Council Minutes – Oct 16, 2016

Location: NSC-207G
Time: 1PM

Members Present:  Dave Michalak, Fred Loveland, Rob Woods, Judi Dzuba, Tom Grace, Brian Loy, Joan Lubar, Meghan McGuinness, Jim Muccio, John Pierog, Suzanne Shepard, Tim Skinner, Jason Smith, Howard Streby, Suzanne Hickok, Dave Zeggert, and Joe Spence.

Meeting called to order at 1:00 PM

Sept 22 Minutes Approved. (Motion: J. Pierog, Second: B. Loy)

Committee Reports:

  1. Organizing Committee:
    • Continuation of faculty building activities will be the focus this year, including New Faculty Hiring Packets, Improving Communication, Outreach to other FA’s, Newsletter. There is room for everyone to be involved.
  2. Negotiations Resource Committee:
    • Will reconvene this semester. Will review items to be addressed going forward either in Labor Management Committee or for future negotiations. To include staffing levels, monitoring hiring rates.
  3. Adjunct Outreach Committee:
    • Discussing information packets for new adjunct hires and how to best support adjunct council. The number of Rep Council delegates allocated to adjuncts will soon reach 5.  Richard Schleider has been recommended to serve a term until Spring elections. Motion made by S. Hickok and seconded by B. Loy to appoint Richard, passed unanimously.

Officer Reports:

  1. President’s Report:
    1. Dave clarified that meetings will be twice monthly, Reps to attend both whenever possible and send a proxy to other meetings. Meetings will be Tuesdays at 1 and Thursdays at 11.
    2. A revised form of the Work for Hire issue is in subcommittee now and will be presented to Labor Management soon. This subcommittee consists of Carine Surdey, Rachel Hagerman, Harold Koster, and Jim Gormley.
    3. Brian Loy brought up the subject of Double Overload and how this impacts various divisions. Some courses are 6 credits but do not constitute “double overload”. Dave is meeting with Chairs on November 1st on 2 issues – this and the issue of the new administrative positions of Associate Dean and Assistant Dean.
    4. Aforementioned job descriptions have been obtained by FA. Dave will share with Rep Council. There is a lot of overlap (almost identical) between these proposed positions and the extant title of Staff Associate, which is an FA position.
    5. FA is still addressing the issue of faculty being asked to go to off-campus locations, such as Owego, to perform work they were hired to do on campus. FA feels mileage should be paid and the work should be compensated as overload.
      • Dave clarified that when employees travel and a college car is not available, they should receive mileage. If an employee declines to request or opts not to use a college car at all, the employee incurs the cost of transportation.
    6. Club advisor compensation is being discussed and will be brought forth by FA. John Pierog will research local school provisions for such.
    7. Dave discussed a NYSUT sponsored community college summit with SUNY community college FA presidents and the SUNY Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges. 7 community college presidents also attended and discussed various issues. President Michalak discussed the lack of faculty having a “Seat at the table” or any other representation at the Board of Trustees level in our colleges. As a result, several FA presidents will be meeting to discuss how this can be changed.
    8. President Michalak and Vice President Loveland are scheduled to meet with EVP Battisti with regard to a college in Mexico that would like to teach SUNY Broome credit-bearing courses in Mexico without departmental oversight from our faculty. FA will object to this.
  2. Vice President’s Report:
    1. Fred reports that 10 members will receive $300 rebates for courses they took last year and were wrongfully billed for. Money will be paid in their October 31 check.
    2. Much of what Fred is currently working on is sensitive in terms of personnel and can not yet be discussed.
  3. Treasurer’s Report:
    1. There is $12,000 in the Dental fund to cover expenses.
    2. FA expenses are:
      • $12, 516 for officer stipends
      • $2,259 for other expenses
      • Total:  $14, 775 per year. FA had a total of $15,000. This prevents some of the activities we seek to introduce, such as more outreach like the Wisconsin Rising event, faculty get-togethers, or even buttons etc.
    3. Discussion ensued regarding increase of local dues, which have remained static for many years.  Dave Zeggert made a motion to increase local dues by Five Dollars ($5) per year. Suzanne Hickok made an amendment to raise dues for Adjuncts teaching by a smaller amount.
      • Following discussion it was proposed to  raise adjuncts with less than 8 hours by $2.50 a year, other adjuncts by $5.00 a year, and for Full Time faculty by $10/year.
      • The amended motion was seconded by Howard Streby and passed unanimously.

NEW BUSINESS: None.

Motion to adjourn made at 2:00 PM by B. Loy seconded by D. Zeggert.  Unanimous.

Respectfully submitted,
Joseph S. Spence- FA Secretary

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