Coach’s Corner – The State of the Union

Fellow CCFT Members,

This is the first of what I hope will be a regular bi-weekly listserv posting briefly summarizing the work of our union.  Sure, we do have quite a few channels of communication in place already—the newsletter, the website, minutes from the EB and CR meetings, and the members of the Council themselves.  Still, in response to a desire from some colleagues to hear from the union in more venues, I’m excited about this additional effort to keep in touch with you.  Please let me know what you think. I continue to hold office hours on Wednesdays in SLO from 2:00-4:00 and I am working on a time and place for North County office hours. Please drop in to see me.  My office on the SLO campus is in the PE building, #3116.

Relationships Matter

As you’ll recall, I ran for CCFT president partly on a platform of reducing unnecessary conflict between our union and management.  We’ve succeeded on a number of fronts; relations are better, but challenges remain.  CCFT has remained consistent in its pro-active approach to preventing problems and building a cooperative relationship with administration. However, the message from the administration has been mixed. One recent example is the “process” that has been used with regard to the summer schedule and budget cuts as addressed in the listserv message posted last week by Steve Leone, John Fetcho and me. As a united force, the Academic Senate, CCUE, and CCFT are working together to protect the system of shared governance we’ve fought over the years to establish. And, although shared governance is not a primary role of the union, shared governance practices can directly impact areas that affect wages and working conditions, like particular budget reduction strategies.  Additionally, having a strong labor voice engaged in shared governance is important. 

Summer Schedule and Budget Reductions

At last week’s Joint Planning and Budget/Shared Governance Meeting, CCFT learned for the first time that the summer 09 session could be significantly reduced or eliminated entirely.  We have demanded information about the proposed cuts.  At our January 29th Council of Representatives meeting the Council discussed both the summer school issue and budget reduction strategies. The Council affirmed that it is premature to make a decision to eliminate summer school prior to the availability of Census information. Peet Cocke (VP) and I will carry that message forward to the second Joint Planning and Budget/ Shared Governance Meeting Tuesday, February 3.
The Council also decided to work through their divisions to brainstorm budget reduction ideas. The reps have been e-mailed a template to collect information. Please work with your Council Representative(s) on this important task. We will be asking management to provide data relevant to these budget reduction strategies, so prioritization of the strategies at a later joint Shared Governance/Planning and Budget committee meeting will be meaningful and productive.

Negotiations

You will be receiving separate negotiations updates. Unfortunately, negotiations have been moving slowly. CCFT has presented carefully thought-out and precisely constructed new language to Articles 6, 11 and 14 thanks to our behind-the-scenes team which has been hard at work now for months identifying and rectifying problem areas of the contract.

The issue regarding dental fringe has not been resolved.  On December 19, I sent an e-mail to the CCFT listserv outlining the issue. However, our past practice on this issue has been problematic and does not work in the best interest of faculty today.  Our negotiations team and the EB—in conjunction with our legal counsel—are working to address the problem and to head off similar problems in the future.
The information recently posted on the full-time/ part-time listserv regarding salary comparisons is not only inaccurate, but undermines our union's position at the negotiation table.  I regret that this posting occurred, and I assure you that your negotiation team continues to work diligently and confidentially on the behalf of Cuesta's faculty.

Constitutional Revision

The Constitution/Bylaws Committee, chaired by Mark Tomes, submitted its work to the EB on January 22.  EB members were bowled over by the progress this committee has made.  The committee’s draft is based in large part on the AFT model constitution and the legal analysis provided to us by attorneys at the AFT.  The draft moves next to the CR and after that to the members for their input. We hope to hold the ratification vote on the constitution by March 9 so we can conduct our important EB elections this spring according the provisions in the new constitution.

Evaluations Best Practice Workshop

Here is Debra Stakes' (Co-Presenter) report on the peer evaluation workshop:

Many CCFT members participated in Faculty Professional Day on January 15 by attending a panel discussion examining the peer review process from a variety of perspectives. The panel was organized in response to faculty identified needs and concerns with regard to evaluations, including a desire to clarify the expectations and requirements when acting as the reviewer, acting as faculty mentor, as well as being the faculty under review.
 
Panel members included Marie Larsen, Greg Baxley, Peggy Wright, and Debra Stakes. Their charge was to present what has worked, as well as provide tools or personal insights developed to reinforce these procedures. Debra provided suggestions for preparing for a successful evaluation. Greg discussed his perspectives of being a proactive reviewer from over eight years being on both sides of the process on two campuses. Peggy was able to clarify precisely what was (and was not) explicitly required by the contract, and Marie discussed how she organizes the process in the Math Division by sharing samples of letters and checklists.
 
The documents from the Math Division, relevant portions of the contract, and evaluation templates from other campuses were consolidated into a sizeable "best practices for peer evaluation" handout distributed to participants in the workshop. This material will be available from the union office and at future workshops. A second outcome from the workshop established the beginnings of an informal mentoring network. Faculty volunteered to provide feedback on classroom techniques in advance of formal evaluations to support progress toward classroom excellence.

CCFT Website 

Marilyne Cleeves, the CCFT webmaster, has begun a major re-working of the union website.  Drafts of the new constitution and bylaws are posted there along with suggestion forms that members can use to send their comments to the members of the Constitution/Bylaws Committee.  We will also create a link for regular updates on our progress in negotiations. We welcome your suggestions to the site!

Part-time Faculty Issues

One of the greatest issues impacting our PT colleagues is the tightening of the schedule and the lack of “bumping” rights for part-time faculty. This issue, which hurts our most vulnerable colleagues, is one that we will address forcefully at the negotiations table.
CCFT is seeking nominations for Part-Time Chair. Please contact me by February 5, 2009 if you are interested.

CCFT Budget

CCFT's treasury balance as of January 24, 2009 was $6,302.55. The balance has been low all semester because we have been paying as much as possible each month on a particularly lengthy and expensive legal case which we are now caught up on.  However, we will be receiving a sizable new bill from the arbitrator once she renders her decision and from our own legal counsel which will have to review the arbitrator’s decision.  In addition, there may be other legal cases that cannot be resolved without incurring substantial new expenses. The members of the EB are committed to using our financial and legal resources when required to protect our members, but at the same time remaining attentive to protecting the financial integrity of our organization.

North County Campus

As mentioned in my opening paragraph, I hope to set-up North County Office hours soon.

Thank you for your continued support.
Allison Merzon, CCFT President
Go Cougars!