Berklee Faculty Union: Minutes

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
March 12, 2009
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Marti seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Charles Cassara – Faculty status report – current ratio 45% FT, 55% PT

3. Update on Grievances/issues – the gender discrimination grievance had an arbitration hearing last Monday; there will be another hearing to be scheduled at a later date. 3-Year contract grievance will have a hearing on May 7. Another 3-year contract issue has arisen, more information came to light, and we were successful in keeping the 3-year contract for that individual.

4. Update on Jeff Jacobsen – he will be representing us during the next bargain.

5. We discussed the upcoming bargain and certain issues that we may bring up.

6. Negotiating team will be determined soon.

7. PT Faculty Meeting will be March 26 at 1 pm in 1W.

Minutes from Union / Management Meeting
March 5, 2009
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott.
Management – Larry Simpson, Jay Kennedy, Matt Marvuglio, Jeanine Cowen, Amelia Koch, John Eldert, Chris Connors.

1. Larry opened the meeting and turned over the meeting to Mike. Mike and Roger met to discuss generalities regarding the upcoming bargain.

Faculty are currently surveying other schools to see how we compare, we have selected 40 schools and will be compiling the data upon completion of the survey: topics include private lesson length, salaries, and benefits. We have set a target date of April to receive all the information back, we will go through the data, and possibly be ready to make a presentation at the next Union/Management meeting.

Monday at 3:00 pm is our target time and day for our bargain to begin in June. April 1st is the deadline to present our demand to bargain.

Larry discussed the current economic situation and Roger’s visit to our meeting last month. We will not really know about the future until the entering class comes in the fall. We are in uncertain times, we are a tuition driven institution, not an endowment driven institution.

2. Mike discussed the Composition Department and the loss of hours this summer, 18 sections of courses are to be dropped, seven part-time faculty lost their schedules and several full-time faculty lost hours. This seems excessive, is this happening in other departments? Maybe the hours could be spread around? Larry mentioned that they will look further into this situation.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
February 26, 2009
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Rich seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Mike will be meeting with Roger Brown on Tuesday; the topic will be the upcoming bargain. After that meeting Jackson and Mike will be meeting with Larry Simpson to discuss the specifics of the bargain: when we will meet, times, location, etc.

3. Wendy and Jonathan made a presentation on the Benefits Study Group. The entire report and recommendations are attached. Total Compensation = Salary + Benefits, using this as the basis of a plan by which the college should strive to provide fair, equitable, and useful pay to its faculty. Minimum safety net concept (see report available upon request). Let’s table this discussion until our next meeting.

4. The Zoomerang survey that Rebecca Cline put together needs a little more tweaking.

5. There is a faculty member quite ill, let’s consider making a personal donation or a donation to the foundation for research into the illness.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
February 19, 2009
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio, Guest: Josh Rosen

1. Mike opened the meeting, introduced guest Josh Rosen, he is here to discuss part-time conversions.

2. The three-year contract issue regarding an individual on leave during the third year of a three-year has been somewhat resolved. The third year will start in Sept. ’09, the health benefits will continue, and the individual will be paid for 27 units, regardless of the teaching hours during the year. The issue may be renewal of the three-year contract, more on that later.

3. Directed study issue, the number of students is usually four, one faculty member has three, the college is currently paying the faculty member for 1.5 hours as opposed to 2 hours. We will be looking into this issue further, management is changing the credit load of the course without consultation. It seems to be an overload issue, by giving this faculty member 2 hours it would put them over the limit.

4. Summer hours – 18 hours of summer classes will be eliminated from the Composition department, how do they know now what the populations will be? Roger came to the meeting a few weeks ago and told us that 100 more students will be brought in this summer, why are they cutting sections?

5. Josh Rosen made a presentation on part-time conversions an alternative to how they are determined. What is the current process? How are the decisions currently made? There are a lot of issues and ill-will that accompany this process. He presented an alternative approach to the conversion process, following more like the promotion concept. One idea is that we set a time limit, “after the second three-year contract,” represents a commitment to the college and that one has paid their “dues.” Can we put a permanent number of conversions in the contract. We could try and make an automatic conversion process, but that has issues as well … we will continue the discussion. Let’s take another look at the ½ ¾ FT concept.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
February 12, 2009
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Suzanne Dean, Marti Epstein, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio. Guest: Rebecca Cline

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Jonathan seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. We have another 3-year contract issue and we will be filing a grievance.

3. Rebecca Cline made a presentation. We will be revising the survey presented in the minutes from 1/29; we are moving to a Zoomerang survey and adjusting the questions to suit our specific needs.

We should include tuition for each school in the information that we gather, however, that question should not be in the survey; we will gather that on our own.

Let’s include a couple of local schools, Brandeis and Tufts.

We have two sets of informational questions; perhaps we can adjust the questions between faculty and staff, and target those individuals.

Our main goal is a very narrow focus: benefits, hourly wage for classroom teaching, and hourly wage for private lesson teaching. All of this information is focused on one main point, bargaining. Our focus should be adjusting the sub-standard issues we have, getting us up to speed with other institutions and adjusting the language in the contract to clean up spots that seem to be open for interpretation.

The cost of this survey will be $200, Jeff made a motion to accept that cost, Wendy seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

4. We should have a few of our business faculty to go through management’s tax returns to actually see how things are going, the 990 form and the LM2.

Minutes from Union / Management Meeting
February 5, 2009
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.
Management – Roger Brown, Larry Simpson, Jay Kennedy, John Eldert, Darla Hanley, Matt Marvuglio, Stephen Croes.

1. Roger opened the meeting with a statement regarding the financial state of the college. The bad news is not nearly as bad as it could be. There are three different times during the year that we get paid, at the start of each semester. The college has taken proactive measures to adjust budgets, lowering by 2 million, to make more funds available for scholarship. The current population is 3940, down 1.5 percent, but could have been much worse.

Many college endowments are down, ours is down over 30% - perhaps as low as 35-40%. Fundraising is down for obvious reasons. The big question is what happens this summer? And more importantly what happens this fall? We have become more selective in the past few years; we may lower the standards slightly to keep a class of 4000. We may see a slight change, but the primary objective is to keep a class of 4000, to keep our stability as an institution. Early applications are up 34%; overall the applications for fall are up. How many do we admit? Do we admit too many and get overpopulated? At this point, yes.

The college is challenging the budgets to make 5-6 million more available, to bring up the total to 25-30 million. Let’s market the summer sooner, make the information available sooner to see how things look. Early signs are good. The general indicators are good for this summer and next fall. The number one reason for a student to come or continue here is the faculty! Having a bigger 12-week program will help the bubble class this fall. We will increase tuition this fall, we are about 5000 less than other schools that our population could attend, we can get the more affluent parents to pay a more reasonable rate in comparison. We are looking at somewhere between 5-8% increase. The A&I process has increased applications, when we show a higher standard, more people want to attend.

The number one goal is to not lay off any faculty/staff. This bargain will be a challenge; it is quite hard to see into the future, and we hope to not cut faculty hours.

If we are overenrolled next fall, let’s try to look inside at our faculty, instead of emergency hires, and then we can control the hours that our current faculty have. Emergency hires are not good for the college. David Berdt is very involved in the process with the chairs to identify certain faculty that can teach across the curriculum.

Currently 10% of our entering class already has a Bachelors Degree. We are going to move forward with the 7 Haviland and 155 Mass Ave. renovations. Valencia is most likely delayed until 2012, the cost is currently not that high with several outside contributions.

2. Faculty activities during BTOT – part-timers are coming off a month without pay, not all departments have activities, this can be quite a financial hit. Can we get a more universal approach towards the BTOT faculty activities?

The contract is clear – the payment for BTOT and Department activities is up to 12 hours. The goal is not to get part-timers paid but to have meaningful activities scheduled. The choice is up to the Dean/Chair to schedule the events outside BTOT. All the activities really depend on the needs of the department; the contract does not mandate department activities. Can we have the chairs communicate their intentions before the end of the fall semester. That way adjunct faculty may be able to attend other department meetings.

3. Snow cancellation policy. In the past, when the Boston public schools cancel, we have cancelled. In this most recent snow event, we were brought in during the worst part of the storm, then cancelled at 2:30, an odd time, when the storm was essentially over, can we at least cancel on the hour?

The closing of school is one of the hardest decisions to make.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
January 29, 2009
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Mike opened the meeting with updates on current grievances. The gender pay discrepancy hearing has been postponed, the information that we requested has not arrived yet, Management needs to provide the information that we request in a timely fashion. March 9th is the new date.

2. Next meeting will be a union/management meeting, two topics: faculty activities during BTOT and the school cancellation policy. Why bring us in if Boston Public is cancelled, why cancel when the storm is over, and why cancel at 2:30?

3. Voice department issues on space and facilities in general. Management may be in violation of state law; there are not enough restrooms for the faculty and 800 students. We will file a grievance and include several other issues, including a lack of faculty lounge and office space.

4. Peter Gardner would like to open a scholarship in Walter Harp’s name, Charles made a motion to make a donation of $1000, Beth seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

5. Prince Charles discussed the bargaining issues research committee. We are doing research with other institutions to see if our wages, hours, and working conditions are sub-standard in comparison. There are several different categories that are being looked at and several schools: see attached survey (a sample, not definite). All of this information will be put on the website, once we compile the information from the schools and the information we receive from a faculty questionnaire.


Berklee Faculty Union Questionnaire
January 2009

Name of Institution:

Contact person:

Position:

Email:

Phone:

Private Instrumental/Vocal Lesson

1. Are private lessons included in standard tuition?

2. How long are the private instrumental/vocal lessons for
Performance majors?
Non-performance majors?
Music Education majors?

3. How many semesters are students required to take private lessons:
Performance majors?
Non-performance majors?
Music Education majors?

4. How many credits per semester for a half-hour lesson? For an hour lesson?

5. Can students take additional half hour or one hour private lessons? If so, at what cost to the student per half hour? Per hour?

6. Are non-instrumental private lessons required for non-performance majors (e.g. music education, composition, conducting)? How long are these lessons?

7. How many instrumental/voice students are full time? Part time?

8. How many instrumental/voice faculty are full time? Part time?

9. How many hours per week is each full time private lesson teacher expected to teach?


Classroom Teaching Load

10. How many contact hours per week do classroom faculty teach per week?


Compensation

11. What are the average salaries/hourly rates?

12. How are part-time professors compensated for teaching—by the class, by the hour, or some other way?

13. How is the office hour handled/compensated?

14. Is there a weighting system?

15. Are full–time positions tenured at your institution?

16. Are there extended contracts for part-timers?


Human Resources

17. What is the cost (approximately) to the college per half-hour lesson? Per hour lesson?

18. What is the employer contribution percentage, if any, for health and dental coverage?

19. What are the available retirement system/programs (Defined benefit, 403b, 401k)?

20. What is the contribution for:
a. Defined benefit?
b. 403b?
c. 401k?

21. Do part-timers have access to retirement system/programs? If so, what is management’s contribution?

Return to: Neil Olmstead, Professor of Piano
Berklee College of Music, FB191
1140 Boylston Street Boston, Ma 02215-3693
617-747-8301 nolmstead@berklee.edu

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
January 22, 2009
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio, guest: Peter Alhadeff.

1. Peter C. made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Wendy seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Department activities during BTOT. Some issues regarding payment, some departments have not been paid: part-timers have not been paid for over a month and this can be a little hard, financially. Two departments did not have activities; we should allow every department the possibility to participate.

3. We have a hearing next Thursday for the Gender equity arbitration, the three-year contract grievance hearing is continuing next month, and the TIAA-CREF issue was discussed with Phil Lima, Larry Simpson, Mike, and Jackson; we presented them a couple of options and they chose to table until the bargain this summer.

4. Buck Associates presented us a very high estimate for their services; we feel that it is a little much during a bargaining year, so we may be going with another option. Perhaps limiting their involvement to a more specific topic: Salary Compression. They have come down from 60k – 15k, perhaps they can go even lower or maybe we use our in house experts: Rick Applin and Peter Alhadeff to review our salaries from many different angles including: compression, gender, age, ethnicity, rank, and musical expertise issues. We will take a look at other consultant firms, but for now, let’s keep it in house.

Danny made a motion to not hire Buck Associates at this time, Rich seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
December 11, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Danny made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Jeff seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Demand to bargain - TIAA-CREF. Management would like to have only one provider for the 403b and they have elected to take TIAA-CREF away as an option for all future 403b, unilaterally, with no information or input from faculty or staff. We should be allowed to make a choice. They have ignored the Union, once again, to make decisions. What about using the Benefits Committee as a way to communicate with management regarding this issue?

3. Universal access statement – "The Berklee Faculty Union urges the College to adopt and approve an official Universal Access Policy and statement of commitment to Universal Access. On behalf of our members, the Union Executive Committee requests that the College, the Office of Cultural Diversity, and the Berklee Universal Access Committee make this a top priority for the spring '09 semester."

Peggy made a motion to accept this statement and send to the entire Berklee community, Danny seconded, and vote was unanimous.

4. Consultant interview – Buck Consultants, compensation consultants, made a presentation. Some comparisons we would like: gender, race, salary compression, adjunct/part-time faculty and full-time.

Minutes from Union All-Faculty Meeting
December 4, 2008

Mike opened the meeting. Opening statement regarding the upcoming bargain and the important issues that we face. Thanks to all faculty that have agreed to be department reps … they will be very important as they relay information to division reps, and the division reps will bring the information to the Executive Committee. What we want is an open line of communication, which is very important as we move forward. Special thanks to Jonathan Holland and Wendy Rolfe regarding their commitment to the Benefits committee.

Charles Cassara to cover the budget. We use an accrual method of accounting; we needed to complete the month of September to pay our bills from August. We have a CD, money market account, and a checking account to pay monthly bills, etc. All facts and figures from last year and the approved proposed 2009 budget will be on the website ASAP. We will have additional information that was not in the Newsletter that went out via e-mail and in all our mailboxes.

Jeff Jacobsen, our former attorney, retired last year, we would like to hire Jeff to be our representative during this very important bargain, it will a very difficult one, and he is very familiar with us and management.

We are working on a statistical analysis of our salary structure, from all angles, to present to management during the upcoming bargain. Our survey results: salary/compensation is most important to FT; salary, conversion, and guaranteed teaching hours are most important for PT. We are planning another all-faculty meeting and a meeting for PT only for the spring.

Issues for the bargain: Teaching load for FT faculty, 50-minute lesson (this is an equity issue, not just a plus for the students), Three-year contract language to clean up, Benefits, Wages, minimums for the ranks. Summer hours and pay, part-time minimums raised.

The endowment took a 17-30 % hit during the last few months, however, the college’s operating expenses are tuition driven, not endowment driven.

“We can build a school in Spain, but we can’t take care of the faculty that are here???!!! We need to make sure we are taken care of.”

Management wants to get rid of the three-year contract … and they want to give us 2.5 – 3% raises. Will they freeze the tuition? How much will they be able to raise it? They originally wanted to raise it 8%, now they are working backwards.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
November 20, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Mike opened the meeting, we remembered Richard Ehrman, who passed very suddenly Tuesday.

2. Updates on the sexual harassment complaints.

3. All-faculty meeting will be December 4, in room 411, Uchida Building. We will go over budget and the upcoming bargain.

4. Beth reviewed the gender and salary equity committee meeting, several consultants will be considered to go over the materials from several different angles, review Barbara Schaffer’s work, and consider new angles. Perhaps we can get a zoomerang survey out to get faculty opinions. Also consider salary compression and racial issues.

5. Charles – Fiscal update. See handout, soon to be up on the website and in the newsletter. Proposed budget presented to UEC. Rick made a motion to revise the budget, Jeff seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Peter made a motion to accept the budget with revisions as presented by Charles, Marti seconded, and the vote as unanimous. The fiscal report and the approved budget will be sent to all faculty in the newsletter and will be posted on the website soon.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
November 13, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Jackson seconded, and vote was unanimous.

2. Three-year contract update: hearing was last Friday, our position has been if work is available, the 3-year contract faculty would receive 27 units per academic year and not service to make up hourly difference, unfortunately, there is one more day of testimony and no decision yet.

3. Sexual harassment case update, a settlement has been reached in principle, the details are confidential. Another faculty member that was terminated for sexual harassment last year is now asking for assistance in legal matters and possible litigation.

We need access to management’s investigative process, they are not sharing the information they use to make these decisions, word of mouth is not enough, we need more information. We should clean up the sexual harassment language in the contract as we move forward to the bargain this summer.

We should have an independent investigator for these situations who would file a report to both the union and management.

4. Mike, Rick, Larry, and Amelia Koch met regarding late examinations … currently $15 for MT, and $25 for finals, our position: these should be raised or we should have NO make-up exams. No update from management.

5. Fiscal report next week.

Minutes from Union / Management Meeting
November 6, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.
Management – Larry Simpson, Rob Rose, Darla Hanley, Amelia Koch, Phil Lima, John Eldert, Stephen Croes, Jeanine Cowen.

1. Larry opened the meeting, financial state of the college, Amelia Koch, this years’ budget, we got the enrollment we needed for this year. Next year is key; we have an additional 2 million for next semester financial aid.

The college is reconsidering whether to raise the tuition for next year. Originally the college wanted to raise tuition by 8%, this is already published. We may consider adjusting the raise of tuition for continuing students, to keep it less than new students. Spring enrollment of incoming students will hopefully be around 400.

When would we start to see impact on hours, or reduction of hours? We went through the wait list for this fall to keep the enrollment at 4000. Applications are up 79% for next year. There is a movement of students from certain majors, from music business, 86 students fewer, no real reason that we know of.

The budgets most likely will be flat next year, if they are to be increased, there must be a significant reason.

How will this economy affect salary re-negotiations, how much has been set aside, what computer models are used to determine future salaries, etc…? No information at this time, we will have more later to discuss, certainly this summer when we negotiate the contract.

There is a lot of financial pressure on parents overall. We want to try and alleviate some of this pressure by allowing continuing students to have a lower increase. The goal was to get our tuition a little closer to the norm, the 8% increase would get us closer to other institutions, and we are under priced as we stand.

2. Phil Lima – retirement plan 101. Basically two kinds of plans, a contribution plan (403b) and a defined benefit plan. The 403b has an unknown end result and the defined benefit plan has a known end result, as promised, based on salary history. The economy has affected the 403b positively for the past several years, and in a negative way very recently. The value of the defined benefit plan has shown its importance as of late with the current economy. We have had to add funds to the defined benefit plan in the last two years; in fact, we have over funded the plan to keep the promise of the plan. Market risk v. lifetime commitment, the employer takes on the longevity risk, a perpetual obligation. We assume the responsibility if we take a lump sum at retirement or in the 403b model.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
October 30, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Jonathan seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Updates: Meeting with Larry Simpson today regarding hours and wage renegotiation, looking to clarify the language in the contract.

Sexual harassment suit grievance has been filed with SVP/AA, a hearing has been scheduled for next week and we will be looking at the investigation and due process.

Several chairs and deans have shown animosity towards our grievance officer and we will not stand for this!

Three-year contract grievance update, we will be going forward with a different approach, hearing next week.

3. Finalize Department Representatives; list to be published at a later date.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
October 23, 2008
Present – Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Rich seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Jackson and Mike will be meeting with Larry Simpson next week after our meeting, issues: lost hours next semester, salary renegotiation for faculty, follow-up on current sexual harassment case – a possible violation of protocol.

3. Letter To Faculty – we are planning a meeting to go over the fiscal report, the budget, and upcoming contract negotiations. We will be doing research on both PT and FT topics, let’s share the list – any volunteers to assist with:
A. Music schools/Departments wages (national)
B. Health and retirement employer contributions (we are 65/35)
C. Private lesson length at other schools
D. Pro-rated teaching loads at other colleges
E. 12 classroom contact hours maximum
F. Class size
G. Health benefits after retirement
H. Salary information in comparison to other schools
I. Faculty survey
J. Maximum teaching load for ensembles and private lessons
K. Service to the college at other institutions
L. Student advising in other institutions
M. Service to the profession requirements in other institutions

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
October 16, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Mike opened the meeting with an update on the sexual harassment grievance; new information has been brought to light, more later.

2. We have another financial core member, now a total of two.

3. Budget will be discussed after the audit this month. We will schedule an all-faculty meeting to discuss the budget, as well as other pertinent issues for all-faculty including the upcoming bargain.

4. Salary analysis update, we need to hire an outside consultant, we are in the process of identifying a few choices. When we do find the person, we need to ask the correct questions. We need ideas about how we can get at the core concepts. We want this to be separate from management, our own study for our own information. A plan of action is coming together.

5. Ear Training teaching hours – the mystery of lost hours is creeping into our spring schedules. Not only in ET, but also throughout the college. The loss of department meetings and office hours for part-time faculty due to their “lighter” schedules is saving Management a lot of money, but crowding our classrooms! This is affecting adjunct faculty in addition to faculty within the department. What is the pecking order, FT first (including adjunct); PT on 3-year contract, then PT … this may have an adverse effect on our PT faculty. If we can reduce the FT workload and get the 50-minute lesson, we can create work for all PT faculty.

6. Department Reps – more later.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
October 9, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Dannny Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting and update the website, Peggy seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Some PT faculty are being asked to do service to help be converted … there is no guarantee. Some chairs are communicating misinformation; some are passing on the correct information, let’s talk to management regarding this idea.

3. Classroom issues for next semester … fewer rooms may lead to fewer sections in some departments – the issue, we can’t have overpopulated classes, just to make up for a loss of rooms. Lowering the FT course load may help the space and population issues.

4. A faculty member was told by the City-Music program that the union has set a cap for compensation … this is NOT TRUE, the union has no relationship with the City-Music Program. We will check into this further and get the correct information out there.

5. The three-year contract grievance update: our key witnesses were not able to testify, management’s lawyer put pressure on them, and we will present an additional argument on Nov. 7. The hours were available, the classes were there, and they were given to other faculty not on a three-year contract.

6. Department Reps – we have to check with more faculty and update all involved.

Minutes from Union / Management Meeting
October 2, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Dan Harrington, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.
Management – Jay Kennedy, Amelia Koch, Darla Hanley, Jeanine Cowan, Rob Rose.

1. Jay opened the meeting – let’s introduce ourselves all around the room. Today is an open meeting with several possibilities: changes in academic procedures and policies, Ombuds position, Berklee Orchestra e-mail that went out seemed a little unclear whether there would be compensation, benefits study group update, confusion regarding wage renegotiation process, CRI.

2. The Ombuds position should continue, Dina Lynch will be leaving the college due to health reasons, but the position will continue. There was a meeting between members of the Executive Committee and Management regarding the position a few weeks ago, we should keep making announcements regarding the position and what we can use it for – publish the office, get the word out as an option for faculty and staff to use the office confidentially. We could use the information gleaned from the office to establish trends at the college. The Ombuds position could come to our Union/Management meeting. Regardless of how many people use the office to share their thoughts confidentially, it is qualitative, not quantitative – we need to fill the position in January.

3. Other topics: general college meetings seem to be scheduled during department meetings – could we get part-timers paid for attending some of these meetings? Some chairs do this now, what about a uniform approach throughout the college?

4. How will the economy effect our positions here – 403b, financial state of the college, general discussions, maybe an all-faculty meeting? Can we get Phil Lima in to share some information, Amelia could address the overall financial state of the college; the pension fund has had some additional contributions from the college as the baby-boomers have gotten older, the pension fund is a legal obligation of the college – so the college will be adding more funds as needed. Social Security is definitely a part of the equation – and it is intended to be. We need to get the information out to the faculty – maybe we could co-sponsor an event during BTOT, etc… Let’s bring Phil in next month.

5. How do spring schedules look right now, there may be a shift in some of the Ear Training classes, a lot of students placed into ET 2,3,4 – so we do not need as many ET 2 sections – apparently 16 less sections. Should not effect too many faculty members – maybe lose one class compared to last spring.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
September 25, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Dan Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Prince Charles seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Charles passed out forms for the officers to fill out for the financial core member update. WE NEED THESE FORMS NEXT WEEK, if not sooner!

3. Update of by-laws and financial core member status has been sent to all mailboxes.

4. Update on the 3-year contract grievance, the date is tomorrow with a back up date in November.

5. We are still waiting on a date for the gender/salary grievance.

6. Salary analysis update – should we bring in a consultant to look at our faculty salaries from several perspectives? (gender, race, pt v. ft, age, compression, etc…)

7. Department Reps – currently checking with interested parties, more later …

8. Wendy moved to adjourn, Jeff seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
September 18, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting and update the website, Marti seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. There is a little confusion regarding the promotion and self-evaluation process. 15 people have been promoted and also are up for re-appointment … they are currently being asked to fill out a self-evaluation. This does not make sense; we will be looking into this. The contract seems to be quite clear, a new contract comes with the promotion, therefore, the self-evaluation cycle begins anew.

3. Financial core member update – we reviewed the by-laws and the updates we have made. Rick made a motion to accept the amended by-laws and the financial core member updates, Beth seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

4. 3-year contract grievance update – the faculty member has lost the contract and as a consequence, health benefits … we are obviously taking this to litigation, the date is Friday September 26.

5. AFT-MA, Mike has been involved in addition to duties with our local. There are several issues regarding the upcoming elections, one of the VP’s would like to come to our local and share ideas regarding Question 1, the income tax repeal. Do we have a place in this discussion? We have always made a point to NOT be involved politically! We cannot control national or state unions, but we can control OUR local. Wendy made a motion to have AFT-MA use the US mail to contact our members. The Local should not sponsor an all-faculty meeting for an AFT-MA official to make a pitch for the state’s position on the income tax repeal referendum. Rich seconded and vote was unanimous.

6. Financial Core member update – Marti made a motion to pass this information on to faculty in writing, with language similar to Mike’s e-mail to all faculty last summer, Danny seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

7. The Newsletter should come out before the all faculty meeting, should we pass along the 990 information regarding the high VP salaries?

8. The audit is tentatively set for October 22 and the budget will soon follow.

9. Salary Analysis – should we hire an impartial consultant to go through our records, see if there are trends, etc… We have contacted AFT-MA for a referral; we should pay and keep this independent of management.

NEXT WEEK ….

Help with bargaining research – PICK a TOPIC for next week.
A. Music schools/Departments wages (Wendy and Jonathan)
B. Health and retirement employer contributions.
C. Private lesson length at other schools.
D. Pro-rated teaching loads - other colleges.
E. 12 classroom contact hours max. (Wendy and Marti)
F. Health benefits after retirement.
G. Faculty Survey – bargaining topics (Rick and Suzanne)

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
September 11, 2008
Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Rich seconded and the vote was unanimous.

2. Welcome back to returning members and welcome to new members.

3. Department representatives, we currently have them in each department, we are now twice as big and we need more! Let’s come back with a lot of suggestions for good people to get the word out – this is a bargaining year! They will also be the phone tree as we get involved with the bargain. We could bring them in to a meeting around November.

4. Ombuds position was almost lost – Peggy and Mike met with Carl Beatty, Larry Simpson, and Dina Lynch. The meeting went reasonably positively. The Union position: the position should be continued – Management position: the position is under-utilization and a high price tag. We could publicize the position more and hopefully expand the responsibilities. Some of our possible grievances are not exactly contractual; therefore, we need to have a place for faculty to be heard. Our recommendation is to have the Ombuds attend the Union/Management meetings every month.

5. Faculty language tutors are needed for the College Writing Center, this is additional work that is available to all faculty, a separate job that has nothing to do with Berklee, the pay is 1099 based. Danny made a motion, Rick seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

6. Constitution and By-Laws – see pages 4, 10, 11, 12, 13 … a continuation of our discussion from this summer regarding the financial core member, we will look at it this week and vote next week as an amendment to the existing document. We will then update the faculty on our progress.

7. Hourly rate resolution – we were able to get people who were promoted and/or converted back to their old hourly rate, retroactive to 2004.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
July 15, 2008
Present – Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Dan Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio. Guest,Haidee Morris, Esq., AFT Mass. General Counsel

1. Hourly rate/cirr com chair: Co-chair as faculty CRI. SVPAA still has power, advisory role only, no decisions, letter from Larry is subject to review by EC and counsel. Wendy made a motion: Management agrees to raise the hourly rates of all faculty whose hourly rates were lowered as a result of promotion or conversion, retroactive to Sept. 2004 and continuing through the life of the current Contract. In return, the union will agree that a faculty member may serve as co-chair of the CRI if the union receives a letter from the SVPAA stating that this position is purely advisory. The college will ensure the Union that the position will not conflict with membership in the collective bargaining unit. The letter from the SVPAA will be subject to review by Union counsel. Rick seconded, the vote was unanimous with Peggy Codding abstaining.

2. Ombuds position is now over, let’s renew the position – the union will write a letter to SVPAA. Marti made a motion to further expand the role, Danny seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

3. Haidee Morris – Core Financial Member – closed shop – you can have one, but you cannot force anyone to be in., they will be in the bargaining unit – but not members. They can only be charged for bargaining / AFT / MFT. Beck objector in the public sector.

4. Negotiating Team and ideas. Wendy/Jonathan – Benefits, Peggy Codding – Ombuds, newer EC members will attend for experience but not have a vote or speak during bigger meetings with management.

Research:
A.) wages across country
B.) benefits: what is majority of other schools’/businesses’ health care contribution, ours is 65% -- is 75% the norm? PT defined benefit? Employer gives 3% no matter what? FT same as PT equal contributions, etc… Cost of living increase or flat percent? Health benefits for retirees.
C.) 50 minute lessons – a committee should be formed to investigate how many schools give 1 hour lessons.
D.) Pro-rated teaching ½, ¾, FT … 1.5 or 1.0 = 12 contact NESC – 12?? AAUP = 12

Minutes from Union / Management Meeting
May 1, 2008
Present – Charles Cassara, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Haidee Lorrey, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Mike Scott, Will Silvio, Tom Stein.
Management – Carl Beatty, Christine Connors, Jeanine Cowan, John Eldert, Kari Juusela, Jay Kennedy, Amelia Koch, Matt Marvuglio, Darla Hanley, Rob Rose.

1. Jay opened the meeting; Amelia is here to talk about the fall ‘08 salary increases. The budget office role is to track the CPI that determines the wage increase for fall. FT, CPI + .5 = 3.4 % … PT, CPI + 1.5 = 4.4 %

2. Faculty contracts are mailed out … check your mailboxes.

3. New conversions from part-time are being told that their contracts are not negotiable – and the union is preventing them from getting more money … this is not true!

The deans compare the faculty members to like situations – same rank, same experience, etc… maybe the faculty member is bringing in experience outside of Berklee … that leads to a higher rate. Balance is the key, trying to keep it within the division … needs of department, skill set, comparable to the rest of the divison.

Most conversions are around 1-2% above the minimum, some people have been given 7-8% above the minimum … there does not seem to be a pattern.

4. What about the part-timer hourly rate that will go down over next summer. Their much lower annual salary will determine the hourly rates. We have presented language to management last fall to alleviate this problem, and we intend to reopen discussions on that language/proposal early in the summer term.

5. Space issues, working conditions, what about the short-term plans for our classrooms. What we already have can be maintained at a higher level. Overhead projectors, pianos, sounds systems, bathroom conditions – we saw a sign on restrooms “out of bathroom tissue – use your own resources”

Darcie and Nate are tracking rooms with a ticket system that will allow management to see a pattern in the condition of the rooms. All rooms are being checked at every break to make sure that all things are working. Phones are now being installed in all rooms. This is a great opportunity to get faculty involvement regarding set-up, etc… also, procedures – we need to know who we are supposed to contact. Let’s get this in motion by fall.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
April 24, 2008
Present – Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Haidee Lorrey, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio, Tom Stein, Stephen Webber.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Marti seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Congratulations to Rich and Haidee for an excellent newsletter, with excellent contributions from Diane and Beth.

3. Reflections from the past year from Mike regarding the current Executive Committee. Next week is the last meeting of the semester; it will be a Union/Management meeting with the topic of space. Rumor has it; management may have a few ideas to solve some of our faculty space issues. An administrator will be retiring in June who has been one the biggest opponents to faculty space issues; hopefully, we will be able to make progress.

4. Wendy made a motion to meet over the summer as an Executive Committee to organize for the next bargain, Jeff seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

Faculty opinion needs to be solicited. We need to get about 4 or 5 main topics to run with, research throughout the year, so we are ready for the next bargain. Wage comparisons, health plan contribution – we are at 65%, maybe other institutions are at 75%, 403b contributions – matching more than 3%, retirement issues in general, life insurance, disability. Each EC member could take a part of contract, look at it, learn it, and make suggestions regarding language, tighten things up, etc… three-year contract, wage negotiation.

5. Beth has an item regarding Whirlpool – 39 workers were fired for lying, they were caught smoking when they said they were not smokers, what about privacy, etc… How our benefits will be handled – more from an informational wellness program, not from a pressure situation. Jonathan and Wendy are our representatives on the Benefits Study Committee – they are our advocates.

6. Rick has the preliminary results from the faculty survey regarding space, not for publication yet … more results on the way.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting
April 17, 2008
Present – Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Suzanne Dean, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Dan Harrington, Michael Heyman, Jonathan Holland, Haidee Lorrey, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio, Tom Stein, Stephen Webber, faculty guests: Bill Banfield, Herman Hampton.

1. Jeff made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website, Marti seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

2. Mike had a dinner meeting with Larry Simpson earlier this week. Paul Lyons is scheduled to represent management during the next contract negotiation. Larry has requested us not to make a big deal about the space issues that we have brought up over the past few meetings with management. We maintain the concern is coming from faculty not from the Union. Our next newsletter is focused on these Space issues.

If global policies are being changed, why is management not communicating with the Union?

The next item to be discussed is going to be student advising – not enough full-time faculty are interested, but not all full-time faculty have been asked. Part-timers will be compensated – a stipend rather than their hourly rate, about 25 hours total – $50 an hour, $15-$20 an hour less than our average hourly rate. Many issues need to be ironed out before we can agree. There are currently two systems of advising – Department advisors and Peer advisors. We need to meet with management to get more information, perhaps at a Union/Management meeting, May 1. Part-time pay for committees and meetings are inconsistent, sometimes $50, sometimes their hourly rate.

3. Constitution and By-laws – Mike gave a history of our Constitution and By-laws … we were presented with them in 1986. Times have changed – labor laws have changed – so we have updated our Constitution and By-laws. The main changes have been in election protocol, included stipends, expanded officers to include one from every division, Massachusetts conference attendees are approved by all faculty, elections are every other spring, an annual budget and fiscal report will be presented to faculty, outside audit and a faculty audit will continue – if we can find someone to participate.