REDWOODS COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
Meeting of the Associate Faculty Committee
Eureka: 7351 Tompkins Hill Road, SS 201 (Board Room)
Thursday, February 19, 2015
3:00 p.m.
1. Call To Order – 3:11
2. Introductions and Public Comment: Participants are invited to comment
regarding any subject appropriate to the Associate Faculty Committee.
Introductions were made. Stuart Altschuler addressed the group about assessment
fees – currently $20 per contract, Stuart has multiple sections, suggested that this be
taken to SARTCO for the additional work completed even in past semesters.
Additional work should be brought to the dean’s attention each semester. Stuart
also talked about not knowing that he should be asking for compensation for other
academic work, no one had mentioned this to him. Peter Blakemore had indicated
that the deans have had training about SARTCO plus the union reminds the faculty
each semester that they should not be working outside of the contract. It was
suggested that whoever is in charge of a meeting, they should always be pointing
out about SARTCO to the committee members. The group was reminded that all
requests going to SARTCO need to be approved by the dean. Stuart’s 3rd point
dealt with Article 10 of the CRFO contract which deals with reassignment and
transfer for permanent positions. Stuart would like to see an option for associate
faculty to have the option to transfer in with such as 5 years successful experience
in the open position. Jacqui suggested bringing this information to the negotiations
council next fall. Vinnie brought up the minimum qualification process.
3. Approve November 20, 2014 Meeting Minutes – MOTION: FALBO/KALLICK
– move to approve the minutes - APPROVED
4. Reports
4.1 Associate Faculty Information/Reminders – Connie Carlson – Flex goals
are due Friday, the Associate Faculty availability form is due by Friday. The
Associate Faculty office space is being utilized more. If there are trainings
you would like to see happen, please let Connie know.
4.2 CRFO Update – Jacqui Cain - Spread the word that CRFO is working on
negotiations right now. There is discussion about instituting an agency fee
for all associate faculty. CRFO hired a forensic auditor to review CR’s
finances, it has been worth it and very useful. Peter Blakemore sent out an
email asking for volunteers to be on the budget committee, if you are
interested get in touch with him, the committee will be meeting quarterly If
4.3
you feel your contract rights have been violated you will need to determine
which section has been violated before taking it to the grievance officer. Be
sure to look at the definition of full time faculty vs. part time faculty so you
are clear.
Academic Senate Update – a written update was provided by Colette
Beaupre – Sandra reviewed the update. There were questions about the
associate dean position; Erin Wall provided input on this position. Erin noted
that this position would be an extension of the dean, help with program
review, scheduling, evaluations, helping with assessment (working on
improving the quality of our assessment), and day to day issues.
5. Discussion Items
5.1 Associate Faculty Scheduling Process and Form – Kyle Falbo – the
Associate Faculty have been asked to fill out the availability form for next year.
Questions included what we’d like to teach, what we don’t want to teach, Kyle
would like to get feedback from outside of his area about how everyone feels about
the form. He wants to know what this process means to Associate Faculty, he
understands that CRFO negotiated this process and eventually we will be going to
a two year scheduling process. Kyle feels that this new method turns this into one
process, there are concerns that we have many departments that are large and some
that are small, and this scheduling won’t work for all sizes. There are complexities
that large departments face like split shifts; that the Associate Faculty member
would like to teach the next sequence and it has already been decided that someone
else should be doing it; tracking how this process affects everyone to see if this is
an improvement. Kyle wants to know how this document was developed and who
had input. Sandra provided some information – the intent was for Associate
Faculty to be able to put forward their preferences (have the information at their
fingertips,) new to Sandra was the request as to which were your top three classes
you wanted and what did you not want. Jacqui added that CRFO was involved in
the creation of the form partly through the negotiation council. There was input on
the evaluation form, discussion on how to make the scheduling process smoother,
still meet the needs of the district and then CRFO came up with a process.
5.2 Agency Fees – Sandra Rowan/Jacqui Cain – Agency fees (fair share fees) any
union member that is represented by a contract should be contributing an agency
fee. College of the Redwoods is the only community college that does not require
Associate Faculty to be a member of the union. Executive council has determined
that we will be having all Associate Faculty contribute their fair share. They are
looking at several options, different levels of contribution (a minimum fee that all
would pay) will go into effect for Fall 2015. Need to let all Associate Faculty
know that this coming.
6. Announcements and Open Forum – Reno Giovannetti – now a full-time
classified employee as the Instructional Technologist who will be available 8
hours/day to help with Canvas. Stuart - Addiction Studies is bringing to campus
Dr. Darryl Inaba on April 2nd. He is the textbook author we use. Promises to be a
great lecture – everyone should take advantage of this. Sherman Alexie – this
Thursday – will fill up so be sure to arrive early. Volunteer income tax assistance
program on campus, free to those making $53,000 or less, certified tax preparers.
Dial 211 for more information
7. Adjournment – MOTION: FALBO/KALLICK move to adjourn the meeting. –
The meeting was adjourned at 4:12 p.m.
Public Notice—Nondiscrimination:
College of the Redwoods does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion, age,
gender, sexual orientation, color or disability in any of its programs or activities. College
of the Redwoods is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for persons with
disabilities. Upon request this publication will be made available in alternate formats.
Please contact Debbie Williams, Administrative Office Assistant to the Academic Senate,
7351 Tompkins Hill Road, Eureka, CA 95501, (707) 476-4259, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.,
Monday—Friday.
Next Meeting:
March 12, 2015