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.

Minutes from Part-Time Meeting

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

1. Jackson opened the meeting. Danny made a motion to accept the minutes and update the website, Dennis seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes. We will be bargaining the next contract next summer, (2013) and we wanted to touch base regarding part-time issues. The college is currently overleveraged by 15 million dollars. The college owes 15 million more than the endowment is valued at. This will not affect our stance during bargaining, including our raises etc… That is our stance.
    
2. Wendy discussed part-time issues and priorities for the next bargain. Last bargain issues were benefits, 3-year contracts, retirement 403b, and disability. One current concern is pay for extra duties and training. We have 12 conversions coming next year with over 300 part-time faculty. 
    
3. Jackson: the part-time faculty are bearing the brunt of the current financial situation. We wanted the conversions to be this year and management said no, “because we can”. Jackson discussed the classes being held back for the fall and the effect on 3-year contracts. Management does not care about how this affects the part-time faculty and their morale. This is the first time that this has happened here at Berklee. There will be a 5.9% tuition increase this fall and we have received a report that students have started a petition to see the financials of the college, including administration salaries vs. those of faculty. They need 2000 signatures and got 300 in two days. Management will listen to the student body and the parents; they want them to be happy. If the faculty are happy, the students will be happy – there is a spillover.
    
4. College re-accreditation and part-timers getting paid for their time, most departments are paying; some departments are doing the work during department meetings.
    
5. Voice department meetings are not happening as regularly as they should be. The contract states that there are four meetings minimum every semester.
    
6. Tuition increase – what is the reason for the increase? As management would say, “because we can”. 
    
7. All contracts should be issued by May 1. Please read the entire contract, Juliana Horton has left the college, so make sure everything is correct! 
    
8. The Executive Committee introduced themselves and we discussed the Union Leadership Tree, the division reps, and the importance of communication. 
    
9. We discussed the top-heavy nature of management, here and throughout academe. A lot of information has been presented in the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

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, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, and Will Silvio.  

Management – Larry Simpson, Jay Kennedy, Bill Whitney, Kari Juusela, Matt Marvuglio, Darla Hanley, Jeanine Cowan, Amelia Koch, John Eldert

Jackson opened the meeting. Financial update, Mac Hisey made a presentation on the financial status. Our rating is from Moody’s and S&P. The income is tuition and dorms – everything that comes in goes back into the institution, just in different ways. Since 2007, Berklee has spent 45-50 million on properties, over 8 million a year on maintenance of the buildings, and now the 160 Mass Ave and Valencia. Any money left over is a surplus, we borrow money for the bigger projects; we don’t take it out of the operating budget. The ratings institutions watch us based on our surplus, since we issued a bond last year, they are watching very closely. The forecasting we do to gauge our surplus is not always 100% accurate, we look for trends and try to build in wiggle room. Our surplus should be around 4%, as we watched our expenses increased our surplus was forecasting around 1%. We are in no means in panic mode – we try to be ahead of the trends and adjust our budgets, both short term and long term to manage the surplus. There is a big difference between a deficit and a lower surplus; we are not running at a deficit. A number of different contributors: certain summer programs, academic affairs 5% over budget – 2% (money for renegotiations, conversions from staff to faculty) 2% (CRI, ET 3x a week, 50 minute lessons), 1% (additional). We have been trying to cut costs all across the college. We are comfortable with all the results, the process was not as smooth as we liked, but we are working on that. The changes we implemented this year are a one-time savings, we are looking at ways we can cut costs over the long term. 

Peggy: Has our rating gone down, and do you see it going down any time soon?

Mac: We don’t anticipate any fluctuation in our rating; there was a slight drop after we issued the bond in 2011. A concern for the rating is that we are a tuition driven institution. We are looking at revenue diversification, Berkleemedia, 160 Mass Ave dorms, etc. Concerns are our high amount of debt for a school of our size. We are an A, Harvard is an AAA. One key strength, we are a dominant player as a music college, we have a high enrollment and a high number of applicants. Our endowment is currently 250 million, higher than Emerson, the recovery after 2008 was better than most.

Larry: We are being very aggressive with our fall 2012 class; we have admitted the largest class in the history of the college. We do not know how many of those people will actually show, we are not sure how many will say, “thanks, but I don’t have the money.” We are hedging our bet on the high side just to be sure we make the mark.

Jackson: the college is overexposed, to many projects, Valencia, 160 Mass Ave., our relationship with the bond holders are effecting your decisions, the part-time faculty are bearing the brunt of all these budget cuts, with classes being held. The overleveraging is effecting the students, faculty, and creating a destructive environment. With 5.9% tuition increase there are many students will not be able to continue.

Mac: we worked hand and hand as we issued the bond last year; they are a big stakeholder in our financial future. We are not freaking out about the lower surplus; all the funds go back into the college.

Dennis: what is our current debt?

Mac: 265 million. We are watching the level of our debt. We should be able to pay that back with great efficiency. Our payments are tied to our surplus each year.

Jackson: we are going into bargaining next summer, this will NOT affect our stance, and this will NOT affect our raises.

Larry: 421 days before we start bargaining, we are aware and will be ready to discuss the issues at hand.

Larry: In regards to held classes we are not targeting part-time faculty, or part-time faculty  on 3-Year contracts, we feel that we are offering too many sections of classes; we are trying to keep the space issues in mind, etc.