Representative Council Meeting Minutes
February 16, 2017
NATURAL SCIENCE 207 @ 11:00 PM
Members Present: Dave Michalak, Fred Loveland, Rob Woods, Meghan McGuinness, Thomas Grace, Suzanne Hickok, Amanda Hollister, Jim Muccio, Richard Schleider, Suzanne Shepard, Tim Skinner, Jason “Shawn” Smith, Joe Spence, Dave Zeggert, Mike Lynch, guest (NYSUT).
Meeting called to order at 11:02 AM
New Business:
1.0 Minutes and Committee Report:
1.1 Minutes of 12/15/16 were approved. Motion: J. Muccio, Second Zeggert. Minutes passed unanimously one abstention (MCGuinness)
1.2 Organizing Committee Report: First FA Committee-sponsored Pot Luck Dinner will be Friday, April 28th 4:00-6:00 in D-221. RSVP’s will be requested for planning purposes. More info to follow.
1.3 Negotiations Resource Committee: Howard Streby will be convening meetings soon. He has received results of the NYSUT forensic audit of the college budget and NRC will be studying it closer for more detail relevant to the budget and FA concerns.
1.4 Adjunct Committee: Full and Part-time elections for Rep council will be in March. There are three fewer adjuncts this semester than last, but the number of sections has been drastically reduced this spring.
2.0 Vice President’s Report:
2.1 The college is planning its budget for no increase in FTE aid or tuition along with a decrease in enrollment. College apparently carried over $880,000 from last year.
2.2 The RAVE alert system has in its fine print the right to request employee health records. College has stated they do not and will not provide. Some members have reported attempting to opt out of this after registering and were denied. Fred will investigate.
2.3 COACHE survey- Dave will follow up on this. There are many serious concerns about the anonymity of the information being provided by members Many members will not complete due to this and a lack of time in the work day.
2.4 Labor Management committee meets February 21 at 1:00. Chair meeting is at 3:00 that day. Among topics: Payment for MOOC’s, Part Time Counselor pay rate, Day Overload proposal for travel and off site work, and overload credit maximums.
3.0 Treasurer’s Report:
3.1 Dental notices have been sent out. Please pay promptly
3.2 Five Hundred dollars was raised for the scholarship fund by the Super Bowl Pool. Thanks to all who contributed.
4.0 Mike Lynch (NYSUT)
4.1 NYSUT completed their analysis of the college budget. The college has given a conflicting report to the faculty that will be addressed. That said, President Drumm and VP Sullivan indicated that they did not mean to suggest or insinuate that any budget deficit issues were because of the faculty contract.
4.2 Mike discussed the upcoming vote on a NYS Constitutional Convention and enumerated the reasons why NYSUT would oppose this. Among those are threats to the NYS Pension System, the Taylor Act, Union membership and other ways less costly to make amendments.
5.0 President’s Report:
5.1 Dave and Fred met with Mike Sullivan. The budget is currently balanced. There is no more (manufactured) crisis. The college had $8 Million budgeted for “contracted services” and took the needed funds from that line to balance the budget.
5.2 Regarding the budget, there are changes anticipated with regard to Fast Forward and Study Abroad funding that could impact the budget.
5.3 100 course sections were cut this semester, and the college intends to cut an additional 250 by next spring. Chairpersons need to determine their class quotas with the departments.
Motion to adjourn made at 11:53 PM by M. McGuinness seconded by J. Muccio. Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Joe Spence
FA Secretary
SUNY Broome Community College 