Union notes from Union / Management Meeting

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

Management – Larry Simpson, Bill Whitney, Kari Juusela, Matt Marvuglio, Darla Hanley, Jeanine Cowan, Amelia Koch, Chris Connors, John Eldert, Camille Colatosti, Phil Lima.

1. Jackson opened the meeting. We asked Mark Campbell to come to the meeting today and discuss Admissions policies and the instrumental needs of the college but he was unable to attend. We would like to discuss scholarships as well. Perhaps Damien Bracken could attend to discuss the comprehensive enrollment strategy. We will try to set up a meeting over the summer.
    
2. The Union would also like to discuss the 3-year contracts in the very near future.
    
3. 160 Mass Ave Building Construction Project Overview – Bill Whitney gave us an update on the project and showed the live footage of the building. 
    
4. Emergency Planning – John Eldert. Sick building syndrome – our water has been tested in the 150 building, we have high algae content but no issues with the water. Overall, the 150 building is healthy and safe; we are now going to test the rest of the college facilities. The college leadership met after the transformer fire and the blackout to learn about how we can improve. We were close to evacuating the dorms – what would we do if we had to? We are looking at all the options for keeping the students in the dorms and providing electric, food, charging stations for phones, etc., keep the communications network up and running. This event brought a lot of issues to the surface and we will be addressing all of them. 
    
5. We discussed the BENS contact and multiple calls, e-mails, texts at 4:30 am. 
    
6. Retirement – Phil Lima. May 17 version 2.0 of retirement planning education sessions will be rolled out. We have been communication to all faculty and staff members 55 and over. Please share the word, post on the website. We will roll out pilot programs for the under 55 once we get feedback on this initial meeting. 
    
7. We discussed the defined benefit program and the funding of that guaranteed program. We pre-fund this plan to ensure we keep this promise.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio. 

1. Jackson opened the meeting. Friday is the AFT conference in Quincy, MA. Danny, Beth, Wendy, Peter, and Jeff will be attending.
    
2. Jackson recognized Will as a very important component to the transition from Mike to Jackson. 
    
3. A faculty member has lost their 3-year contract due to being two tenths of an hour short. We are going to discuss the specifics later today.
    
4. Larry Simpson and the Deans have signed off on a chair evaluation process to begin. We will be sending out information to faculty ASAP.
    
5. Next week is the final Union/Management meeting. After that meeting, Jackson and our lawyer will be meeting with Larry Simpson and Chris Connors about possible CORI checks for faculty teaching in the 5-Week program.
    
6. An air sampling of the Professional Writing Center was done, spearheaded by John Eldert and Kari Juusela. The air has come back clean with an asterisk next to the water, Jackson is checking on the meaning of the asterisk next to the water. Air filters are being changed.
    
7. Our final meeting of the year will be during finals week with a catered lunch.
    
8. We discussed class cancellation policy for fall and the audition process for new students in June. We will discuss next week at the Union/Management meeting. 
    
9. Danny made a motion to donate $1000 to Dana Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, Rich seconded and the vote passed with one abstention. Jeff will be researching similar donations for John McGann and Paul Wagner, either to an institution or to their families directly.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio.

Guest: Mike Scott

1. Dennis made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Peter seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
    
2. Jeff brought up making a donation to the families of the faculty members that have passed, Mirek Kocandrle, John McGann, and Paul Wagner. He will check into their wishes and bring it back to the committee.
    
3. A faculty member made a request that we should call OSHA in regards to cancer in the Writing Division. It seems that Kari is looking into it, but if not, we need to make a formal request to management.
    
4. A request has been made to reinstate the Chair evaluation forms, where faculty evaluate their chairs. Perhaps we can have an on-line version or encourage faculty to type their comments.
    
5. Our final meeting with management will be May 3. We are going to bring back up the ramp concept for ADA compliance in 150: much more cost effective for the college and quicker.
    
6. End of the year meeting including food will take place finals week, TBA.
    
7. College policy on minimum population to keep the class running could be changing for the fall, pending classes for part-time classes are also happening for fall, both for the first time in the history of the college.
    
8. NEASC – evaluation of courses within departments is taking place by faculty; part-time faculty should be paid for their time.
    
9. Voice department - auditions are taking place during office hours and time off between classes. These should not be taking place during office hours, they are for students, and should not be taking place during a faculty members only hour off during the day: the contract states that a faculty member can not teach more than 4 hours without a break.
    
10. We discussed the replacement for CampusCruiser: training on the new system should be paid for part-timers, or perhaps we can do the training in department meetings.