Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander,Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Helen Lewis, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Stephanie Reich,Wendy Rolfe, Tom Stein,Jackson Schultz, David Scott, Elizabeth Seitz, Denise Pons, and Jeri Sykes. Guests: Becky Bermont, Michelle Kwasny, Timah Kabba from IDEO.

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 presented Skip Whitmyer with a gift certificate from The Capital Grille for running the election last year.
    
3. May 3 is a target date for an all-faculty meeting to ratify new contract language and get the budget approved.
    
4. IDEO is here to discuss their role on campus. Equity, inclusion, and accountability – setting up an expectation for the culture and changing the current culture. This is a participatory process with the goal of holding up a mirror to the college. They have done 70 in-depth interview with faculty/staff/students and approximately 30 shorter interviews. Trying to get a clear picture of the current population, a draft set of values that represent the core values of this community. The information gathered will be shared with the Steering Committee. We discussed the PT faculty and their morale issues. The issues of FT faculty were discussed, offices, this is run like a business – not an educational institution. The symbiotic relationship between students and faculty is the most important part of this institution and is often discarded by management. The equity and parity between BoCo and Berklee faculty have not been reached yet in terms of pay. Berklee is very top down and very secretive. The staff is also a very important part of the school, is overlooked, and often asked to do more work to cover other jobs as people leave without additional pay for those covering their jobs. PT faculty is actually a misnomer–they are teaching full schedules.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Helen Lewis, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Stephanie Reich, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Elizabeth Seitz, Will Silvio, Denise Pons, and Jeri Sykes. 

1. Danny made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Peggy seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
    
2. We discussed our response to Equity and Fraternization policies proposed by the college. The topic of diversity was discussed at length.
    
3. Follow-up discussion on faculty member requesting additional year to receive health care due to an existing condition before Medicare can cover.
    
4. Will is going to attend a Songwriting meeting (by request of the chair) in the coming weeks to be available to discuss any union issues in their department.
    
5. IDEO is going to attend our meeting on April 12 to discuss their new consulting approach at the college.
    
6. We discussed the sick leave policy – sub coverage, etc.
    
7. We are planning to meet with the BOT executive committee.
    
8. The topic of faculty evaluations was discussed at length.
    
9. Chair/Dean evaluations will be done again this spring by the union.