaluations. The District is not willing to settle the issue through an informal hearing unless AFT agrees that faculty can be required to include SLOs on their syllabi. AFT’s position is that this issue must be negotiated. A hearing is scheduled for April 18.
Given that this issue will be addressed in the new PERC (Performance Evaluation Review Committee), and that continuing with the case will likely be expensive, Joaquin has been talking with Harry Joel about the possibility of AFT withdrawing the case if the District agrees to continue with the status quo until PERC completes its work.
6. *The Contract Campaign: Update on Petitioning in Support of AFT in Fact Finding:
Fact finding is scheduled for May 1-2.
Signed petitions should be delivered to Dan at the AFT office at CSM. Any feedback received from faculty in the process of collecting signatures should be forwarded to Joaquin.
7. Part-Time Parity Survey Update
Monica suggested that we wait until May, after the EC elections and the Senate elections, to distribute the survey. The EC agreed.
8. Progressive Tax Initiative Campaign
The push is on to gather signatures for the newly merged compromise tax initiative by the April 27 deadline. Though CFT and many community organizations had been pushing a truly progressive tax initiative, they agreed to join forces with Governor Brown, in the hopes of getting an initiative on the November that has a solid chance of passing. The new initiative, which is predicted to generate $2.1 billion in new revenue, calls for a smaller sales tax increase and a more progressive income tax increase, which will remain in place for seven years rather four.
9. SLO Resolutions Discussion
The Academic Senates at each of our three colleges intend to draft their own resolutions on the role of faculty in developing and assessing SLO’s, and the District Academic Senate will work to synthesize those resolutions in drafting one of its own.
Teeka stressed her confidence that AFT and the Senates can create resolutions that AFT supports and that satisfy the Senates’ concerns about accreditation.
Lezlee voiced concerns of some faculty who feel Program Review is too heavily focused on SLOs and who wonder what this emphasis will mean for the faculty evaluation process.
Teeka and Lezlee agreed to work with the Senates on developing the resolutions.
10. 2012-2014 AFT Elections: Final Call for Nominations
Additional final nominations were submitted at today’s meeting. Electronic ballots will be sent to all faculty in the next few days; voting will close at midnight May 2.
11. District Election of the Board of Trustees?
Traditionally, Board of Trustee elections in San Mateo County have been held at-large. Because the county is so large, running for the Board has been expensive. As the result of a lawsuit challenging the current election system, our current Board of Trustees has decided to support the change to district elections. If the lawsuit were successful, a judge would determine the number of districts and their boundaries, a process the Board would prefer to control. One result of a change to District elections would be that a candidate with limited financial resources could now run a viable campaign.
12. Grade Submission Deadline
For this current semester, there are only five days between the last day of final exams and the submission deadline for final grades (May 31). Many faculty are concerned that this shift is already altering the kinds of assignments and exams we give our students. Faculty at Cañada have also been told they must submit TrakDat information for all classes by that same deadline (even though this is an artificial deadline).
13. AFT1493.org Email Addresses for all EC Members: Update
Eric has nothing to report at this point.
14. Statements from EC Member on Non-Agenda Items.
1. Elizabeth announced the case of Northeastern Illinois University Professor Loretta Capeheart and urged AFT members to learn about her legal case challenging the University’s denial of her right to free speech. Elizabeth will email us information about Prof. Capeheart.
2. Dan expressed a huge “THANK YOU” to Yaping and Monica, both of whom will be stepping down from their current EC positions, for their years of service.
3. Dan also announce that our attorney, Bob Bezemek, will be making a presentation at CFT involving . . .
Meeting adjourned: 4:40
*Action Item