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The Word - 2008/11/13

Posted On: 11/13/2008


The Word from CSEA

Columbus State Education Association Newsletter of November 13, 2008

OFFICERS & ASSOCIATION REPRESENTATIVES ELECTED

Members elected or re-elected officers and new Association Representatives at the October 30 CSEA meeting.

President Darrell Minor was re-elected to a 2 year term, as was Treasurer Phil MacLean. Judy Anderson was elected Secretary.

Members also elected 7 new Association Representatives. Sue Longenbaker (Biological & Physical Sciences) was elected to fill an unfinished term and will represent her department. The others, whose assignments are not final, were elected to full 2-year terms: Beth Barnett (Developmental Education), Bill Cook (Humanities), Mort Javadi (Biological & Physical Sciences), Jackie Miller (Nursing), Mark Mitchell (Automotive), and Keith Sanders (Electronic Engineering). Steve Abbott (English), T.J. Duda (Mathematics), and Gilberto Serrano (Modern Languages) were re-elected to 2-year terms as Association Representatives.

The Executive Committee offers its thanks to outgoing Secretary Susan Moran (Technical Communications) and outgoing Association Representatives who have served members and the College: Judy Anderson (English), Mark Bocija (Humanities), Bob Mergel (Engineering Technology), Dona Reasor (Humanities), and Kathy Struve (Mathematics). And thanks to all who served on the Nominating Committee and also functioned as the Election Committee: Kevin James (chair), Mary Ann Canter (Respiratory Care), Gil Feiertag (Business Management), and Alesa Mansfield (Humanities).

The agenda also included first review of a proposed amendment to the CSEA Constitution to expand the number of Association Representatives and discussion of Peer Review Teams and recent changes to the Promotion & Tenure handbook.

FACULTY DONATE TO CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Thanks to everyone who donated items to “Patches of Light.” CSEA support for this partnership between the hospital and the Ohio Education Association resulted in donation of more than 300 items—disposable cameras, puzzle books, coloring books, children’s videos, and puzzle books for older children to provide young patients at the hospital with a means of self-expression during their treatment and recovery. And thanks to Membership Chair Ingrid Emch for coordinating the effort.

IMPORTANT INSURANCE REMINDER

Faculty who have a "life-changing event" (marriage, divorce, birth/adoption, etc.) need to make changes to health, dental, and vision insurances, usually within 30 days of the event, or else wait until open-enrollment. There have been two issues recently with faculty making changes to health insurance, but not realizing that dental also needed to be changed and incurring unanticipated costs.

COMPUTING YOUR NEW SALARY

In case you’ve wondered or had any doubts, here’s how to compute your new salary with the raise that was effective as of July 1: Take the amount of your regular pay (not including overload) from a pay stub from last academic year (e.g., June 15 pay stub); multiply that amount by 1.0375; this should be the amount of your regular pay (not including overload) for this academic year (e.g., Oct. 31 pay stub). This would not apply to faculty who were promoted this year; they would have received an additional promotion raise.

FREEGEEKS @ CSCC IS GIVING AWAY 3 PC’s

Help get the word out to your students! FreeGeeks @ CSCC is holding a raffle between November 4th and November 20th to give away a refurbished PC. Tickets are … free! Students should stop by Davidson Hall, Suite 205 to pick up their free raffle ticket. In addition, FreeGeeks@CSCC is holding a website design/desktop background contest for students, with 2 refurbished computers to be given to the winners. Again, students can stop by Davidson Hall, Suite 205 to get the contest application and rules. All 3 PC’s will be awarded on November 25th. Contact Debra Dyer (Electronic Engineering Technologies) at ddyer3@cscc.edu or x2477 for more information. Help support this program by getting the word out to your students – post this information to your BlackBoard sites!

GOVERNMENT PENSION OFFSET/WINDFALL ELIMINATION PROVISION

We’ve previously provided information about the move to repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WPO), which penalize some public employees by cutting or taking away completely Social Security benefits that they or their spouse earned. The bill in the U.S. Senate (S. 206) now has the bi-partisan support of 39 co-sponsors, while the bill in the U.S. House (H.R. 82) has the broad bi-partisan support of 346 members. 16 of Ohio’s representatives (9 Republicans and 7 Democrats) have signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 82. Only John Boehner and Jim Jordan have not signed on as co-sponsors. Sen. Sherrod Brown is a co-sponsor of the senate bill; Sen. George Voinovich is not. Thank you to all of you who have already contacted your senators and representative encouraging them to pass these bills. If you have not yet done so, please consider doing so soon.

BOARD TO APPROVE NEW FACULTY POSITIONS

The Columbus State Board of Trustees members are expected to approve 8 new full-time faculty positions for next academic year. With record enrollments and a full-time/part-time ratio that is among the worst in the nation, the approval of just 8 new positions does not begin to address the dismal full-time/part-time ratio at the college. As noted in an article in yesterday’s issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, three new research studies (in addition to the abundance of existing studies) show that the use of part-time instructors is tied to lower student success. Go tohttp://chronicle.com/free/v55/i12/12a00104.htm to read the entire article.

Over the last 12 years, we have witnessed the Board transition from one that exercised meaningful oversight of the college to one that has become remiss in its oversight of certain “quality issues” at the college. While “access” has become the mantra for board members, they continue to ignore important issues of quality and student success and retention. The board and administration have greeted new students at the front door with their hands extended (primarily to collect the student tuition and state subsidy dollars), while no one is watching the back door as students exit, having enrolled in classes in which well over 60% of their instructors are not paid to hold office hours and are often not accessible outside of class. As the Chronicle article points out, “low-income students and college freshmen are the most likely to need advising and other support outside the classroom” but these “students who need help the most are not getting it.” The vast majority of our students would be considered freshmen in college, and many are low-income.

Both full-time and part-time faculty at the college do an outstanding job with the resources we are given; but those resources are getting increasingly scarce. The Board needs to address this issue in a substantive way. The most obvious and permanent solution would be to increase the number of full-time faculty. As the Chronicle article points out, other solutions may be to pay adjuncts to hold office hours (a proposal that our own Faculty Senate made several years ago, that was ignored), or as City University of New York does, at least pay those adjuncts who teach a certain number of classes to hold office hours.

FACULTY FANFARE

Writers for The Beacon, CSEA’s quarterly publication that highlights the work and accomplishments of full-time faculty, are always looking for good news. Forward information about your own or colleagues’ presentations, awards, honors, and activities to Ingrid Emch, editor of The Beacon, at NH 420, x5824 oriemch@cscc.edu .


The Word is produced by the Communications Committee of the Columbus State Education Association. We welcome your comments, news, and insights.

Darrell Minor, President and President-elect/ x5310
Amy Brubaker, Vice-President / x5068
Susan Moran, Secretary / x5453
Phil MacLean, Treasurer / x5308
Mary Morgan, Parliamentarian-elect / x5768

Steve Abbott, Senior Association Representative / x5096
Gil Feiertag, Senior Association Representative / x5861
Judy Anderson, Association Representative / x5822
Liz Betzel, Association Representative / x5329
Mark Bocija, Association Representative / x5049
Dave Busch, Association Representative / x5079
T.J. Duda, Association Representative / x5309
Dr. Charlie Gallucci, Association Representative / x5499
Cindy Evans, Association Representative / x2435
Bob Mergel, Association Representative / x5034
Eric Nuebauer, Association Representative / x5698
Dona Reaser, Association Representative / x5475
Gilberto Serrano, Association Representative / x3863
Leslie Smith, Association Representative / x5302
Kathy Struve, Association Representative / x5330


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