Minutes from April 22, 2005 Steering Committee/Department Representatives Meeting

10 - 11:30 am, Revised

Present: Brian Bahnson, John Bieber, Richard Braun, Linda Bucher, L. Leon Campbell, Peter Cole, David Colton, Steve Dentel, Doug Doren, Diane Ferry, Howard Garland, Palaniappa Krishnan, Carolyn Manning, Frances Mayhew, Sheldon Pollack, Gerry Turkel, Judy Van Name, and Danilo Yanich.

The meeting was called to order by President Linda Bucher. The minutes of the March 7, 2005 and March 23, 2005 Steering Committee/Department Representatives meetings were approved. The meeting was then turned over to David Colton to present the collective bargaining proposal.

5.10 Adequate cause for dismissal was defined, i.e. incompetence, gross irresponsibility or moral turpitude. The Contract Maintenance Officer reviews the evidence for "just cause" cases.

5.11 states that documents will be distributed via CD-ROM rather than print copies.

Everything in the collective bargaining agreement is grievable, but not everything in the faculty handbook is grievable. The Faculty Senate cannot change anything that the AAUP puts in the faculty handbook.

David reviewed revisions made to Article VIII, the grievance procedure.
A new fourth paragraph was added to Article IX, Personnel Benefits. Administration proposed that a full year retirement leave at 75% pay be included along with the option of a half year retirement leave at full pay.

9.7 The $175 for health exams, eyeglasses and hearing aids will be eliminated and a new Superior Vision Plan will be offered in its place. The latter would be included as a part of flex benefits and could cover family members and partners.

9.14 Include adoption of a child under the age of 5 by the faculty member. During the semester of birth or adoption, or the semester immediately following, the primary caregiver will have the option of an administered load. The latter is gender neutral and is based upon one's word that they are the primary caregiver, i.e. no proof will be required.

11.2 The language for faculty workload was cleaned up, footnote 3 was revised and footnote 4 was added to make it possible to mix and match credit contact hours and teaching contact hours based upon the department's workload policy.

12.4 Revisions regarding merit were made to reflect language in the contract. In other words, if faculty receive the same number for merit, they should receive the same dollar (or percentage) increase in pay. This is based upon the department merit metric approved by the faculty. Chairs must inform the individual faculty member of their merit number and it should follow their metric policy. The faculty can revise metric policies. It was noted that a lot of the department policies use "dollars" which favor lower level faculty.

Arts & Sciences buyout - One course = 12.5%, the second course must be negotiated.

Parking memorandum of understanding includes meeting once a year.

Memorandum of understanding to discuss the cost of health care for retirees. Due to the increase in the cost of medigap insurance, David stressed the importance of serving on this committee during the life of the new contract.

Salary - President Roselle favors full professors and initially did not offer structural adjustments for any other ranks except full professors.

Across-the-board salary increase is 2% each year.

Salary minimum for Assistant Professors will be raised by 10%, the "salary plus merit" increase will first be added and then total salary raised to $50,170 if the salary is below this amount. Therefore, $50,170 will be the new minimum for Assistant Professors, which will help with recruitment of faculty. This affects 21 current faculty members.

Assistant and Associate Professors will be at the median and full Professors will be above the median. Administration volunteered to put full Professors above the median. Comparisons were made to comparator, PhD. granting institutions in our region. These are salary comparisons only, not total compensation.

Concern was expressed about how people move through the system. Some faculty may find it necessary to go out on the market. We want flexibility to retain outstanding faculty. It was felt that administration was willing to address this; although, traditionally, unions' interest is in favoring those faculty members at the bottom rather than those at the top. It was also noted that a significant amount of special salary adjustments went to Department Chairs.

Faculty should be aware of the availability of a number of extraordinary salary increases. Assistant Professors should know there are opportunities for special salary adjustments. There are also named professorships, which are selected by administrators. David commented that the issues being raised are important ones.

President Bucher called for a vote on the collective bargaining proposal. The vote to accept the proposal was unanimous (14-0). Next steps include a letter from Vice-President Maxine Colm, an Open Faculty meeting for the faculty, distribution of the proposed CBA, and a vote by the faculty.

Respectfully submitted by Judith Van Name