http://www.grccfaculty.com
December 14, 2007 

Call to Order:  F. van Hartesveldt called the meeting to order at 7:03 a.m., Wrestling Room in the Ford Fieldhouse. 

Approval of Agenda:  Approved as written. 

President’s report: 

• Negotiations have reached a point of impasse.  The state mediator has said that neither
  side is going any further.  The next step is fact finding. 
• At this point, the Administration can impose a contract but has stated a contract will not be imposed this semester.
• Issue of equity is a big concern.  Our negotiating team is using salary comparisons with
  other community colleges in the state.  Administration is using K-12, CEBA, Campus
  Police, and ESP for salary comparisons. 
• Another issue regarding equity is the salary increase of President Olivarez.  He received a
  very large raise at a time when all College employees were told to scrimp and save.  Other campus groups settled for 1% or 2% raises while top administrators took much higher percents.  Recent Administration raises have been smaller, but that was only possible
  because of their large raises a few years back.
• Board of Trustees (BOT) may not completely understand how unhappy faculty members are about these matters. 
• Faculty members are encouraged to attend the BOT meeting at the 5^th floor of the Main
  building on Monday, December 17, 2007, and future board meetings, until this is resolved.  Signs and pins are available at the Faculty Association office, 509 Main Building.
• Addressing the Board is up to the faculty member.  There is an opportunity for faculty to
  speak at the beginning and end of meeting.  It is likely the Press will be present.  If the
  Press reporter asks questions, you can answer or defer to F. van Hartesveldt.  If you talk to
  the Press, you may be quoted in the paper. 
• The next Faculty Association meeting is scheduled for January 8, 2008, at 7 a.m., before
  the start of Learning Day.  Faculty members are encouraged to attend to show solidarity.  Several options are being discussed for what can be done to show discontent.
• Faculty members are encouraged not to unload unhappiness toward mid-level
  administrators and staff because they have little to do with negotiations. 
• ESP has expressed support for faculty. 
• A suggestion was made to meet with the BOT, Administrators, and faculty. 
• A comment was made that the Chair of the BOT no longer supports faculty because he
  allowed large raises to top administrators and minimized everyone else’s pay increases.  

Negotiations report & discussion:  J. Spoelman reported the following:

• Administration is proposing a 2% increase for three years on salary schedules and adjunct rates.  However, the total increase would be less than 2% because it would exclude
  overload rate, advanced degrees, longevity training, and longevity service.  Also, the Administration proposal would increase faculty MESSA premiums by the same rate as the college MESSA premium increases.  The total proposal works out to just under 1.5%
  increases for most faculty members. 
• Faculty proposal is 2.85% increase for three years, applied to everything, with no increase
  in MESSA premiums.  When the insurance co-pay was put in place, a three-year projection
  was completed showing rate increases.  The College has not reached what had been forecasted; therefore, no increase seems warranted. 
• Some items have been agreed to such as pay equity for job training, department head pay,
  and pay rate changes for applied music instructors.
• The Negotiations team has proposed that the college pay up to 12 hours for tuition reimbursement for spouses and children.  Administration proposal is that the current four
  hours be made available to children in addition to spouses.  

Questions and Answers

• Q – What is the difference in financial terms?  How many dollars are we apart? 
• A – The cost analysis was originally $1.2 million in the first year.  Since then, we’ve
  cut our offer by $500,000 and they by $190,000, so still about $500,000 apart in the
  first year.
• Q – What is the current offer related to hiring new counselors?
• A – They wanted to add 10 weeks worth of work to counselor positions and increase hours from 35 to 40 per week with no increase in pay.  Since then, they have agreed
  to increase pay by 10%.  The issue still remaining is the additional five hours per
  week.
• Q – Are there any other differences regarding new hires?
• A – The Administration would change longevity service to the lower Meet and Confer schedule for new hires.
• Q – What is the status of creating permanent adjunct faculty positions?
• A – Issue has not been discussed recently, but it may come up in the future. 

Additional Comments

• Bargaining has gone on for six months.  The lack of settlement has boiled down to four
  issues:
• The Administration negotiating team does not want to pay COLA.
• The BOT will not authorize COLA.
• The Administration’s external comparisons are not comparable community colleges.
• The administration’s internal comparisons are the sub-COLA increases to ESP,
  Campus Police, and CEBA, not the high increases to top administrators.
• If Administration accepts our proposal, there is still a $700,000 surplus in the budget. 
• In the history of the College, there is almost always a surplus and not a deficit. 
• There is an issue with how comparables are being made.  Administration is only
  comparing salary schedules and not looking at the other increases in various contracts. 
• Other community colleges have settled for much more.  Examples include Mott for 2.6% for
  two years, Montcalm at 3%, Jackson at 2%, Lansing at 3.75%, 3.5%, and 3.5%, Henry
  Ford at 0%, then 3.5% for next four years, and Kalamazoo Valley at 5% for three years.
• There is lack of clarity from the Administration on what they want.  Originally, all the focus
  was placed on adjunct pay increases, but has since moved to freezing pay increases for
  full time faculty.  Also, they have repeatedly made statements that are unproven.  

Questions and Answers

• Q – What are the salary ranges for other community colleges?
• A – It is difficult to only look at step schedules.  The best way to figure out salary differences is to take a scenario and figure out what a person would make at each college.  Our top step with a Masters degree is $78,664.  Macomb is at $80,085,
  Henry Ford at $79,757, Washtenaw at $80,407, Schoolcraft at $78,000, and
  Oakland at $93,000. 
• Q – Is there any incentive for Administration to settle?
• A – No, not really.  We are working with an administrative team that says the college
  has the money.  If they feel this is the direction they were given by the BOT, then the
  faculty must show to the BOT how unhappy we are.
• Q – Faculty pay is a public issue.  This is happening at a time when the President is the
  highest paid in the state and makes much more than the faculty, which was incorrectly
  stated in the Press over the summer.  President Olivarez failed to correct his salary in the
  Press when it appeared as if the faculty made more than he made.  The doom and gloom forecast before the millage was untrue.  Why did he misinform the public?  Why didn’t he
  say anything about his pay?  Why was the public misled?
• A – These raise college-wide issues of leadership and trust.  These and other
  related issues that may be brought up in coming months.  

Additional Comments

• The petition for fact finding should be completed before the end of this semester.
• There are three issues:
• The perception of some in the West Michigan community that faculty are overpaid no matter what.
• Problem with Administration and HR.  There is a competition between who can fulfill
  the wishes of the Press and the BOT.
• There are issues that carried over from the old Administration.  Morale issues
  continue.  
• Faculty should attend BOT meetings and continue attending until the contract is settled.
• We may not win in the eyes of the public, but the public needs to know what is going on.
• Non-tenured faculty members should not attend BOT meetings.
• Faculty salaries were misrepresented to the public. The message has been that we are overpaid and that is one reason why the millages were defeated.  Questions still remain
  about why President Olivarez was silent when his salary came out incorrectly as $143,000.
• Thank you was expressed to the Negotiating team.  The members are Jeff Spoelman,
  Nickie Alexander, John Doane, Lyttron Burris, and Rosario Montes-Sutton.  

Next Meeting: 

·         Faculty Association meeting, Tuesday, January 8, 2008, at the Wrestling Room in the
Ford Fieldhouse at 7:00 a.m.  

Adjournment: 

• Motion to adjourn S. Abid, R. Barnhart seconded.  Adjournment at 8:25 a.m.

Submitted by K. Danko, Secretary.