Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

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Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio and Jeri Sykes, guest Mike Scott

  1. Welcome back, Union elections – AAA to handle online voting? Get in touch with Danny Harrington if you are running for office.
     
  2. AFT/NEA Conference in March 12-15 in Orlando. Wendy, Beth, Danny are going. Michael and Dennis are maybes.
     
  3. FPAC – Jeff, Rich, and Danny will be the committee to look at all promotion dossiers.
     
  4. Update on meeting with Roger regarding the petition (370 signatures) and our interaction with the Board of Trustees. More fulltime faculty are needed and we should promote from within the ranks of the part-timers. Morale was discussed at length.
     
  5. Mike Scott would like to attend a conference in NYC and represent the Union on a panel discussion with Matt Marvuglio for The National Center for the study of Collective Bargaining for Music Faculty in Higher Ed. Matt will represent management and Mike will represent faculty. They will provide train fare; he would like sponsorship to go to this conference. Will Silvio and Rick Applin are also interested in attending. Danny made a motion to send Mike, Will, Rick, and perhaps another – a party of four. Marti seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous to send four individuals to the conference.
     
  6. Teodros discussed the philosophical approach to what the Union does and how we share our information. Perhaps we can go to department meetings once a semester to discuss our current issues and get feedback from the departments for ideas to work on going forward. We need to keep the grass roots history going forward.
     
  7. We are working on a new Union website with a Union history written by Mike Scott.
     
  8. Sexual harassment – private attorney versus Union rep., a current situation where a faculty member has hired their own attorney and is using them as opposed to a Union rep. – this may be unwise and an admission of guilt – may not lead to a collegial decision.
     
  9. Graduate program bargaining date is January 30 at 3 pm.
     
  10. Sabbaticals – the process is not clear and the funding is not enough. A transparent process is best – maybe a public website with accessibility to see what proposals are accepted and are not.
     
  11. Board of Trustee meeting in March; Roger, Jeff Shames, and Jackson are going to talk about getting Jackson on the Board or at least interact more with the Board.
     
  12. MOU study group reports need to be finished.