FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING
Call to Order: F. van Hartesveldt called the meeting to
order at
Present: , Jennifer Batten, C. Lee Brown, Marie Burns,
Lyttron Burris, Mike Campo, Anita Cook, Larry Crossman, Katie Danko, Beth
Foster, Dick Godfrey, Carolyn Grin, Dan Hearn, Stacey Heisler, Amy Kerkstra, Robert
Long, Bernie Manker, Bob Monaldo, Brian Morris, Jeff Neumann, Kathleen Owens, Wayne
Rodgers, Mark Saur, Roland Sherman Joel Swets, Fred van Hartesveldt, Douglas
Wabeke, George Zeeff
Absent: Nickie Alexander, Julie Hess, Jonathon
Russell, Marilyn Smidt, Jeff Spoelman,
Visitors: John Cowles, John Doane, Fred Garbowitz
Agenda: Today’s agenda was approved with the
addition of two items: 1) A Request for Money, and 2) Advice About Amending
Constitution for Name Changes.
Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the
Faculty Presentations from the Floor. K. Danko commented briefly on updates and improvements that she and A. Cook made to the Faculty Association Web page, which can be accessed at the link at the top of these minutes.
Secretary’s Report. No new items reported.
Retirement
Coordinating Council. B. Foster
reported the following points of interest to public school employees from the
· Graded Scale Premium Bill (HB5682) will have a committee hearing. RCC is asked to be prepared to testify in opposition. RCC also urges members to write opposition letters to their House representatives.
· Mail-Order Pharmacy Bill (Senate 1095) has passed the Senate. There is also a House version of the bill. RCC urges support of these bills.
· An analysis of the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System by the Citizens Research Council prompted estimates that in four years contributions for retiree pension and health benefits will amount to 20% of a school’s payroll. Several recommended solutions are offered in the council’s report which can be viewed online at www.crcmich.org.
Grievance Report. F. Garbowitz gave the following updates on grievances:
·
Level 1, benefits of faculty on sabbatical—Faculty
member on sabbatical denied IIPD grant and payroll deductions for retirement,
both of which administration defends with college policy.
·
Level 1, adjunct seniority rights—Two adjunct
faculty expressed concern about recall rights.
Unresolved in initial meeting with administration. Discussion will continue.
·
Level 1, overload rotation—Two faculty missed
normal rotation pick for overload when a retiree’s classes were reassigned. A meeting is scheduled this coming week.
·
Grievance #146—Laid off member’s
responsibilities given to an employee who isn’t a Faculty Association member. Grievance is scheduled for arbitration
December 2.
·
Grievance #150—Instructor denied a course in
base load for lack of qualifications though the instructor had previously
taught the class. Denied at
Level 2. Grievance is at Level 3
with a meeting scheduled for this coming week.
·
Grievance #151—Faculty taught 400 extra minutes
during first summer session 2004 due to error in scheduling. Met at Level 2; awaiting a response.
· Grievance #152—Faculty denied a 42-week contract for lack of sick days and service time. Meeting with administration scheduled for this coming week.
President’s Report. F. van Hartesveldt gave the following
summaries and updates:
· Board of Trustees. At its meeting this past Monday the board received a report on enrollment and indicated some concern about the number of students GRCC turns away. The latest auditor’s report shows that assets exceed liabilities by $9.9 million; 21% of total budget is unrestricted assets. B. Manker addressed the board advocating that Chris Jacques, assistant dean on temporary contract, be offered a permanent contract. The board also discussed communication with faculty.
· Seniority Lists. F. van Hartesveldt received seniority lists and forwarded them to department heads. Members can check their position on the seniority list by contacting either their department heads or F. van Hartesveldt.
· Association Contract. The contract has been proofread by all of the faculty teams and is closer to publication. The proofreading done by faculty must now be reconciled with proofreading done by administration.
· Adjunct Attendance at CTL Sessions. The word “required” was used twice in an invitation to attend Center for Teaching and Learning sessions received by adjunct faculty. The dean’s office has sent a second e-mail indicating that attendance is not required.
· Exam Schedule. In response to several reported conflicts in the exam schedule, D. Godfrey and others have been asked to review the schedule to resolve those conflicts.
·
Building
Name Change. The Association proposal
to rename the
·
Parking. F. van Hartesveldt will meet with the nursing
department faculty today do discuss their concern about paying the full-time monthly
fee when most of them are off campus for the majority of their work day.
· New GRCC Conflict of Interest Policy. In response to the new conflict of interest policy issued from Bob Partridge’s office on September 23, Cynthia Singleton had invited any interested party to work with administration to revise the policy. She has clarified the request as being directed to faculty only. Faculty interested in having input regarding the conflict of interest policy should contact F. van Hartesveldt.
· Evaluation of Administrators. Administration is making evaluation of administrators an annual activity. Faculty desiring input in that process should contact F. van Hartesveldt.
·
Students
Self-enrolling After Second Class Session.
Institutional Research reports that their investigation using PeopleSoft
revealed 11 students college-wide who enrolled after two class sessions. Though the Council’s informal polling reports
17 late enrollees in one department, it was the Council consensus that further
pursuit was not warranted.
· Foundation Board. A sub-committee of the Foundation board is meeting on October 26. The full board meets on October 29 to continue work on reforming and revitalizing itself and improving fund raising. A fund-raising campaign is being planned to coincide with this year’s ninetieth anniversary of the college.
· Scholarship Committee (Financial Aid Office). Though interest in addressing issues has been vocalized by administration, action has yet to be witnessed.
·
Allocations
Committee. Three faculty members
have expressed interest in the committee.
F. van Hartesveldt has contacted Student Activities about the work of
the committee and awaiting a response.
Discussion/Action
Items
·
Request
for Contribution to
· Constitution Revisions. Two weeks ago Council proposed changing the constitution to allow amendments for name changes without the vote of the membership at large. Online voting is now available and could be used for this vote, but would exclude over 200 adjunct and a few fulltime faculty who are not on GRCC e-mail system. Through a lengthy discussion the Council attempted to determine the best method for assuring entire membership is alerted of the election, has access to the election, and that ample time is allowed for filing ballots.
Council consensus: Send to members’ school mailboxes a written notification of upcoming online election to amend constitution to allow for simple name changes without the vote of the membership at large. Include notice that this election initiates online voting as the Association standard.
·
MOTION: The Faculty Council voice opposition to the proposed change from a credit union to a savings bank. J. Swets; support, S. Heisler. Carried 14-1.
F. van Hartesveldt will issue a press release. D. Godfrey commented that the vote is for two purposes: (1) members as individual account holders, and (2) the Faculty Association as an account holder.
· Meeting Date Change. F. van Hartesveldt indicated that he had received a suggestion to change the Council meeting day. Discussion of the suggestion revealed a lack of support from reps.
·
Announcement. B. Manker announced that Peg Hallacy will be
requesting meetings with departments to discuss future technology needs. He encouraged departments to take advantage
of the opportunity while funds are available.
Next
Meeting.
Adjournment. Motion to adjourn, R. Long; second, J. Swets. The meeting was adjourned at
Submitted by C. Lee Brown, Secretary