Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Jackson Schultz, David Scott, Will Silvio and Jeri Sykes. Guest – Rene Pfister

1. Marti made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Jeri seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
    
2. Rene Pfister is here to discuss the merger and the NEASC team. He was present at the most recent meeting due to his role with Musical Theatre. NEASC mentioned that this merger is a good example of how it should be done. Communication could be better, however, in regards to faculty transitioning.
    
3. Delegates for AFT-MA were discussed. We can send up to 14: Jeff, Will, Jackson, Danny, Dennis, Marti, David (Sat. only), Peggy (Sat. only), Jeri (Sat. only), maybe—Rich, PC, Michael. April 28 and 29 in Burlington, MA.
    
4. Will—Election, April 4 nominations meeting; we are putting together a group of non-Executive Committee members to work with AAA to set-up all details. The election will be in late April.
    
5. The administration is delaying voluntary recognition for BoCo. We are looking into taking action.
    
6. Marti—workload for president is getting high. What about getting 4 people to cover one hour each week to answer questions in the office to reduce his workload and to help other members of the EC get involved and more well known? Marti is spearheading the project.
    
7. We discussed benefits like long-term care, cobra, and specifics. We will look further into this soon with Phil Lima.
    
8. Committees—the bargain proposals are done, just need to organize and put in order. Grad committee—has met and looking at all the issues: weighting, workload, etc.
    
9. We discussed student evaluations and how we can change in bargaining this summer.

Minutes from All-Faculty Budget Meeting

Present UEC – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, David Scott, Will Silvio, and Jeri Sykes.

1. Jackson opened the meeting.
    
2. Jeff presented the budget. After discussion we called for a voice vote and this was unanimous. Dennis made a motion to approve the budget as proposed, Marti seconded, and the vote was unanimous.
    
3. We discussed the merger with BoCo and specifically the faculty joining our Union.
    
4. The workload of the Executive Committee was discussed with 644 faculty and 200+ coming on board with BoCo.
    
5. We discussed new stipends for the year 2017-2018. Jeff presented the new stipends. After discussion we called for a voice vote and this was unanimous. Danny made a motion to accept the new stipends, Peggy seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the new stipends.

Union notes from Union / Management Meeting

Present – Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Danny Harrington, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, David Scott, Jackson Schultz, and Will Silvio.

Management – Jay Kennedy, Joe Bennett, Lori Johnson, and Melinda Thomas

1.     Jay opened the meeting. Today is Jackson’s birthday and we all sang to him.

2.     Lori Johnson is here to discuss the plan for student advising. We discussed the advising for students at length. Academic Advising from Advising Office, Peer Advisor, Major Department Advisor, Career Coach. Career and Advising Center has only three currently looking to build that up to six. ACI is being revised and Advising is going to stay but in a little different role.

We discussed the student taking all core courses in sequence early in their time here to be successful. Back in the day the core was completed before any students could choose any new classes (two years completed).

The early alerts go to the Retention office with only two staff. Hopefully we can modify this to get the students connected to specific advisors to then get connected. Early alerts can feel like they are being dropped in a black hole. Hard to see the results sometimes but we still need to fill out the form to make sure the info gets in the right hands in a timely manner.

We discussed retention and the concepts of why students leave.

As Colleague is being replaced the college is looking at a new ways to ensure the students take the core in order to increase their success. For example, if a student takes MAT and passes then Harmony 2 would be on their schedule and they just have to select section. It cannot be removed unless an advisor signs off on it.