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San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493

Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting
of January 31, 2001


Present: Bess Chandler, Dan Kaplan, John Kirk, Katharine Harer,  George

Goth, Paddy Moran, Annie Nichols, Pat Deamer, Karen Olesen, Nina Floro,

Carol Hansen, Linda Vogel, Romy Thiele

 

 The meeting began at 2:30.

 

 The minutes of Dec 13, 2000 were approved.

 

Katharine Harer gave the co-president's report.

 

 a) Kate Motoyama, president of the District Senate, has sent us a

letter for our comments asking the Administration to reinstate the trust

committee on hiring. The tone of the letter was discussed and several

incidents that were outside of the agreed upon policy were mentioned.

 

 b) in a separate communication from Kate Motoyama, she has indicated

that she believes the calendar committee has insufficient AFT

representation and is now administrator heavy. Our representatives are

currently Bess Chandler and Mike Burke; Romy Thiele and Annie Nichols

volunteered to be on the committee. Several years ago the Chancellor had

indicated that calendar reform was a priority issue but then it was

pretty much dropped until recently. [Note: there will be a workshop on

'compressed calendar's at the AFT convention.]  It was noted that

changing to a compressed calendar, which would have longer class

sessions, might seriously impact on part-timers who work at several

institutions.  Linda Vogel said that it was important to look at other

institutions using compressed calendars to see if they had been

successful, particularly with regards to enrollment. [Note: Another

workshop at the AFT convention will discuss issues around non-growing

districts, such as ours. Dan Kaplan said that there is indication that

high school enrollments in San Mateo are actually decreasing.] Katharine

Harer said the Advocate should start having articles about possible

calendar changes.

 

 c) in another communication from Kate Motoyama, she said that the

District Curriculum Committee had not met for six years and that she is

concerned that information gathered in program review might be used for

program elimination. P at Deamer said that a meeting between the AFT and

the District Senate on curriculum review should be set up. Katharine

Harer said it was unclear what role the AFT could play in curriculum.

Dan Kaplan said that the law does not exclude bargaining agents from the

area. George Goth said that the last thing the union should be involved

in is issues such as common course numbering which are extremely time

consuming and would distract us from more important matters.

 

 d) Katharine Harer said that in late December a letter to the other

unions and the District Senate had been sent out on the need to meet

regarding productivity. The other unions have not formally responded,

but this may be because they are undergoing leadership changes. The

District Senate is to discuss it soon.

 

 e) Katharine Harer discussed the Governor's proposed budget, which has

a 3.9% COLA and 3% for growth, as well as $66 million for improvements

in the part timer situation. Dan Kaplan said that a statewide survey of

part timers had been carried out, that Canada had been one of the target

campuses and that the response there had been abysmal, largely, he

thought, due to poor notification.

 

 Paddy Moran discussed the Conferenceon Contingent Academic Labor which

had been held at San Jose City College in mid January 2001.  She said

that about 170 people had attended and she had been quite moved by the

response of people to that pain that part timers feel. A video entitled

'Degrees of Shame' had been shown and we will arrange for a showing of

it at some future time (Paddy Moran has a copy). There was an excellent

workshop on guerilla media and the meeting, in general, had been very

well organized and high energy. Katharine Harer said she and Joaquin

Rivera will meet with Paddy Moran to develop a campaign around part time

issues.

 

 Dan Kaplan said there had been an exchange of letters between the union

and the Chancellor regarding the new faculty 'bootcamp' since the

stipend paid, and other items, is a negotiable issue. One item in

particular, that the stipend is paid only if the faculty member

completes the entire program, is in direct violation of the contract,

which states that the employee will be paid for work done.

 

 John Kirk discussed grievances. There are no new ones but two old ones

are still on the table. In the first, a union leader was involuntarily

reassigned off campus, a satisfactory verbal agreement was reached but

it was then denied. One outcome of this is that it may be necessary to

get all future grievance agreements in writing. In the second, which may

soon have to go to arbitration, a coordinator was given an increased

load with no increase in compensation. John Kirk said that a review of

the district policy on compensation of coordinators had indicated that

there was no consistent policy.

 

 Dan Kaplan said that he and Nina Floro had attended the Bay Faculty

Association meeting at which the 'California Communty College

Development Initiative' was discussed. This would, apparently, train

faculty to become administrators by paying for them to attend an EDD

program.

 

 Anyone wishing to be considered as a delegate to the AFT convention of

March 9 - 11 should contact the AFT office soon so that their names can

be added to the roster. Currently our delegates are Paddy Moran, Linda

Vogel, Katharine Harer, Bess Chandler and Joaquin Rivera.

 

 

 The meeting adjourned at 4:25 pm.


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