Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

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

1. Danny made a motion to accept the minutes as amended. Rich seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
    
2. We discussed the list of ACI teachers. We were only given the spring teachers; we need a complete list.
    
3. Jackson discussed Berklee’s association with Wage Works. They will cover commuting and parking costs pre-tax.
    
4. Meeting with Jay Kennedy to discuss how the college will make up snow days.  The committee discussed the current policy and whether the college will try to change it.
    
5. Larry’s response to the Graduate program bargain: Haidee still feels we need to meet with them. However, there is nothing coming from the administration to help us understand how the program will be run. There are questions from the students being interviewed for the program; students are asking how will they get together as a group other than online? We are accepting students and we still don’t know who will be teaching in the program. Also, no one is being compensated for interviewing students.
    
6. We discussed the upcoming election. 

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

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

1. Marti made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting as amended. Danny seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
    
2. The parking issue is very serious in general and now with the weather it is out of control. Two faculty members drove in yesterday, three hours one way, no parking on street or in garages, they had to drive home and cancel class. Flex spending for parking – pre-tax (Wage Works)?
    
3. Jackson’s note to faculty regarding the changes to management/chair contracts will be going out very soon. Chairs always have the option to step down to faculty; it will be interesting to see how many step down in 2018 once the one-year contracts start.
    
4. Benefits – we will discuss at the next Union/Management meeting. We discussed Tufts health insurance at length. There have been discrepancies in the billing itemization for Tufts. All faculty should review all bills.
    
5. We discussed a situation with a faculty member and harassment with a student. We discussed the EthicsPoint Hotline as well as harassment in general at length.

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, Jonathan Holland, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio and Jeri Sykes.

1. Danny made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Peter seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
    
2. We discussed the comprehensive enrollment strategy – there is a survey on faculty/staff news.
    
3. Update on the chair contract issue; starting in 2018 all chairs will be on one-year contracts. We sent a message and they listened to what we had to say – administration was surprised by our unity in action.
    
4. Elections – AAA will handle again, we are going to investigate an on-line election.
    
5. We discussed the college closings and when they make the decision. Once there is a parking ban we should be closed. Waiting affects people commuting from NYC, etc.
    
6. ACI – advising and content. The content has lessoned and the advising is happening during class, the result: PT – fewer paid office hours for advising.
    
7. Graduate Program Bargaining update. Music Therapy major no longer has the symposiums at the beginning and the end of the program. The reasoning is that management thinks it is too much to make students to come for a week at the beginning and the end of the program – looks like it’s going to be all on-line. Management seems to be quite disorganized through the entire process and will put together teaching scenarios to address our issues.