Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander,Dennis Cecere, Peter Cokkinias, Marti Epstein, Danny Harrington, Helen Lewis, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Denise Pons, Stephanie Reich, Wendy Rolfe, Tom Stein, Jackson Schultz, David Scott, Elizabeth Seitz, Andrew Shryock, Will Silvio, and Jeri Sykes. Guest: Stephanie Kellar

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. David Scott – sick-leave policy. David, Wendy, Sarah Kervin, Scott Tarulli, and John Funkhouser met and discussed the policy. David made a presentation on what the committee learned. There is not always a mutual agreement between chair and faculty. Poor communication is at the crux, between HR and Chairs, Chairs and faculty, etc. Faculty can call in sick, not make-up the class, and not pay a sub with NO retaliation. The Union should meet with HR and make sure we are on the same page before we roll out any language to the faculty. We discussed the policy at length and one possibility is a faculty handbook to educate faculty on all policies.

   We propose to meet with HR next week to flush things out and then follow up with management in May.

3. Chair/Dean evaluations were discussed. Is there time to get the questions updated before May? Perhaps we put together a working group next fall to modify the questions and update the evaluations. We discussed doing as is this spring with the current questions. David will send out to several people to adjust questions and include BoCo as well. We will try and revise ASAP and get out in the next week.

4. Marti discussed BoCo coordinators, liaison, and head of dept. within the BoCo faculty. These are service/admin positions – not paid – it is service to the college. It has been made clear that BoCo is not familiar with the service to the college concept and how much time is given within the contract and a fair approach. Many faculty are doing way too many hours and some are working on Patriots Day!!

Union notes from Union / Management Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Marti Epstein, Margaret McAllister, Jeff Perry, Stephanie Reich, Wendy Rolfe, Adrew Shryock, Tom Stein, Jackson Schultz, David Scott, Elizabeth Seitz, Will Silvio, Denise Pons, and Jeri Sykes. Guest; Ani Johnson

Management – Jay Kennedy, Carin Nuernberg, Darla Hanley, Joe Bennett, Ron Savage, Michael Shinn, Tommy Neblett

1. Jay opened the meeting.

2. We discussed the grading scale change for the college starting in the fall of 2019 so both institutions will be aligned. BoCo will be changed to fit Berklee’s scale.

3. We discussed the new IP committee and proposed language. Prince Charles Alexander, Mark Simos, and George Howard are faculty members on the committee. We have a first attempt now and we are looking to get feedback from a larger group and hopefully have a finished product at some point during the fall.

   Joe Bennett made a presentation – www.berklee.edu/IPis the location of all the important information to review. Copyright, trademark, and patent IP, our main focus is copyright. Work for hire is a specific issue for us and we are working on the nuances. Independent Work – faculty and staff own, Essential Course Material – Berklee owns, Personal Expression Materials – faculty owns. More specific issues are in the presentation.

   We discussed many specific issues that will be ironed out as we go forward. The IP committee is looking for feedback. Please review policy and fill out the on-line form at www.berklee.edu/IP.

Minutes from UEC Nomination Meeting

1. Jeff Perry opened the meeting and explained the election / nomination process and introduced the other members of the election committee, Ayn Inserto, Rob Hochschild, Helen Lewis, and Joel Schwindt.

   Nominations for:

2. President – Stephanie Kellar, Will Silvio

3. Secretary/Treasurer – Andrew Shryock

4. EVP – Todd Gardner, David Scott

5. VP FT – Andrea “Ani” Johnson, Teodros Kiros, Elizabeth Seitz

6. VP PT – Wendy Rolfe

7. Grievance Officer – Prince Charles Alexander

8. Berklee Professional Education Division Rep. – Peg Codding

9. Berklee Performance Division Rep. – Dennis Cecere

10. Berklee Professional Writing and Technology Division Rep. – Michael Abraham

11. BoCo Theater – Paul Masters

12. BoCo Music – Marti Epstein, (Kevin Wilson declined to run)

13. BoCo Dance – Denise Pons-Leone

14. 6 Councilors at large – Michael Johnson, Stephanie Reich, Utar Artun, Peter Cokkinias, Alicia Bower, (Jeri Sykes and Beth Platow declined to run)

15. For a candidate’s name to appear on the ballot, the nominee must notify the Election Committee by phone (617-747-8689) or by email (jperry@berklee.edu) by Thursday, April 4, indicating that they accept the nomination.

16. The Election Committee will notify faculty of all candidates nominated. This notification will be sent by email on or before Tuesday, April 9.

17. The American Arbitration Association (AAA) will be sending out mail-in ballots (with stamped return envelopes) to home address on or before April 15.

18. The deadline for mail-in ballots to be considered in the election will be April 30.

19. Review of nominations, the nominations are now closed.

20. Ayn Inserto closed the meeting.