Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Epstein, Danny Harrington, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Stephanie Reich, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, David Scott, Will Silvio and Jeri Sykes.

1. Danny made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Marti seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
    
2. We discussed the by-laws. Marti made a motion to approve the revised Constitution and By-Laws, Dennis seconded and the vote was unanimous.
    
3. We discussed the Steve Kirby situation – both the Canadian Steve Kirby and the current Steven Kirby – our esteemed colleague. There will be an article coming out about the concept of mistaken identity in the Globe shortly.
    
4. The student rally was discussed at length. The students did not hold back.
    
5. Jackson is working on setting up a meeting with the board of trustees. Roger has suggested we meet with the Executive Committee of the Board and that may be a better way to get the ball rolling. We all agreed this is a good idea.
    
6. Can we build on the faculty energy and unify with a positive statement? Perhaps a way to keep things moving forward. We did send out a positive letter last week and it erupted into an e-mail blizzard. We discussed the idea of creating a forum for faculty to discuss ideas that are pertinent to them.
    
7. The ratification meeting tonight was discussed. We discussed creating an activist team and having people sign up tonight.
    
8. The concept of a 10-minute meeting outside of department meetings was discussed to engage faculty on topics that are important to them, just to quickly go over things.
    
9. We discussed the concept of getting more faculty reps and other faculty to learn the contract – perhaps a session at BTOT.

Union notes from Union / Management Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Dennis Cecere, Peter Cokkinias, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Stephanie Reich, Wendy Rolfe, David Scott, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio, Tom Stein, and Jeri Sykes. 

Management – Larry Simpson, Darla Hanley, Ron Savage, Camille Colatosti, Joe Bennett

1. Jackson opened the meeting. Larry and others are here to discuss the most recent article in the Boston Globe.

2. Larry discussed the Globe article – both the original article and a new one today. He opened up to the committee for discussions.

We are not dismissing the people that came forward. This is a very difficult topic to discuss and look at. This is very embarrassing for the college, timing is unusual – it’s been some time – but with events of late it’s on everyone’s mind, also – one a recent event was not mentioned, will there be another shoe to drop?

Berklee from 1945 to 2000 has had issues with women and race – you cannot deny the past – we have to own the history. There is a problem and we have to fix. Berklee has attempted to move fast to remove these faculty members from the classroom. Most recent issue, heard one day, out of class the next and no longer at the institution. We have a no tolerance policy in regards to this topic.

What about an independent vehicle for investigation? such as ombuds position? We need to have a clear, transparent, and fair process for investigating allegations. This will protect both parties, accused and accuser.

Berklee understands the fear of coming forward.

We discussed the Galindo situation. Berklee is not writing reference letters for any terminated faculty. In this case, Berklee sent the file over with details of his termination and NEC hired him anyway.

Roger has been out front with a letter dealing with the article. Could the Union come out publicly and write a letter to get more info out to faculty about the community standards that we expect at this institution. And perhaps a letter to the editor of the Globe.

How can we do better internally and how can we do it together?

The right to privacy leads to outcomes that can be obscured in that results may not be know to protect the accusers. The other side is we do not want the vile inappropriate evidence out in the public.

We can bring the people that are involved in the process to the EC and we will do so ASAP.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Stephanie Reich, Wendy Rolfe, Tom Stein, Jackson Schultz, David Scott, Will Silvio and Jeri Sykes.

1. Danny made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Jeri seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
    
2. We will be sending out notice for the contract ratification on 11/16 at 6 pm in the Sheraton.
    
3. We discussed a recent faculty member being dismissed. Based on discussion on the issues we took a vote whether or not to Jackson should advocate this faculty member getting one-year severance, 7 were for, 1 against, and 2 abstained.