Minutes from Summer Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Beth Denisch, Danny Harrington, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz.

1. Jackson opened the meeting. There is nothing we can do at this point, but we will have 6 weeks once school starts to file any grievances. The grievance timeline starts once we get back to school. If we are flooded with grievances we will all need to be grievance officers. PC will be on sabbatical this semester. The ULP timeline may be 6 weeks or 6 months. They are tightening up the ship when it involves the faculty but not their salaries. They cut back in all aspects of the college except their salaries!
    
2. The scheduling of classes and loss of classes could be targeting specific people we are not sure all that are being affected. 
    
3. We need to wait til we come back to really see what is happening. We could set up a vote of no-confidence petition in the administration and have faculty sign electronically. There will be NO demonstration at opening day. This is too soon to use this weapon. 
    
4. We discussed the IT concept and think about hiring a very part-time person that is NOT affiliated with Berklee to do more tech stuff: alternate e-mails, website, discussion groups, etc.
    
5. Larry wants to meet after Labor Day, either Tuesday or Wednesday, later the better. 

Minutes from Summer Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Beth Denisch, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio.

1. Jackson opened the meeting. We discussed the on-line class issue from the previous meeting. We should get an idea of creating a proposal to present to management sooner rather than later. We discussed the Berkleemusic model of royalties for the author. Another layer, qualitatively is this the right model for Berklee? Let’s reach out to on-line Berklee courses; to get a sense of how things are going, does it work? Management already has arrangements with some faculty and we need to protect them and try to address the future issues. Let’s meet with the smaller group to create a clear focus to present management. Dan Thompson and Pat Pattison are people that want their classes on-campus, on-line. We should meet with them about their issues.
    
2. We discussed the immigration/job offer to a prospective teacher. Our obligation only kicks in when she starts teaching. She is not in the union until she starts teaching. Roger and Larry used this student to get contacts in China, and now are leaving her out in the cold. They must post the positions in the paper, etc.
    
3. New Faculty Orientation, Wednesday August 29, the 1:00-2:00, 939 the Loft. Please come, send Jackson an e-mail.
    
4. Diane Richards is leaving and we need to replace her. Nominations were made, we will continue to solicit names, please send to Jackson.
    
5. BAFT Fund – we should bring more people in to discuss other options, other than Wells Fargo. Fidelity etc., does anyone have ideas or contacts? Please send to Jackson. Jeff will reach out to First Trade Union to see what they can do, safely. 

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Beth Denisch, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio

1. Jackson opened the meeting. We discussed the on-line intellectual property rights issue. Ross’ e-mail is very informative and asks very important issues. Roger is looking at what is going on around and wants to replicate it here. Harvard and MIT have classes on-line, Berklee does not have to follow. We are dealing with copyright law that was enacted in 1909, the media that we are dealing with now did not exist then. If they want us to be like Harvard and MIT they should pay us like them. There is a history of royalty at Berkleemusic, why not at Berklee College? If you write a book for your course, there is a royalty; the on-line class version should have a royalty. For a school that teaches students to create intellectual property and protect themselves, they are not protecting the people that are creating the courses to teach them. What about the royalty concept vs. work for hire. It is not just about the money – what about the delivery of the curriculum, why should we let the corporate model allow the on-line delivery of curriculum take over. We discussed 3 models of on-line: totally on-line, every other week in person/on-line, and 1 hour a week in class and 1 hour on-line. We need to find out about all the on-line classes and hybrid courses that are currently being taught. Jeanine Cowen should be able to share this. Michael Abraham met with Board of Trustees at a retreat about on-line courses. The overall felling that he shared was that it currently is not working as positive as it could be. Dan Thompson and Pat Pattison could be resources for us to tap for both Berkleemusic and Berklee on-line.
    
2. Jackson passed out the BAFT fund information for review. We will discuss next month.