The Sentinel
Voice of the ECC Faculty Association
Local 3791/IFT www.eccfaculty.org
February 2005
Officers
Linda Hefferin, President
Rick Green, First Vice-President
Crystal Kerwin, Second Vice-President
Linda McEwan, Treasurer
Lynn Ducar, Secretary
William Demaree, Sentinel Editor
Rick Bailey, Webmaster
Senators
BUS
Clark Hallpike
Sherry Hellmuth
LASS
Doug Fraley
Michele Noel
Pat Parks
Bill Pelz
John Slawson
LR/CON
From the President
From the President:
Thanks to Our Union Brothers and
Sisters
Arturo Vasquez
MSLP
Mary Arndt
Rick Bailey
Rick Green
Daniel Kernler
UAF
Lynn Ducar
Sue Ford
Mary Peterhans
Todd Larue
Catherine Tomasik
Armando Trejo
Inside… (CRTL+Click to go to the
story)
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Good Grievance
Forums for Board Candidates
Part-time Faculty Choose
ECCFA and IFT
Assessment Sub-Committee
Addresses Convention
Lynn Ducar on Graciousness
ECC Faculty Go International
Last week, Wal-Mart announced
that it will be shutting its store in
Jonquiere, Quebec, in response to
bargaining demands from union
negotiators; Wal-Mart claims that these
demands would make it impossible for
the store to sustain itself financially. The
Jonquiere store had become the first
unionized Wal-Mart in North America
last September. The closest a U.S. union
has ever come to winning a battle with
the Bentonville, Arkansas-based
company occurred in 2000 at a store in
Jacksonville, Texas, where eleven meat
cutters voted to join and be represented
by the United Food & Commercial
Workers. That effort failed when WalMart eliminated meat cutter jobs
companywide, shifting from in-store
meat cutting to stocking only prewrapped meat.
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1.
Recently, the ECCFA was
successful in its effort to organize threesemester hour adjunct faculty into our
bargaining unit. Many people worked
long and hard on this effort, and
fortunately we don’t have to worry about
losing our jobs as a result of these types
of activities. We know our rights, both
contractual and legal, and we won’t
tolerate the type of harassment that the
Wal-Mart employees faced. Whether in
our day-to-day academic affairs or in our
union activities, we are fortunate to be
working in a strong collective bargaining
environment. We also know that to
preserve our rights we must defend them
every day. And it takes each and every
one of us working together to
accomplish this goal.
Thank you, union brothers and
sisters, for your help with our recent
organizing success. We are a stronger
and more powerful faculty and union as
a result of our solidarity.
In unity,
2.
Participants are elected from each
division
The number of faculty in the
division governs representation.
[Same as per participation in
Senate].
Procedure for participation on an ad hoc
committee:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Participants volunteer to serve
The committee has a terminal
objective and timeline
Participants are approved by the
Senate
Depending on the charge of the
committee, non-tenured faculty
may not be eligible to serve. [i.e.
hiring].
As specified by the contract and
the constitution, faculty should direct
questions regarding contractual issues
to their Senators. Questions regarding
contractual issues which are asked of
the administration or board members
can be construed as individual
bargaining, which is prohibited by law.
Faculty Elections Committee
Formed to Quiz
Board Candidates
Linda
Good Grievance
Rick Bailey
As a reminder, there is language
in our contract governing standing
committees and ad hoc committees.
Procedure for participation on a
standing committee:
The election for District 509 Board
of Trustees is quickly approaching to
fill the three vacant positions.
We know the incumbents are
running again. COPE will be asking for
faculty to serve on a Faculty Elections
Committee which will question all
prospective candidates. Hopefully, a
college-wide forum will allow all
members of the college community to
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hear how the candidates intend to serve
for the next six years.
Part-Time Faculty
Elect ECCFA and IFT
Representation
The panel description reads: If
listening is a desired general education
outcome, how can this skill set be
assessed? This panel discusses one
college's struggle to do just that.
Members who will be presenting
are Sara Baker, Glenn Earl, Andy
Erbach, Gary Norden, and Susan Timm.
Mary Peterhans
The voting for the inclusion of the
three-credit part-time faculty took place
on February 1 and 2. We thank all those
who took the time to vote and all those
who helped at the polling locations. The
election resulted in 59 votes in favor of
IFT (ECCFA) and three votes for no
representation. Soon, we will receive
certification from the ILRB and a
committee will begin looking at
language to bargain to include these new
people under our current contract.
Assessment Subcommittee
Slated for International
Conference in April
Susan Timm
Members of the Taskforce for
Assessing Oral Presentations and
Listening, a subcommittee of the
Assessment Committee, will be
presenting a panel discussion,
"Incorporating Listening as a General
Education Outcome: One College's
Journey," at the International Listening
Association (ILA) 2005 Conference. The
conference is being held April 13-18, in
Minneapolis, MN.
Graciousness and
Hospitality:
Antidote to Marginalization
Lynn Ducar
At ECCFA’s most recent Senate
meeting, President Hefferin asked, “How
are WE doing – the corporate “we;” the
faculty; “we,” who more and more
influence the academic health of the
college….. How are we doing?
With regard to the well-being of our
college community, here are a few
responses to that query.
Not long ago, I attended an
inspirational presentation by one of the
authors of Building Communities from
the Inside Out. John Kretzmann and
John McKnight are both professors at
Northwestern University who have spent
the last twenty years observing
communities worldwide. Their goal has
been to identify what and who it is that
makes strong and vital communities.
In summarizing their research,
Professor Kretzmann stated that they
have identified five factors which make
for a vital, healthy community: personal
behavior, social interaction, physical
environment, economic status and access
to healthcare. (Curiously, the least
important of these is access to
healthcare.)
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In the context of our ECC
community, how would WE assess
ourselves on each of the five factors?
Individually, we are gifted and caring
and dedicated people, so why does it too
often seem that, as the faculty, WE are
self-absorbed, insular and adversarial?
Dr. Kretzmann offered other
poignant observations. He said:
1.
Unequivocally,
communities are strongest when all
members relate as
neighbors/friends/colleagues. In
vital communities, there are few
hierarchical relationships. No one
is marginalized. But when
marginalization and/or top-down
inertia does occur, these same
neighbors/friends/colleagues find
ways to subvert both
marginalization and inertia.
2.
Communities are
strongest when the mirrors we hold
up to one another reflect individual
and corporate gifts, skills, and
dreams, (not weaknesses, faults, and
deficits).
Is it too pollyanna to believe that
part of ECCFA’s ethical mission is to
build up our community; to positively
mirror one another across the entire
campus?
At Senate, it seems we often get
hung up on negatives, which is both
distracting and draining. Perhaps it is
time to settle on a few positive goals,
strategize about how to achieve them,
and then commit our energies to them
until they are accomplished – all for the
good of the great and greater community
of ECC.
To that end, I’d like to tell you a
little story of ‘building community” here
at ECC. The ECCFA Organizing Task
Force – those five lovely women who
have worked tirelessly to bring our nonunit, part-time faculty into Local 3791 –
benefited greatly from their encounters
with the many part-time teachers they’d
never met before. One Saturday morning
Sherry Hellmuth and Lynn Ducar visited
with all the faculty who teach in upper
SRC. Sarah Dye was there, too. It’s a
guess that this informal gathering was
momentarily so pleasant for Sarah that it
triggered an idea. She decided that to
launch the spring semester she would
provide just a bit of hospitality to the
men and women who regularly teach on
Saturdays.
With part-time teachers, unit or
otherwise, numbering more than twice
the full-time faculty, the marginalization
which Dr. Kretzmann described could be
a chronic obstacle to the health of the
ECC community.
Then I think of Sarah and the
“mirror” she held up to her Saturday
colleagues. At first, Sarah’s outreach
was just for her area. Then she
graciously thought of others in various
departments who are here on those
Saturdays when most of us are elsewhere
engaged. So she took her idea to Dr.
Glickman, who arranged for muffins to
be delivered to all the work/mailrooms
on campus!
In upper SRC, Sarah personally
greeted each teacher.
What a lovely way to begin the
semester! Kudos to both Gena and
Sarah.
Perhaps next year, on that first day,
more of us can meet, greet, relate and
grow our community stronger. – And
maybe WE can carry that “mirror” with
us at all times, reflecting the beauty and
value we have all around us.
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ECC Faculty Extend the
Classroom Internationally
In years past, teaching off
campus meant an evening class at
Streamwood High School. These days
ECC faculty members are extending the
concept of “off campus” beyond the
district, beyond US borders, and
sometimes beyond the realm of
pronounceability.
A case in point is David Zacker’s
class that takes students to the Galapagos
Islands. . This class, offered through
ECC’s Continuing Education
Department, offers participants a ten-day
exploration of the natural wonders of the
Galapagos, including (in Zacker’s
words) “the narrow-winged, wedgetailed, web-footed marine birds called
blue-footed boobies.” The trip is
scheduled for June 4-13, 2005, and
includes an organizational meeting on
May 5.
Abraham Martinez-Cruz of
ECC’s Spanish Department is once
again offering a month-long intensive
Spanish program in Cuernavaca,
Mexico, in July 2005. In addition to five
hours of language study each day,
participants are immersed in Mexican
culture for the duration of the program.
Participants live with a Mexican family
in Cuernavaca, and cultural excursions
are offered in the evenings and on
weekends. This course is scheduled for
July 1 – 30, 2005.
In April, Steve Gray of ECC’s
Theater Department is offering students
a chance to experience London theater.
Scheduled for May 22 through May 29,
this trip promises six plays and musicals
currently running in London, as well as
trips to Stratford-on-Avon, the Globe
Theater, and other attractions in the
London area. Gray says that participants
will also enjoy backstage visits with
theater scholars and artists.
For more information about any of
these offerings, contact Zacker at ext.
7344, Martinez-Cruz at, ext. 7491, and
Gray at ext. 7472
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