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What's Really Happening - 2004/06/10

Posted On: 6/10/2004


What's Really Happening

Columbus State Education Association Newsletter of June 10, 2004

FACULTY ATTEND SPECIAL BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING

There was quite a crowd at the special Board meeting on Monday, June 7. It looks as if the new Delaware Campus was a predetermined "done deal" with the unanimous vote to proceed with the purchase of the Delaware County property. However, many persons who wanted to express concern with a second campus were shocked and dismayed that there was no opportunity for public participation. Two state senators were in attendance, including Ray Miller, who was visibly upset that there was no opportunity to address the Board. Echoing faculty concerns expressed to the Board over the past several years, he is especially distressed that any expansion plans have not taken racial diversity issues into consideration.

CSEA is disturbed that this is another decision that affects faculty and that faculty were completely closed out of the research and discussion process. CSEA would like to ask the following additional questions:

  1. How will the new campus be staffed?

According to data recently published by the Ohio Board of Regents ("2003 Performance Report"), Columbus State Community College has the LOWEST PERCENTAGE OF COURSES TAUGHT BY FULL-TIME FACULTY of any two-year college in the state. CSEA has continued to make this point to college administrators for the past several years, and we are pleased to see that our point has been confirmed by the OBOR.

Another question arises: How can faculty support adding a second campus when the Board of Trustees continually understaffs its main campus??

  1. Are faculty aware of the history of the recommendation for the second campus?

The company that conducted the study for the need for a second campus is Strategy Team, Ltd., one of whose owners is Karen Snyder. While serving as a member of the CSCC Board of Trustees in 1999, Ms. Snyder proposed that the college pay the entire 23.3% of the President's STRS contributions (effectively, an annual bonus-nice, huh?). The Board approved her proposal.

But it doesn't stop there. Ms. Snyder also recommended that the Board provide the president a payment of $15,000 per year to accrue over a five-year period to be paid in a lump sum payment of $75,000, payable July 2004. (Aren't you amazed then at the generosity of the Board, giving all adjunct faculty members a $1 raise?)

Wasn't it just a bit cozy that Ms. Snyder's company then gets the lucrative contract to study the feasibility of a second campus in Delaware? Ms. Snyder is no longer on the Board. Who is Dr. Moeller's best friend now?

HEALTHCARE PREMIUMS TO GO UP!

The bad news is that it appears that the college insurance premiums will be raised 28.9%. The good news is that the CSEA contract protects members from any reduction in coverage.

To help combat some of these huge increases in costs, the college's Healthcare Committee recommended that the college should offer an alternate plan. The alternate plan has higher co-pays and deductibles; however, the committee recommends that the college pay 100% of the premium. The idea is that an employee could take the money saved in premiums and apply it to a Flexible Spending Account to help pay for the higher co-pays.

Some are questioning whether Medical Mutual low-balled its proposal to the College in order to secure the initial contract.

BOARD ACTIONS

In order to keep up with our CSEA contract, the board has increased salaries for administrators and staff by 4%. Part-time staff pay will also be increased by 4%.

However, the adjunct faculty pay rate was increased only one dollar, or 2.7%. We presume that in the eyes of the administration adjunct faculty are not as deserving. Again, the College contains costs by short-changing its part-time instructors. CSEA feels that if anyone deserves a 4% raise, it is our adjunct faculty, who bear the major load of student instruction at the college. This paltry pay raise is a shameful slap in the face to adjunct faculty.

We congratulate the following 14 faculty members who received tenure:

Dr. Sharon R. Barnewall, Biological and Physical Sciences Department
Mark S. Bocija, Humanities Department
Dr. William A. Cook, Humanities Department
Christine A. Evenson, Interpreting/ASL Education Technology
Gil Feiertag, Off-Campus Programs
Richard A. Greely, Massage Therapy Technology
Kevin W. James, Mathematics Department
Dr. Morteza Javadi, Biological and Physical Sciences Department
Dr. Eric C. Neubauer, Social and Behavioral Sciences Department
Dr. Michael W. Squires, Biological and Physical Sciences Department
Beki L. Test, Communication Skills Department
Jacqueline D. Walli, Nursing Technology
Eric L. Welch, Sports and Fitness Management Technology
Mingzhi Xu, Mathematics Department

We were happy (then sad) to see that the Board has approved the hiring of four full-time faculty for next year. It should have been 40.

ANOTHER ARBITRATION SCHEDULED FOR JULY

Our contract gives the CSEA president the right to appoint a faculty representative to the Governance Councils and to any college-level committees on which faculty have traditionally had representation. The College maintains that governance appointments would be ex-officio (non-voting) and that the College determines what college-level committees qualify for such appointments.

TWO MEDIATIONS FOR JULY

A CSEA member, who feels he has been underpaid, will go to mediation with his salary grievance.

Several grievances involving the re-scheduling of office hours are currently being deliberated, and CSEA anticipates that the union will be in mediation regarding this issue late July or early August.

DID YOU KNOW.?

.that for every hour of reassigned time you receive, you can reduce your office hours by one-half hour and your Mission/Learning Support time by one-half hour?

.that Mission/Learning Support time is faculty-directed, NOT chair-directed. Some faculty are reporting that their chairs are trying to tell them what do to for their Mission/Learning Support time.

.that the College has adopted an unwritten policy that by-passed the governance process (are you surprised)? Faculty are now limited to one parking sticker. This policy is being implemented as follows:

If a faculty member purchases a new or second car and requests a sticker, the College will not issue a new sticker until all previously issued stickers have been returned! If you have personal experience with this new unwritten policy, please inform your Association representative.

PREPARING FOR THE NEXT CONTRACT

The current contract expires in one year, June 30, 2005. It's not too early to begin planning for these important negotiations. CSEA wants you to contact your Association representative regarding your issues of concern.

DATATEL OR DATAHELL?

Well, once again, the college is asking faculty for help. The Business Affairs office sent a memo on May 14 to everyone on campus asking for volunteers to help in the following areas: processing student fees, giving directions and line control, and what they call "triage."

tri-age (n.) 1. A process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for medial treatment. 2. A system used to allocate a scarce commodity, esp. in an emergency.

The college may have closed its health clinic too soon!

It seems clear the "scarce commodity" refers to the technical bottleneck that severely restricts the number of users who can access Colleague at a given moment, be they students, faculty or staff. The number we keep hearing is 80. Yes, 80 users at a time for a college of 22,000 students.

So who are the "injured people?" Sadly, the students. Have you asked your students what they think of the new Datatel system? Chances are, their reaction will vary widely depending on if they registered for Summer Quarter classes in person, by telephone or on the Internet.

Students we spoke with who registered in person said the process has never worked better. One student said he had never seen so many people available to help him register, and that the lines were short and fast (see Business Affairs "triage" memo above).

On the other hand, students who tried to register by phone or on the Internet said the process has never been worse. Some students said the delays were so long, they weren't even sure if registration had really started yet! Others said they gave up and-you guessed it-came to campus to register in person instead.

How many students have given up and not registered at all? It's impossible to know. Because Datatel is not able to provide current enrollment numbers without printing out reams of paper, and does not provide year-by-year enrollment figures, enrollment comparisons between Datatel and the Legacy system are not possible. Which means, of course, that Datatel MUST be an improvement over Legacy! Right?

It seems misleading to tout the "success" of Datatel when it takes dozens of staff pulled from their normal job duties, supplemented by faculty volunteers, to make registration work well.

TRAINING FOR CHAIRS AND UNION REPRESENTATIVES IS SCHEDULED FOR JULY 28

This training is a direct result of a successful grievance filed by a Computer Science Department faculty member to have CSEA representation during an annual appraisal when there was a conflict of interest on the part of the chair (because of a previously filed grievance against the chair). This is a great example of how the grievance process can work for the benefit of faculty.

CSEA wishes all faculty a safe and fun two-week quarter break. If you have concerns or issues, your Association rep is listed below:


What's Really Happening is produced by the Communications Committee of the Columbus State Education Association. We welcome your comments, news, and insights.

Steve Abbott, President / x5096
Karl Rieppel, Vice President / x2500
Amy Brubaker, Secretary and Association Representative / x5068
Greg Goodhart, Treasurer / x5431
Darrell Minor, Parliamentarian / x5310
Bill Mundy, Association Representative / x5176
Dr. Jane McDowell, Association Representative / x2656 
Dave Busch, Association Representative / x5079
Dr. Charlie Gallucci, Association Representative / x5499
Leslie Smith, Association Representative / x5302
Dr. Wendy McCullen-Vermillion, Association Representative / x2693
Lisa Schneider, Association Representative / x5124


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