Here is a PDF of the 10-30-2013 issue of Table Talk: tabletalkOct2013final.

The full text of the issue is also reprinted below, so that it will searchable using our website’s search engine.

Table Talk

The Newsletter of the United Faculty of Contra Costa Community College District

October 30, 2013

 

News at a Glance

• E-Board Proposes Changes to UF Constitution: Vote Starts Today
• “STRS Essentials” Retirement Planning Workshop Nov. 8
• Open E-Board Spots for FT Faculty from All Three Colleges
• Issues Round-Up: From Full-Time Hires to Classroom Security
• UF to Propose FACCC Contract Membership
• UF Seeks to Improve the Academic Calendar: Survey Planned
• New Ward 3 District Trustee: Matthew Rinn
• President’s Message: Local and Statewide Work

 

E-Board Proposes Changes to UF Constitution

Ballots are being delivered today via campus mail asking members to approve a number of changes to the UF constitution proposed by the UF Executive Board. Votes are due back in the UF office by noon on Friday, Nov. 15. As always, faculty may vote by campus mail or by email, phone or fax, as explained on the ballot itself.

The proposed changes include the following: first, the revisions will allow us to use electronic voting in the future rather than paper ballots. In our survey last semester, more than 90% of respondents said they favored switching to electronic voting as a way to save money and staff time, and we have been working on developing a system on the UF website to conduct elections accurately and anonymously, but we discovered that references to “mailbox ballots” in our constitution seemed to forbid the switch. The proposed language will allow the E-Board to change procedures for voting as needed to ensure maximum participation and flexibility. (Our plan is to continue to allow voting by phone or fax as well, but to stop using paper ballots in most cases.)

Second, we propose adding one more part-time representative from DVC to the UF Executive Board. There is currently one part-time representative from each college (plus our district-wide Part-Time Faculty Advocate position). This change would reflect the proportional membership at each college, as we do with full-time representatives. DVC has as about twice as many faculty as the other two colleges, and representation on the E-Board is supposed to be proportional. We are also proposing changes to the language about proportional representation to allow for a bit more flexibility. In place of the current language stating that the E-Board must approximate the proportion of membership at each college, we are suggesting slightly less prescriptive wording that would allow the Board to recommend changes to the membership without absolutely requiring it. This would allow more room for interpretation and discussion among E-Board members, as seems prudent since faculty numbers may shift temporarily (as they have in the last couple of years during the funding crisis).

We are proposing as well some modifications to our E-Board’s authority and procedures. We are adding language to clarify that the Board does not have the authority to modify dues without a vote of the general membership. And we are eliminating the step where we ask members to ratify the annual UF budget, unless there are changes to dues. The budget will need to be ratified by the E-Board annually and will continue to be available (along with monthly and quarterly statements) for any member to review at any time.

Lastly, we are clarifying that the UF represents all faculty, not just classroom teachers, and we are changing the months of “regular elections” to more accurately reflect our practices.

All of the exact changes have been printed on the back of the ballot, and we have scheduled meetings at all three colleges to review the changes. You may also contact your local UF Vice Presidents or President Glenn Appell at gappell@sbcglobal.net with any questions.

 

Union Meetings
Scheduled to Discuss
Constitution Changes

LMC: Tuesday, Nov. 5,
2-3pm, Room 115

DVC: Tuesday, Nov. 12,
2-3pm, L-151

CCC: Wednesday, Nov. 13,
2-3pm, LA-107

 

“STRS Essentials” Retirement Planning Workshop Nov. 8

UF Benefits Director Deborah Dahl-Shanks will host a workshop for full-time and part-time faculty on issues related to retirement planning and STRS. This free event will be Friday, November 8, at 1pm in the BFL Conference Room at Diablo Valley College. (The UF will provide lunch at 12:30pm.) For details and directions, or to RSVP, please call the UF Office at 925-680-1771. The UF and FACCC will also be sponsoring our annual Benefits and Retirement Conference at DVC on April 4, 2014. Details will come in the spring.

 

UF Executive Board Needs YOU! FT Spots Open

Nominations are now open for full-time E-Board spots from all three colleges. We currently have one vacancy for a full-time representative from LMC and 2 vacancies from DVC. At CCC, counselor Suzanne Huey has accepted an appointment to fill a vacancy, but if there are others who would like to run for that spot, an election must be held. We do not currently have vacancies for part-time representatives.

The form is on the back of this issue of Table Talk. If you would like to serve on our UF E-Board, your completed form must be received in the UF Office by noon on November 15, 2013. If we have more candidates than we have spots on the Board for any vacant position, we will hold elections. The UF E-Board meets on Thursdays, about every two weeks, from 2:15-5pm, usually at DVC. For details, call the UF.

 

Issues Round-Up

Full-Time Hires: The UF is continuing to press at both the district and college levels for more full-time positions. We think this is a year where every college should do better than simply replace retirees. We need to improve our full-time/part-time ratios.

Accreditation and SLOs: Faculty spend too much time producing and verifying reports. We’re pressing for accreditation reform statewide and reasonable local limits. One way to reduce the administrative workload would be to hire more full-time faculty!

Security and Student Discipline: We are initiating a review of current protocols related to disruptive students and general security. We want to expand training for faculty and managers in this area.

Salaries and College Budgets: The review of budgets for our salary formula will come in the spring, but we know this now: faculty have lost ground against the cost of living, and we need to catch up. Plus, while District reserves have grown, faculty have become less financially secure. One-time money may not be suited for ongoing raises, but it might pay for a bonus to help employees pay down debts. So we’ll be reviewing District and college reserves this year.

New Managers Everywhere We Look:
LMC has a new college president, vice president, and chief business officer. CCC has a new president and vice president. DVC is now hiring a chief business officer and new vice president. And there are new deans at all three colleges. As managers change, the UF focuses on establishing relationships and rebuilding partnerships in governance.

 

UF to Propose FACCC Contract Membership

The UF has entered into negotiations with the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC) to become a “contract member,” and we intend to hold UF meetings on this subject and a vote of our members in December. Many of the strongest local faculty unions, including Foothill/DeAnza and Santa Rosa, have become contract members of FACCC, and with the onslaught of anti-union, anti-faculty proposals increasing in Sacramento (not to mention the need for improved funding), we think it has never been more important to strengthen our lobbying efforts and contribute our share.

Although our statewide group, the California Community College Independents (CCCI), like the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and California Teachers Association (CTA), engages in statewide lobbying, and our own UF leaders are active in Sacramento too, FACCC plays a unique and crucial role as our professional association, often bringing together key coalitions, including the Academic Senate and the unions. No group has been more influential in stopping bad ideas, promoting good ones, and protecting students and faculty.

There are other advantages to contract membership besides increasing support for FACCC. In a contract-membership, FACCC dues are lower and become entirely tax deductible. Contract-member unions are also guaranteed a position on the FACCC Board of Governors, which improves our local voice in State policy. Other advantages might include discounts on FACCC Education Institute events, such as the Great Teachers Seminar (we are still negotiating details). And of course, members receive FACCC’s excellent quarterly journal and other perks.

Most UF members are already dues-paying members of FACCC. For those faculty, FACCC dues would go down. Those not in FACCC already would become members as part of their UF membership. The details are still being worked out, but the basic plan is to put a change in dues before the UF membership for a vote in December. This would add to our current dues a flat fee to cover FACCC membership (about $15 a month for full-timers and maybe $4 a month for part-timers). Members who currently pay FACCC dues ($18/month for full-timers and $5/month for part-timers) would no longer pay FACCC directly.

The UF already has a close relationship with FACCC. They co-sponsor our spring benefits conference and help us with local elections and fund-raisers. Our aim is to strengthen that partnership going forward. We will be sharing more information and details soon.

 

UF Seeks Changes in Academic Calendar

Every year, the UF receives from the District a proposal for the following year’s academic calendar, and it rarely looks good. Chief among our complaints is the reasonable request that we should start semesters on a Monday and end on a Friday. But there is no easy way to do it. State rules govern the number of teaching days, and the fact that there are more holidays on Mondays than on other days makes the whole puzzle a frustrating mess.

Again this year, we struggled in vain to find a solution; after months of study and discussion, we finally threw up our hands and approved (in a close and divided vote) another roll-over calendar for next year. We have some ideas in mind, but we need more time to discuss them and gauge faculty and staff opinions. We are preparing a short survey, and we plan to coordinate with the Academic Senates and with Local 1 to discuss long-term options. We could, for example, give up one Monday holiday. Or we could add a few more days to the semester (presumably uncompensated days). We could consider again some form of a “compressed calendar.” All of these options would obviously affect staff as well as faculty, and would require negotiations. So we are starting to broaden our discussion to isolate practical options, and then we will survey faculty. We are unhappy with the status quo, but so far we have no consensus on a plan to improve our calendar.

 

Matthew Rinn Appointed Ward 3 Trustee

The District Governing Board selected Matthew Rinn, an insurance agency owner from Pleasant Hill, to provisionally fill the seat vacated by the unfortunate passing of Board President Sheila Grilli in August. Rinn will represent Ward III (Concord, Martinez, Pacheco and Pleasant Hill) until the end of Grilli’s term next year, at which point there will be an election if other candidates seek the post. Rinn attended Saddleback Community College and serves as Chairman of the Pleasant Hill Chamber of Commerce and Pleasant Hill Education Commissioner.

 

President’s Message

Greetings colleagues. The United Faculty has been hard at work on a variety of issues both locally and at the state level. I thought it would be good to update you. Locally, we’ve begun meeting with departments to discuss issues regarding equity with lecture and lab loads. Our research has shown us that only a few districts statewide have actual parity between lecture and lab. However, many districts are pursuing this goal at the moment, so we are certainly not lone wolves and plan to continue moving towards this important goal. Other related issues that will remain our local focus include release time for speech and debate teams, increased pay for coaches, compensation and institutional support for our ever-growing paper workload, and other equity issues that have been brought to our attention. We have been focusing on these issues closely this fall, and they will be part of our negotiations next spring.

In addition, we have made some minor revisions to the United Faculty constitution. As our most recent survey demonstrated, faculty seem to be in favor of changing our method of voting. We hope to be moving UF elections to an electronic voting system pending the outcome of the upcoming constitution approval vote. We have also been busy trying to fill a few positions on our executive board, so we hope some of you will consider throwing your hat in the ring. Please attend our faculty forums if you would like to discuss any of these topics in more detail.

UF leadership continues to believe that our biggest battle for further funding is being fought at the state level. Over the next two weeks, we will be meeting with various state representatives including Susan Bonilla, Nancy Skinner, and Mark DeSaulnier to let them know exactly what’s going on in our district and that we need their support on a variety of issues, including the State Chancellor’s request for a 4.4% COLA, full restoration of all categoricals including EOPS, DSPS, and part time parity, in addition to the importance of hiring more full-time faculty.

We’ve also decided to hold forums and a district-wide vote on whether or not to become a FACCC contract district. The majority of faculty in our district are already members of FACCC. Anyone who is already a member would have their monthly FACCC membership dues reduced by a few dollars. If you are not already a member of FACCC, you would become one and your FACCC dues would be paid as part of your UF dues. The UF believes that FACCC remains our strongest voice in Sacramento, and therefore we want to enter into a closer partnership.

We recently attended the fall conference for Community College Independent Unions (CCCI). Our CCCI lobbyist David Balla-Hawkins was the driving force behind the 10-1 bipartisan committee vote requiring the State to audit the ACCJC. This is exciting news indeed, and we all await the outcome this spring.

For the first time in a very long time, we believe that there will be money available to work on fixing some of our dire needs including lecture/lab parity, release time for various essential jobs, more full-time faculty, and of course, another raise. Stay tuned; your United Faculty is there for you!