Faculty Association Meeting
September 11, 2009
Music Building

F. van Hartesveldt called the meeting to order at 9:06 a.m. and started with a moment of silence in honor of September 11^th victims.

1. Contract rollover:

a. Discussion of a contract rollover started over the summer. Details have recently been released. The offer was presented to Faculty Council on September 4, 2009.

b. The internal reaction has been favorable, and the external public reaction has been muted. The recent article in the Press regarding review of faculty salaries was somewhat inaccurate because the current administrative wage study is of Meet and Confer employees and because wage comparisons of faculty salaries are routinely done every bargaining year. Our full-time faculty salaries are within the range of those for other similar community colleges.

c. The proposed rollover includes a 2% increase on base pay but a continued freeze of overload pay for full time faculty. Eighty to ninety percent of faculty members teach some overload, so the real increase should be somewhere between 1.1% and 2% depending on how much overload you teach. Contract language remains unchanged,7-V (C-3) funds will rollover for a fourth year, and the adjunct rate will increase 2%.

d. The contract offer was not the subject of negotiation, but rather a proposal from Administration that is not subject to changes. Suggestions were made, but not accepted, to spread the increase over all pay items. That increase is approximately 1.6%.

e. No clear answer was given on why pay rates are increasing by 2% for adjuncts but frozen on FT overload. This creates an even bigger gap so that adjuncts receive $70 more per contact hour than FT faculty.

f. Hourly pay rates are frozen.

g. Faculty members are encouraged to vote for the rollover.

h. There has been no update of the amount donated from employees to the Student Emergency fund through the give back request. It was suggested that the request should have been asked of faculty as a group rather than individually so that faculty would make a decision that represented and include all.

i. Negotiations for the next contract are likely 1 to 1.5 years out. We will need to distinguish between adjunct and FT faculty and explain the greater benefits that FT faculty provide for the College.

j. College finances for 2009 – 10 are sound, but the Administration is concerned about 2010 – 11.

k. A buy-out plan (VERP) is being considered and would provide large savings for the college.

l. The negotiating team for the administration will likely be much smaller than in past years.

m. A meeting is scheduled to address the issues with the 2010 – 11 calendar.

n. There is a proposal to allow faculty to take a personal day the day before Thanksgiving (Learning Day). Learning Day will still be a scheduled work day whether or not you take a personal day.

o. There is planned collaboration between the administration and work groups, including the Association, to do compensation studies for each work group. A wage study is already underway for the Meet and Confer group. While some believe an outside firm would cost too much, an outside firm is likely. The Association would have no objections as long as the outside firm is objective, the institutions and faculty used as comparable are truly similar to us, and the data relied upon is valid. There are assumptions that we will have some say in what company will do it and what the process will be.

p. There has been a three year freeze on overload rate.

q. The Association would like a written commitment from the College that FT faculty who VERP out will be replaced with other permanent FT faculty.

r. The soonest a ratification vote can happen is two weeks.

D. Cope made a motion to adjourn, J. Hesse seconded. Meeting adjourned at 9:59 a.m.