Payment for regular load will be included in a future bi-weekly check. There is no clear date when that will occur.

Transcription

1 Agenda for Executive Committee Meeting September 28, :00 PM Room 4090 Warwick Campus I. President s Report II. Vice-President s Report III. Secretary s Report IV. Treasurer s Report V. Political Action Committee Report V. Old Business A. Increase in dues. VI. New Business A. Decision on arbitration for grievance denied at the Board of Governors level B. Discussion of recent administrative changes C. Change to By-laws (ratification votes) D. Other business Attendees : Karen Allen, John Mowry, Kevin Crawford, Tony Rashid, Marjorie Norquist, Margaret L Clifton, Paul White, Robert T Melucci, Joe Allen, Steve Forleo, Mazin Adar(?), Donald Stuart Fontes, Jean Billerbeck, Allie Cullen, Rosemary Costigan, Marc G LeVassein, Dave Critchett, Denise Parrillo, Sasha Ruggieri, Renee Anderson, Jim Salisbury, Jennifer Azevedo, Denise L Lazo, Ramona Skelly, John Ribezzo and Deb Lilli. President s Report: It is expected that retroactive payments for overload should appear with our October overload check. All payments will be made into your TIAA accounts as listed in the contract also. Payment for regular load will be included in a future bi-weekly check. There is no clear date when that will occur. CCRI has processed their changes and forwarded them to the State. The State was waiting for the results of the nine unions involved. The last, the RIC faculty approved the agreement, this past Monday, by an huge margin in the words of their President, Jason Blank. At this point all 9 have settled.

2 . President of Faculty Union at RIC, Jason Blank has asked that we vote for Question 3 on the ballot on Election Day. This bond issue would allow for the improvement of classroom buildings that are in poor condition. Situation in Math Dept. overload contract rules do allow for exceptions called Excess OverLoad. Not unique to have a situation where it is hard to staff the courses so exception is requested. In Math Department chair filled in the Exception for Over Load forms and they were rejected. Wouldn t approve overload at the last minute, with no advanced warning. Be prepared the limits will be enforced. After 2 weeks of disagreeing on the issue, the administration let those faculty members teach the overload. This will be revisited in the spring semester. If a student approaches a faculty member with the intention of dropping a class, please advise them that IF they are on Financial Aid to check with the Financial Aid office as to the repercussions before dropping the class. They were told this in orientation, but often forget. Verification of Attendance is not the same thing. BOG meeting reports No tuition increases Short 14 million. No help from the state. VP Morgan has announced her retirement. The request for nominations for the faculty positions on the search committee for the Vice-President for Academic Affairs will be sent. Oct is election month for Nomination Elections committee. Notice will be sent out. Vice President s Report: A faculty member filed a grievance regarding the scheduling of department meetings over the summer in violation of the contract which states that all meetings should be scheduled during the academic year with the exception of emergency meetings. A hearing at the level of the dean was held and the grievance was denied at that level. The faculty member has agreed to have the grievance held in abeyance until their department has their next scheduled meeting and discusses the scheduling of meetings with the hope that an acceptable resolution can be reached. Carol Rowey has an arbitration hearing scheduled on November 1, 2012 regarding the assignment of distance learning as regular and course overloads. A faculty member has filed a grievance regarding tuition re-imbursement for dependents. The next hearing at the BOG level is schedule for Oct. 25, 2012.

3 A faculty member filed a grievance as a result of a disciplinary decision. This individual is requesting arbitration. This matter will be discussed later in this meeting. Secretary s Report- Notice has been sent to Department Chair s about Executive Committee elections in each department. Waiting for results of those departmental decisions. Results were asked to be ed. PAC Report (handout of report) There are 59 member of the PAC group. 5 members have either resigned or retired. OLD BUSINESS : Treasurer s Report (handout of reports) Raising Dues - Didn t mail out Financial Statements or calendars to save money on postage. As part of the report, ask if we can put this on the website. Password protect it. Scholarship Fund: (single page handout) Awarded scholarships totaling $3500( awarded last year) This summer awarded 8 scholarships for $500 each for $4000 total. Statement of Expenses (handout 2, page 1) Overall equity decreased by about $14,500. Total assets as of May 31, 2012, $48,000. Equity is now a negative $22 thousand. Last fall (2011) we had an EC meeting and voted to recommend to faculty that we increase dues by $2 per payroll period for members and $1 per payroll period for agents. Brought up at General Faculty meeting and postponed. Nothing has been done about it. 10 Year Report for past 4 years, dues $24 a payroll period. review of spreadsheet (handout ) information ( if we continue with the same structure the decrease in equity will be -7,735 for the next year. Right now we have a motion postponed at the General Faculty with a proposed increase of $2 for members and $1 for agents. We have to deal with that motion. Comment - the reason this got postponed, general faculty asking for information from NEARI before the members would consider taking a vote. If this is brought back to the general faculty would get the same result. A report was to go to the faculty so we could see a breakdown of the budget and that has not occurred. President passes out a copy of the report and mentions that any of our delegates could have gotten this document at any time. ( hand out NEARI budget). Ramona turns over the chairing of the meeting to Denise. Questions and comments about the reasons why dues have gone up and what we are getting in return for the increases.

4 Question was asked do we have a parliamentarian? The answer was no. Looking for a cost analysis for how the budget is used for CCRI. What kinds of support systems are in place to justify the increase in dues. Mazin makes a motion Motion for an itemized list or account the cost of services provided by NEARI to the CCRI Faculty. Jean seconds the motion. Jean wants to make a motion to amend the original motion. Adds within the last 10 years to the motion. Mazin agrees with the amendment. Motion for an itemized list or account of cost of services provided by NEARI to the CCRI Faculty within the last 10 years. Ramona reminds us that Denise is in charge. Discussion: Ramona speaks to where the money goes to uniserve rep, grievences, meetings, lawsuits, disciplinary hearings, individual issues. John R tells us we will be able to pay our bills awhile more. Ramona moves to close debate. Seconded. Unanimous. Favor of Motion to amend original motion. 18 approve, 4 against, 1 abstain Motion to amend original motion passes. Kevin makes a motion to recommend bringing the NEARI budget to the general faculty when it takes up the motion for a dues increase that was postponed last December. There is discussion about making a new motion with a motion already postponed at the full faculty meeting. We already have an approved motion so when we call for the General Faculty meeting would it be acceptable to include notification of the NEARI budget that will be included? Kevin agrees this is what he is seeking. Notification with motion Seconded by Rosemary. Discussion. Dave C against motion because the only record of NEARI budget that we are going to go to the full faculty with is the overall Neari Budget that we received, and not a budget that is specific to CCRI.

5 John R doesn t know how long it will take us to catch up even with the increase. He recommends $27 per pay period. Jean asks if it is possible to further amend the motion to include a report from NEARI for not only the past 10 years but for the future. Denise responds to Jean and states that she is not sure that NEARI can produce the report that we are requesting. Ramona is recognized and says she moves to close debate. Calls for vote on Kevin s motion to send notification that includes the NEARI budget to be distributed ( that was passed out at the EC meeting) to faculty before the General Faculty meeting. VOTE : 21 in favor, 3 against, motion passes. Rob Melucci : Motion Propose that we raise dues to $27 per pay period for full members and $21 per pay period for agents to fulfill our obilations. Marge seconds the motion. Mazin mentions importance of letting general faculty know that we are still waiting for an itemized account of NEARI s budget for CCRI. Dave asks whether Rob wants to recommend amending the motion postponed at last December s general faculty meeting to reflect dues increases of $27 for members and $21 for agents. Rob says that is his intent. Rob M accepts that amendment to his motion. Vote : 7 for, 13 against 2 abstain Motion is defeated. John Ribezzo is requesting that he be able to put financial statements online in a password protected area. Kevin suggests using Blackboard for the file. Ramona moves to next item on the agenda. Dave C. requests a 5 minute recess. New Business: A. A Decision on arbitration for grievance denied at the Board of Governors level First item is to take vote on whether or not to take to arbitration. Jennifer gives us a summary of the nursing issue and some of the details surrounding the grievance. Resulted in a disciplinary letter put into nurse s file. EC must decide whether to go to arbitration. Discussion. Have gone through the 3 steps on the chain, then go to arbitration. Mazin makes motion to close debate. Unanimous. Debate is closed.

6 Vote; Take the Nursing Issue to Arbitration - 19 in favor, 0 - against, 2 abstain. Motion passes. B. Discussion of recent administrative changes Discussion: The Association has gone through the first three stages of the grievance procedure. The last step is arbitration. Two faculty members received letters from Human Resources to appear for predisciplinary hearings. In both cases, students had contacted HR with complaints about the instructors. This should have gone to Student Affairs, not HR. NEARI representative, Jennifer Azevedo, and Ramona advised both faculty members this was the wrong venue. Discussion of due process rights. There have been recommendations that students should go directly to HR to file complaints. Steve summarizes situation. 1. July 3 discussion with student / problem 2. July 17 Student files a complaint with HR 3. September (week 2) faculty member is FIRST notified with a pre-disciplinary letter that can ultimately lead to terrmination Discussion is that HR has no business entertaining ANY student complaints. Other faculty members have also experienced this same scenario. Joe Allen- Summarizes his ongoing situation. Received a letter from VP of Academic affairs with letter referring to possible termination. A packet had been sent to HR, different than the packet that Joe was given. Joe not notified of what was taking place, although there were decisions being made, brought to a hearing, and Joe never received notice that any of this was taking place.( was going to the wrong address with all of this information). Joe hired an attorney. He gave a packet with information to his attorney. HR voiced that they have an obligation to listen to students claims that involve threats or anything that is determined it is serious issue. A similar situation happened to Deb Lilli. She was sick for 3 days but received a letter from HR saying without verification- that she had been absent for 2 weeks. She discussed the matter with her department chair. Students going to HR make no sense. They are not employed by the college. Students should be directed to go to Student Services if there is a problem. Ramona is disturbed by the threatening tone of the pre-disciplinary letters she has seen. Kevin mentions the Student Handbook and the administration is not following the policies. Something needs to be done by faculty as a body.

7 Dave Critchet makes motion: The Executive Committee recommend to the general faculty that any further abuse of the faculty disciplinary process at CCRI result in a censure of college s administration during the next NEASC evaluation. John M. seconds. Discussion. What is the process when an administrator doesn t do their job correctly? Contract is wide open. Chairs are not consulting with their faculty before making decisions sent down by the administration because of the removal of chair clause in the contract. Chair s feel they have no choice. We need policies and procedures in place. Several nursing faculty have also gotten these letters from HR without any prior dialog. Dave asks John (seconded original motion) for permission to add the word SENIOR. The Executive Committee recommend to the general faculty that any further abuse of the faculty disciplinary process at CCRI result in a censure of college s senior administration during the next NEASC evaluation. Rob Melucci we need to provide documentation to support the motion. Kevin makes motion to end debate. Joe A seconds. Vote 19 approve, 2 deny passes, debate is closed. Vote on Dave s motion: 19 for 4- against Motion passes. C. Change to By-laws (ratification votes) Last agenda item. Suggestions of how to make it easier for more members to participate in a ratification vote. Suggested lead time of being able to see the contract changes 7 days before the vote. Vote could be secret ballot in a couple of different locations on the campuses. Online vote also suggested. Dave C request that we put on agenda for the next meeting possible changes to the by-laws. John R. will be getting the addresses of all faculty so he can send out the financial statements. Motion to adjourn. Unanimous.