Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander,Dennis Cecere, Peg Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Danny Harrington, Helen Lewis, Jeff Perry, Denise Pons, Stephanie Reich, Wendy Rolfe, Tom Stein, David Scott, Andrew Shryock, Will Silvio, and Jeri Sykes.

1. Helen made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Denise seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.

2. Prince Charles made a presentation on the faculty perspective of the new IP language that is in the early stages. He served on the committee and brought the UEC concerns from the language that the UEC put together for the bargain in 2013. The UEC hired David Herlihy to go through our contract, etc. to come up with new language for the bargain in 2013. The topic was brought up again in 2017 and the committee was created to provide new IP language for the college. Prince Charles brought these concepts and ideas to the committee. The new policy is very faculty, staff, and student friendly: they are pulling the ownership away from the college and giving it to the author of the work. The administration needs to bargain this with the Union. We have the General Counsel from AFT National to review the IP language as is to make sure we are protecting the faculty’s best interest.

3. Wendy discussed the earned sick-leave state law with HR. HR will talk to Academic Affais in regards to the earned sick-leave policy and we will be discussing the college policy and the state law at length going forward.

4. The scholarship committee made a presentation on a possible scholarship funded by the Union for a student in student government. We will discuss further going forward. Perhaps engage with Institutional Advancement.

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.