I. General
A. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Willie Minor at 2:35 p.m.
Members Present: Jeff Andelora, Judy Boschult, Tom Butler, Joanna Chamberlain, Laura Cannon, Bob Galloway, Gay Garesche, Hazel Davis for Donna Gaudet, Karen Hardin, Rosemary Kesler, Willie Minor, John Nelson, Joe Ortiz, Jim Reed, Denny Sheehan, Scott Silberman, Sandra Stuebner, Larry Williams, Cori Wright.
Minutes were taken by Carrie Taylor.
B. Approval of Agenda
Joanna Chamberlain added Legal Representation by MCCCD as item D under Information. Willie Minor added EBAC as Item 2 under Committee Reports. The agenda was approved as amended.
C. Approval of the October 12, 1999 Minutes
The minutes were approved as written.
D. Committee Reports
1. Meet and Confer
Willie Minor informed Council that they had an A1 from Dr. Waechter in their folders regarding the timeline and procedures for proposals to the Governing Board regarding salaries and Professional Growth monies. Each employee group will have to submit a proposal since the Employee Alliance is defunct. Willie Minor stated that Council also had a summary of the unsuccessful Meet and Confer proposals of last year in their Council folders. He asked that Council review the summary and let the Meet and Confer Team know which proposals should be brought to the table again this year. Gay Garesche stated that there is currently an M.O.U. on RFP Section 3.4.2.1., the FEP timeline, for this year only. She said that the Meet and Confer team needs to act on that proposal again this year. Gay Garesche stated that last year's Administrative Evaluation M.O.U. proposal should be submitted again this year. She stated that the reason for the proposal's failure last year was that the MAT manual was being rewritten. The MAT manual has now been rewritten. This issue is a concern because of problems at one college. Willie Minor stated that the Meet and Confer team has put together a subcommittee to study the Professional Growth issues and M.O.U.
Janice Comer, Chair of the Meet and Confer Team, reviewed the summary and stated that the deadline for salary and Professional Growth monies proposal is December 10, 1999. She informed Council that the Meet and Confer Team will ask for a step and a percentage of the salaries for the COLA this year. Janice Comer stated that proposals are being developed for the issues of salary, Professional Growth, benefits, as well as other issues concerning faculty. Janice Comer asked Council if they wanted to go through each proposal listed on the summary form. Janice Comer asked if the loading issue needed to be revisited. Gay Garesche responded that the loading issue had come from Phoenix College where some faculty were being coerced to take a reduced loading for classes with low enrollments. She believes that RFP Section 5.3.4. already covers this issue and that faculty forced to take reduced loading should file a grievance. Janice Comer asked if the College Faculty Senate Presidents should be made aware of reduced loading instances at their campuses. Gay Garesche responded that the Faculty Senate Presidents should be aware so they can keep track of the number of times reduced loading occurs and inform Council of how widespread the practice is.
Janice Comer told Council that the Meet and Confer Team had put together a subcommittee to handle the Professional Growth M.O.U. Council discussed what happened with the Professional Growth M.O.U. last year. Bob Galloway informed Council that the Council used to hold an entire meeting on solely Meet and Confer issues. He suggested that Council do the same thing this year. Council agreed to reserve the majority of the November 9th Council meeting to discuss Meet and Confer issues. Willie Minor stated that he will schedule the meeting to start at 2:00 p.m. to cover other items such as the Board forum on the EBAC Action Item.
2. EBAC
Rosemary Kesler stated that EBAC had met on October 25, 1999. EBAC was given clarification of the calendar year versus fiscal year issue. Rosemary Kesler stated that calendar year would apply only to absences and sick leave as stated in the RFP. She emphasized that Council needs to decide what it wants to do about the request from Human Resources to change the wording in the RFP from fiscal year to calendar year.
Rosemary Kesler then informed Council of a letter that EBAC had received from Delta Dental. The letter explained that Delta had installed a new computer system similar to PeopleSoft and was having the same problems as Maricopa is having with PeopleSoft. Thus, the Delta staff are having to manually handle all claims submitted. Rosemary Kesler stated that Delta is now running its old system which is now Y2K compatible.
Rosemary Kesler stated that the EBAC Governing Board Action Item was discussed by EBAC. Representatives of EBAC asked Dr. Waechter where the proposal originated. Rosemary Kesler stated that Dr. Waechter said that the proposal originated with him and only him. She informed Council that the representatives on EBAC then told Dr. Waechter that they would not let him submit the proposal, and if he did submit it anyway, that they as EBAC representatives, would not support the proposal. Rosemary Kesler stated that EBAC was informed by Dr. Waechter that there was a fourth draft of the proposal which took CEC out of the proposal procedure. Therefore, proposals would go directly from EBAC to the Governing Board. Rosemary Kesler stated that Dr. Waechter said that he would still submit the Action Item to the Board on October 26, 1999. Rosemary Kesler stated that on November 9th, the Governing Board will hold a forum on the EBAC Action Item to allow all employee groups to have input. Then, the Action Item will go back to EBAC. Rosemary Kesler stated that she was told that there would not be a second reading until all groups approved of the language. Gay Garesche asked if the vote in EBAC would have to be unanimous? Rosemary Kesler responded that the vote would be a simple majority vote. Council discussed this issue further.
Rosemary Kesler stated that the Common Policies Committee was brought up at EBAC. She stated that Dr. Waechter told EBAC that the Common Policies Committee issue had never gone through Meet and Confer. Rosemary Kesler stated that she had responded that the Common Policies Committee language was in the RFP. She said that Dr. Waechter responded to her that he would then just abolish the Common Policies Committee in the morning. Willie Minor referred Council to copies of two TA'd items in their Council folders. The first copy was the Common Policies definition, RFP Section 1.2.16., which was TA'd by Art DeCabooter on January 12, 1990. The second copy was Appendix F, Common Policies, which listed the original policies placed in to the Common Policies manual and also outlined the procedures for how changes were made to the Common Policies manual. Willie Minor stated that this was also TA'd by Art DeCabooter on January 12, 1990.
Willie Minor informed Council of his meeting with the Chancellor on the previous day. Willie Minor told Dr. Cardenas that the RFP was important to faculty who had put a great amount of effort into the manual. Willie Minor stated that he also told Dr. Cardenas that faculty wanted to work in a positive vein with the Administration. Willie Minor informed Council that he then spoke about the Chancellor's search and the upcoming bond election which are two important issues to the District. Willie Minor informed Council of his discussion with Dr. Cardenas regarding Dr. Waechter and the recent events at EBAC. Willie Minor stated that Dr. Cardenas said that he would try to ask to have the EBAC Action Item pulled from the agenda, but did not hold much hope for the Governing Board to pull it. Willie Minor then told Dr. Cardenas that the faculty hold the position to continue the Meet and Confer process.
Rosemary Kesler stated that Dr. Waechter had asked for EBAC to draft language for how EBAC would operate. She stated that EBAC needed to have a description of what they could discuss and could not discuss. Then, all other issues would go through the negotiation processes. Rosemary Kesler told Council that it should draft a description of what EBAC does now for the bid process. She voiced her concern that if EBAC had to get approval from all employee groups on the bid process, then the bid process could be delayed, thus missing deadlines and causing big problems for all Maricopa employees. Rosemary Kesler stated that there are some things that EBAC does in which employee groups need to be able to trust their representatives. Gay Garseche stated that there was no problem with EBAC until Dr. Waechter asked EBAC to work on the Leaves of Absences for all employee groups. Rosemary Kesler made the point that EBAC should only address employee benefits and not all human resource policies. Rosemary Kesler said that she would not support having EBAC handle all of those types of issues as stated in the EBAC Action Item draft.
Larry Williams stated that EBAC was created when all of the other Chancellor advisory committees were created in the early 1990s. He stated that the original charge for EBAC was to recommend health benefit group plans for the District, and that now EBAC should go back to that original charge. Rosemary Kesler stated that EBAC had no record of the original charge and the representatives are concerned about receiving a charge from the Governing Board that they do not want to support. Gay Garesche stated that when speaking to Linda Rosenthal, she was informed that Linda Rosenthal had asked Dr. Waechter to have EBAC do the Hay Study. Gay Garesche pointed out that EBAC was not the appropriate committee to look into employee compensation.
Willie Minor stated that Council needs to decide how to handle this concern as the Meet and Confer process is important to faculty. The point was made that if EBAC is making decisions about benefits, it is not the committee but really the administration who is making the decisions. Willie Minor emphasized that Council needs to decide how to proceed on this issue.
3. Professional Growth
Willie Minor stated that Reinhold Kiermayr had asked for Deans of Instruction to serve on the Professional Growth Committee. Willie Minor said that he forwarded Reinhold's request to Gail Mee, the Dean of Instruction at MCC, and that he has not received a response to the request.
4. FAC
Willie Minor informed Council that they had copies of the minutes of the FAC's latest meeting in their Council folders. He stated that some members may have heard already that there will not be a lot of money in the budget this year. Bob Galloway stated that the budget is already in the hole because of all the requests already made to FAC. It was stated that Maricopa should be getting more state money. Bob Galloway stated that Governor Hull had redlined or vetoed the money allocated for community colleges in the last appropriations bill. Larry Williams stated that it is the Council's role to make salary proposals regardless of District claims that there is no money. He said that enrollment has increased, tuition has increased, and property taxes have increased, so there should be money available. Willie Minor suggested that Council invite the faculty representatives serving on FAC to come and speak to Council about FAC's current discussions and activities. It was suggested that the FAC representatives come to the November 23rd or December 14th Council meeting. Janice Comer stated that she had met with two of the faculty FAC representatives, and they discussed the possibility of starting up the Meet and Confer Team for the 2000-2001 process during next Spring in order for that team to meet early with the FAC representatives. Janice Comer stated that she learned that the Maricopa County Assessor's office is one full year behind in collecting property taxes for the new growth in the Phoenix Metro Area.
5. Legislative
Bob Galloway stated that he had received one response to his A1 to the College Faculty Senate Presidents. Therefore, he stated, he will contact last year's members to ask them to serve on the Legislative Committee again this year.
II. Old Business
A. LOA Changes in the 1999-2000 RFP Draft
Willie Minor stated that he and Carrie Taylor had read through the latest version of the Residential Faculty Policies(RFP) manual, and that it was, for the most part, clean. He informed Council that the attestation page is currently being signed, and when it has been signed by all parties, the RFP will go to print. Willie Minor reminded Council that the issue, with the changes that had been placed in the RFP, was not the language necessarily, but the process used by the Administration to make the changes.
B. Dual Enrollment
Jim Reed informed Council that he had attending a meeting of the Dual Enrollment Finance Committee. The committee discussed two proposals. He stated that Rio Salado has a system where tuition pays for the dual enrollment classes and the money comes to the colleges only. Another system is a "wash" system where there is a paper exchange between the college and the high school and the college is compensated for FTSE and the high school is compensated for ADA. The committee emphasized that the District will go with only one system since currently high schools are cutting deals with four to five colleges to see which college will give them the best deal. Jim Reed made the point that this deal making can be very divisive among the College Presidents. Jim Reed stated that there is a third model system which is a hybrid of the first two systems. Jim Reed stated that the committee discussed the three options. He said that the bottom line is that dual enrollment is a reality in Maricopa and the colleges will get paid. The committee has to decide which model to use. He made the point that the finance issue is not important, but that the quality of instruction in dual enrollment classes is the important issue.
Jim Reed was asked if there was a discussion about colleges getting rates for FTSE. Jim Reed replied that there was no discussion on that topic. It was stated that the Governing Board had asked last year about that topic. One Council member asked for more information on the "wash" model. She stated she heard that it costs a college money to pay the high schools. She said that how the "wash" model was explained to her was that the college buys supplies for the dual enrollment classes with the money the college receives from FTSE.
Gay Garesche stated that it was interesting when reviewing dual enrollment classes that few students in the class are actually dually enrolled. Council discussed this issue and the issue of other colleges not accepting the dual enrollment class. One council member spoke to a recruiter from a college in Atlanta, Georgia. The recruiter informed the Council member that if the dual enrollment class counted towards the student high school graduation, then the college would not accept the course for college credit, thus the college would not let the student double dip to get credit in two places. One example of such a course is a senior English class which also would count as English 101 at a college. Gay Garesche stated that the law says that students can take community college courses for high school credit too. Cori Wright stated that the bottom line is that the dual enrollment committee has to consider out-of-state schools which will not accept dual enrollment courses taken through a Maricopa college.
Jim Reed stated that he was just informing Council of the discussions which are taking place and will take place in the future. Laura Cannon informed Council that she has a folder on dual enrollment activities taking place throughout the country with a number of websites included in the information. She stated that if any Council member wanted this information, to notify her by A1. Jim Reed stated that he will keep the Council updated on the dual enrollment committee discussions.
C. AZ AAUP State Delegates/Constitution
Willie Minor reminded Council that a third delegate to the AZ AAUP State Committee was needed. He asked for nominations. Bob Galloway made a motion for Council to approve the Faculty Association President or the Faculty Association President-Elect to be the third delegate. Cori Wright seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and the motion passed unanimously.
Next, Willie Minor reminded Council that they needed to discuss the AZ AAUP Constitution which was submitted by Carol Bernstein. Bob Galloway stated that he had voted on one change that morning. The change would allow for delegates to the state committee meetings to be voted upon by the entire membership in Arizona. Bob Galloway was asked if Maricopa was most of the AZ AAUP's membership. Bob Galloway replied that yes, most of the membership was comprised of MCCCD faculty.
D. Bank One Savings Account
Willie Minor stated that this item will be moved to the next meeting's agenda.
E. Change in "Y" Grade
Willie Minor informed Council that he had met with Mike Rooney regarding the issue of the change in the Common Pages of the "Y" grade policy. He stated that a process has been put in place for making changes to the Common Pages and that Council has copies of the process in their Council folders. Willie Minor informed Council that the request for the change in calculating the "Y" into a student's GPA had come from the Admissions and Records group. Before the change was made, some one was supposed to contact the Deans of Instruction for their input on this issue, but no one ever did contact the DIs. Willie Minor requested that Council review the process packets. He stated that he told Mike Rooney that the Deans of Student Services should not be the overseeing body for instructional issues in the Common Pages. He reminded Council that Marie Fenske is the faculty representative on the Common Pages Committee. She will update Council on the proceedings of that committee.
Gay Garesche reported that she had caught a student cheating and had contacted the Dean of Student Services. She was told that she was supposed to give the student a "Y" grade which would not count in the student's GPA. She stated that, to her dismay, that she had no recourse to reprimand the student who was cheating. Gay Garesche informed Council that there used to be a place on the drop form where the instructor could show that a student was dropped from the class for academic misconduct. One Council member stated that she had information from Glendale Community College that outlines what procedures are taken in cases of behavior problems. It was stated that the Common Pages addresses cheating and plagiarizing issues. Sandra Stuebner reported that her college had similar issues. She stated that the Common Pages give general information, however, if an instructor puts specific procedures for misconduct in the his/her syllabus, then the instructor can follow those procedures as stated. The point was made that placing specific procedures for misconduct places an additional burden on faculty. It was stated that faculty should have the option of using a drop code on the drop form.
Willie Minor reminded Council that Marie Fenske is the Common Pages representative and that she can take these issues to the Common Pages Committee. Willie Minor stated that he took the change in "Y" grade issue to CEC and they were concerned that they did not know about it. Willie Minor informed CEC that the changes were put on the Web but evidently no one had read the information on the Web.
III. New Business
A. PeopleSoft/Payroll
Willie Minor shared with Council an A1 from Donna Schober asking for feedback regarding the October 8, 1999 payroll debacle. Gay Garesche stated that the PeopleSoft issues are in the November Peerpoint. Willie Minor stated that he had read the Peerpoint articles and believes that they will reflect the feedback from faculty. One Council member reviewed the A1 and commented that it did not ask if employees thought that PeopleSoft was a good choice of software.
B. EBAC
Gay Garesche stated that she did not want confusion about the two Peerpoint issues; the Special Edition Peerpoint will address the EBAC Action Item sent to the Governing Board and the November Peerpoint will address the PeopleSoft problems. She informed Council that they had copies of the Special Edition Peerpoint in their Council folders and asked that Council take a moment to review the articles. She mentioned that there may be one small change from Mike Napier who stated that the District acknowledged that the RFP was a contract going into court during the lawsuit. Gay Garesche stated that the only additional information in the Peerpoint will be about what happens at the Governing Board meeting. Council asked when the Special Edition Peerpoint will be distributed to faculty? Gay Garesche responded that it would go out in two days. Cori Wright made a motion to send out the Special Edition Peerpoint as it will be amended with the information from the Governing Board's meeting. Larry Williams seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and the motion passed unanimously. Council was reminded that the Special Edition Peerpoint needs to go out because no matter what happened at the Governing Board meeting, this issue is not going away and faculty need to know about it. It was stated that the Special Edition Peerpoint would be a good recruiting tool as it will show how the Faculty Association represents the faculty on important issues.
C. Third Millennium Task Force
Willie Minor stated that Council had discussed the Third Millennium Task Force group at the Council meeting on October 22, 1999. The Council had agreed to put this item on the agenda for today's Council meeting for further discussion. Willie Minor stated that this group could interfere with the Meet and Confer process in the future. The suggestion to disband the committee was made. The point was made that Council did not have the authority to disband the committee since it was created by a Board member. Council discussed the charge of the Third Millennium Task Force. Larry Williams stated that he was a member of the group and that the original charge was to identify needs of the faculty as Maricopa moved into the Third Millennium. Larry stated that the District's newsletter, EdCetera, had an article regarding the Third Millennium Task Force and its work. Larry Williams suggested that the Chair of the Committee, Pat Case, could possibly issue a statement that the committee would never override or infringe upon the RFP. Another suggestion was for the faculty not to participate on the committee if the charge ever changed. Council was reminded that this committee was created by Linda Rosenthal when she became President of the Governing Board. It was suggested that since she has only a short time left as President, Council should just back away and let the committee die on its own. One concern was voiced that the District may try to say that the Third Millennium Task Force made policy just like they are trying to say that EBAC has been making policy. Cori Wright stated that she was also a member of the committee. She informed Council of a meeting during which a discussion was held on teaching issues. When the committee came to an impasse on actions to take, the committee was disbanded. Larry Williams stated that the committee was not disbanded totally, but rather the committee members decided to use the meetings as a forum for discussion. He suggested that Pat Case should be invited to address Council regarding further details of the Third Millennium Task Force's work.
IV. Information
A. Masters of Fine Arts Degrees
This item was referred by Willie Minor. The recommended action was to discuss the possibility of getting the degree recognized by the Administration.
Discussion Points:
Council recommended that the faculty who brought this issue to Willie Minor research the issue, write a proposal, and submit it to the Meet and Confer Team.
B. Fax Machine: Xerox Workcentre 385 All-in-One
This item was referred by Willie Minor. He asked Council for a decision on whether to purchase this machine with the Arizona Community College Association(ACCA).
Discussion Points:
Council recommended that Willie Minor inform the Arizona Community College Association that the Faculty Executive Council approves of the proposal to purchase the machine.
C. Other
CEC
Willie Minor stated that the Adjunct Faculty Sick Leave issue was a moot point since the CEC had not anticipated the questions and other issues that sick leave for adjunct faculty had raised. The CEC is also concerned whether the Flex dollars were being taxed. Willie Minor stated that he had made copies of all of the issues and had given the copies to Mike Napier. Rosemary Kesler stated that during the most recent EBAC meeting, the representatives were told that the Flex dollars were not being taxed. She was asked why then were the Flex dollars being included in the gross pay? Gay Garesche stated that she had checked her pay stub and found that the taxes were calculated only on the salary portion of her pay stub. She mentioned that a memo sent to all employees stated that the W-2s would only show the salary amount in the gross pay box.
Willie Minor stated that other things discussed at CEC was that CGCC would have a baseball team and PVCC would have girls softball team.
D. Legal Representation by MCCCD
This item was referred by Joanna Chamberlain. The recommended action was to bring this issue again for discussion by Council.
Discussion Points:
Council made no further recommendations.
V. Significant Happenings/President's Reports
CGCC
CGCC is getting a baseball team. Parking is an concern at CGCC. Scott Silberman is resigning as President-Elect for personal reasons.
EMCC
EMCC faculty have a dual enrollment subcommittee which has brought the issues to the whole Senate. The subcommittee was commended for doing good work. A document should be forthcoming from the subcommittee. Another faculty concern which will be addressed shortly is Saturday orientations.
GWCC
GWCC is holding the open house for the new building today. GWCC has no parking problem as it has just purchased eleven acres adjacent to the GWCC campus. The faculty have been divided up into groups to review sections of the RFP. Each group will report to the whole group about the section which it studied.
GCC
All is well at GCC.
MCC
There was nothing to report from MCC.
PC
The EBAC Action Item has been a big issue at PC. The issue is helping recruitment for Faculty Association membership. The Faculty Association's actions concerning the EBAC Action Item is showing faculty what the Faculty Association can do for faculty.
PVCC
PVCC is still in litigation with the contractor over the new buildings at PVCC. Gina Kranitz has received a fair amount of attention in the press over her success in her new position as acting College President while Dr. Cardenas is Acting Chancellor. PVCC faculty are pleased with the way she is managing. President Kranitz also sent Tom Butler a copy of a letter from the Chancellor to the College Presidents.
RIO
There was nothing to report from RIO.
SCC
All is well at SCC except for there is concern over parking. With the new buildings, demands for parking spaces have shifted. Also, SCC is looking at remodeling packages for the student center.
SMCC
There was nothing to report from SMCC.
VI. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.
* * Next meeting, November 9, 1999, will be a Meet and Confer Workshop * *