Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

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Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Jonathan Holland, Michael Heyman, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio. 

Guest - John Eldert

  1. Rich made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting and update the website. Peter seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
     
  2. John Eldert is our guest today to discuss the Boston Consortium project called “Ed Health” and update us on the “Healthy You” program.  The consortium has fifteen colleges in the Boston area with the addition of several workers comp groups that have agreed to work together to create an umbrella group to look at collective benefits. The goal is to even out claims, negotiation of premiums, and to lower the overall cost of healthcare. With the group owned concept we share the risk of healthcare, the group can negotiate with providers directly, with some providers in the group, Harvard, Tufts, etc. this can be a benefit. Along with the “healthy you” program, we can have TPA coaching to help us become healthier. We will have incentives to participate in the programs, like $100 to take part in health screenings, etc. 13 of the 15 consortium schools have already agreed to share health information regarding their constituents, to see the risk factors. Currently, we are being priced at 1700 employees, not a very large group, with all these schools together we will have much more bargaining power, we currently cannot shape our own plan, we don’t have the numbers. With this group idea, we can shape our healthcare plan to fit our members. What would help at Berklee to make Berklee healthier … that is one of our goals with the “healthy you” program. 
     
  3. Mike: we experienced a resistance to the PPO during bargaining last year, how can this help? We need to have all the options for our members.
     
  4. John: With a larger group like this, we will have all the option still available. Because we will be controlling our own underwriting, we can shape the plans to suit all the members. Another item we are looking at, the co-pays, trying to get them as low as possible. But we have several different offerings with several different co-pay structures. Overall, it may be a lower increase as opposed to actual lower costs.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

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Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.  

  1. Jackson made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting and update the website. Peter seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
     
  2. Mike discussed the part-time meeting from Tuesday where Fernando and Lello discussed part-time issues regarding conversion and seniority. We have made an offer to bring them to the next Union/Management meeting, May 5.
     
  3. We discussed gender issues at Berklee. Beth made a presentation. With the recent events regarding the BTOT speech, this topic has been brought to the forefront. Broadening our discussion to include the larger issues of essentialism and other-ness may help us find ways to improve the situation for women faculty at Berklee. It is true that very few women and African Americans were working at Berklee 10-20 years ago. Equitable institutional policies, including hiring, were not in place.  The institution needs to set the tone, using appropriate language at official Berklee events.  Faculty attitudes are changing, but it is evolutionary; 15-20 years ago attitudes around the college were very different and significant changes have occurred. 
     
  4. We need to look at concrete things like salary – this man is making more than that woman for the same job – these are things we can address. When we look at a group of women that have been here a shorter time than a group of men, perhaps their salaries will be lower. When we look at the empirical view of salaries, there is not a complete picture.  Although addressing salary discrepancies can make improvements for a few individuals it does not address the larger issue. 
     
  5. We have an administration, deans, and chairs, who are running the institution – this is where the attitudes need to change. The moral compass needs to start at the top!
     
  6. We as faculty must set the standard for fair, sensitive and equitable treatment of all students in the classroom.  Likewise, college administrators should be models of fair, sensitive and equitable treatment of all members in the Berklee community, especially at community functions like BTOT, Opening Day, etc.
     
  7. Perhaps we can start a joint union/admin committee to look at these issues.

Union notes from Union / Management Meeting

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Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Peggy Codding, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.  

Management – Larry Simpson, Jay Kennedy, Kari Juusela, Darla Hanley, Chris Connors, guest: Dan Newsom, Jay Barnes, and friends

1. Larry opened the meeting. Chris Connors has an update about support for learning disabled students, there was a presentation at BTOT that was very popular and will be brought to departments through the Chairs, more to be determined. 

2. On-line Course Development and Delivery. For the first time, we will be offering on-line classes for our on-campus students. Two this fall and two more in the spring. We will be surveying students to see if they want to have classes on-line. We have a few blended courses now that are very popular. Not all courses can be on-line, we are not saying that, we are just looking into the possibilities.

Jay Barnes made a presentation; there are four main points to consider when looking at a new CampusCruiser, or LMS.

a) Faculty needs
b) Colleague integration
c) Leverage BerkleeMedia
d) Cost efficiency

Moodle Rooms is a company that we are working with to develop software that suits our needs for on-campus courses and our new on-line component. A blended course is one hour in class and one hour at home. Some sections are one week on campus and one week on-line. The on-line course format is designed in conjunction with a faculty course team and instructional designers/editors. The Pulse team and the CTMI crew will be working on the courses as well.

Mike: what are we looking at for faculty involvement for time? In terms of wages, we have this covered in the contract, but how does this compare to a standard class?

Larry: some faculty may be given release time to develop courses. We are still looking at the policies. We need to start with four, then see where this will go. There is no pre-ordained design to have an on-line degree. We are going slowly and they will be treated as an on campus course. Class size is also going to be the same. We need to see how the community and students take to these on-line options, before we can come up with policies to fit these needs.

Dan Newsom made a presentation on the Pulse music method. Pulse is not a distance learning class; it cannot run without a teacher. We create materials that the teachers can use in their classrooms. We have 90 songs in the library. We do sound-a-likes to allow for freedom for use in many different ways. 

http://berkleepulse.net/

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password pulse

3. Danny made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting and update the website. Rick seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.