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Leadership Meeting: Political Power
Over 70 MCCC members gathered in Marlborough on Sept. 8th for the annual MCCC Fall Leadership Meeting. The purpose of this meeting is networking, professional and leadership development. This year's meeting featured nationally known political consultant Joel Blackwell who gave the keynote address and led a workshop on effective political action for organizations. As a former journalist and political candidate Blackwell had a variety of perspectives to share. In a lively presentation sprinkled with spicy humor and loaded with examples from his experience, Blackwell presented a behind-the-scenes view of the political process, particularly focused on legislators&emdash; the demands on them, their needs and what influences them. He spoke about several stages to get an organization's
message out to legislators and how to advance its agenda.
Among these were helping out in campaigns, creating an image
of the organization and being recognized by a politician
and, finally, how to get the votes needed to pass
legislation benefiting our members. When candidates first run for legislative seats they need a tremendous amount of help. Money is an obvious need. Individual members can always contribute, and with the MCCC PAC the union can also help financially. But there are limits on contributions and money is not the only influential way to help. By way of example, Blackwell pointed out that Certified Public Accountants often volunteer to be campaign treasurers. This position is a dire need of every candidate. Few people have the skills to do the job, and the people doing it work very closely with the candidates. When candidates get elected, they don't forget their treasurers. He noted that community college faculty and staff have a diversity of skills to offer. In a workshop session, Blackwell broke the attendees into groups and asked them to think of ways they could provide support to campaigns. Frank Leary of Northern Essex pointed out that English faculty could write campaign literature. Other suggestions were that art instructors could design posters, or computer instructors could set up web sites. Anyone could volunteer to make phone calls, distribute flyers or hold signs. As community college faculty and staff we have a positive public image and a relatively clear identity. But there are areas to work on. One suggestion he made was that for every legislator the MCCC have one constituent member who is closely connected to that member's senator or representative. This way when issues about community colleges come up, the legislator has a face to connect with the issue. He noted that a possible goal for us is inviting every legislator to a classroom this year. One situation he pointed out is that less than 1% of constituents ever contact their legislators. This means that a very few people making contact about a specific issue can have inordinate influence. When we have a specific piece of legislation we want action on, we need to use the most effective communication avenues. He said that without question the most effective way to communicate is face to face. Following that come handwritten letters and then typewritten (word processed) letters. Form letters, postcards and petitions do show numbers, but in general, the more personal the communication the more impact it has. Finally, Blackwell said that having professional lobbyists is vital, but they can't do the job by themselves. They can get you access and give you advice on how to approach issues and individual legislators, but they can't replace grassroots activism. Where lobbyists can be extremely useful is in following up member visits with additional information. Members felt that this was a very useful presentation and workshop. As Geri Curley, MCCC Director from Bunker Hill, pointed out, "Many of his recommendations we are doing already. But the specificity of his recommendations were very helpful, especially on how legislators prefer to be contacted." The MCCC distributed copies of Blackwell's book, Personal Political Power, to attendees. If you are interested in reading his recommendations, contact your chapter President or Strategic Action Coordinator and see if they have a copy to loan.
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DCE Negotiations to BeginNegotiations for a successor Agreement for the Division of Continuing Education are set to begin soon. The current contract that governs the employment of part-time faculty working both days and evenings expires on December 31, 2003. This contract is negotiated with the college presidents rather than with the Board of Higher Education and should be conducted in a different climate than the expired contract for the full-time faculty and staff. Three members have been appointed to the MCCC Negotiating Team: Michael Dubson, author of Ghosts in the Classroom, from Middlesex CC; John Palmer, Quinsigamond CC; and Divya Taylor, Northern Essex CC. All of these people are adjunct faculty. The team also includes MCCC President, Rick Doud; MCCC/DCE Grievance Coordinator, Joe Rizzo; and MTA Consultant, Michelle Gallagher. Two more members are pending Board of Directors approval. A questionnaire has been prepared to survey all DCE members to determine the Union's demand package. This will be mailed to members' homes in the next few weeks and should be returned immediately by mail for compilation. The first negotiation session is planned to coincide with Campus Equity Week at the end of October. |
Our Future Begins With Your ActionsBy Joe LeBlanc, MCCC Vice President
In this world not funding labor contracts is ok because after all the world is run by corporate interests which insist on privatizing every essential service in sight. These corporate interests also insist on "labor flexibility" formerly known as union busting. In this bleak world view we'll all soon be shopping at the local non-union WalMart and wearing clothing manufactured by children in the Third World. The challenges facing us this year are great. Our community colleges have been cut again in FY '04 and higher student fees are only making up half of the new shortfall. We are paying more for our health insurance. Another early retirement incentive will soon cut scores of full-time positions with a 20 percent backfill in effect until June, 2005. Bills to provide part-timers with decent pension and health insurance benefits languish until the budget situation improves, something not likely to happen until the legislature corrects the ongoing structural budget deficit. To make matters worse, Gov. Romney and some legislators are looking at "reforming" your retirement system. The governor's higher ed. reorganization proposal is also likely to reappear. At least the budget isn't getting any worse, but this isn't exactly splendid news for state employees and for the Commonwealth's state government, the largest employer in New England and a powerful force in driving the regional economy. Here are some ways you can help in coming weeks:
With your support we will repudiate the naysayers' harsh vision. We can and will do better than that.
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In
one version of our future the worst is yet to come. In this
scenario Beacon Hill has become a quasi-democratic madhouse
ruled by the "No New Taxes" mantra where representatives and
senators say "We can't do this and we can't do that. The
budget won't allow it."
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September 2003...
As we get deeper into the fall semester I am seeing quite a few unit members walking around with huge smiles on their faces. There seems to be a cadre of i n d i v i d u a l s who appear to have found true inner peace and happiness. When I asked about the source of such happiness, the answer was quite simple: Early retirement! Although we will miss them as colleagues, I know we can share in their happiness at being able to retire after giving many years of dedication to students, as well as service to their colleges. After sharing memories and congratulating them on their good fortune I began to think about what was going to happen at the community colleges if we lose many of our experienced members. They are outstanding professionals whom we will not be able to replace in the foreseeable future. The early retirement incentive is going to exacerbate a trend that has been going on for quite some time: the expanded parttimization of the faculty and professional staff at our institutions. For professional staff, as people retire much of their work will be shifted to part-time staff, who are paid an abysmally low salary, usually without benefits. In addition, the remaining full-time professional staff will undoubtedly be asked to work even harder by continuing to serve our students with fewer colleagues and resources. In the faculty ranks, where the reliance on part-time employment is already at historically high levels, the administration will have no choice but to hire more and more adjuncts. To see how serious this over reliance on adjunct faculty already is, consider the following statistics. One of our institutions currently offers a total of 127 sections of required writing courses during the day. Of these 127 sections, 39 are taught by fulltime faculty and the remaining 85 sections are taught by adjuncts. This ratio is only going to worsen next semester, once people retire. We must take action soon to ensure that full-time benefited positions are the rule, not the exception, in our system. The MCCC will be looking to address this issue with the college presidents in the very near future. By hiring more and more adjuncts, the presidents are only doing what they feel they must do to ensure access to students. In the absence of state funding, they have turned to day DCE offerings to keep their colleges staffed and serving students. We need to work with the college presidents to shed some light on the magnitude of this problem. We hope to work together to bring our case for more funding for full-time positions directly to the legislature. This problem will require long-term political activism. We must convince the legislature that the continued parttimization of our system is not only harmful to our profession, but to our institutions, and, most importantly, to our future students. The long-run academic integrity of our institutions is at risk. We must preserve the academic excellence of our colleges and maintain the dignity of our profession. It will not be an easy task, but we need to put an end to the trend of part-timization. In Solidarity, |
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Cowboy UpBy Don Williams The term "Cowboy Up" is the watchword of this year's playoff bound Red Sox. It is a rodeo term for bronco riders to get up when thrown and get back on a horse. It was used by a player during the team's usual August slump to encourage the fans to keep up their support. As fulltime membership goes into a slump, we all need to "Cowboy Up." Enrollments are strong, but college budgets are weak. Through normal attrition, but especially through last year's and now this year's early retirement programs, the ranks of full-time faculty and staff have been severely cut. The 20% cap on replacing these senior employees makes the colleges increasingly dependent on part-time employees to provide services to our students. As MCCC President, Rick Doud, points out in his column,
the replacement of retiring full-time employees with
part-time ones is not a healthy trend for the colleges. It
is also not a healthy situation for the union. In the
upcoming retirements we are losing many long time union
activists. We will lose some Chapter Strategic Action
Coordinators, one MCCC Director and at least one Chapter
President. Many other union officers and former officers
will also be leaving. The generation of passionate unionists who founded the MCCC in the early 70's will soon be gone. And there are few people to replace them. Many of the members that have come into the union in the past 15 years have not gotten involved in union activities, preferring to let "the same old people" do the work. Well, these "old people" won't be there anymore. It's time to "Cowboy Up." As the colleges rely on more part-time people to replace the retiring fulltime faculty and staff, part-timers will need to do their share of union work. Adjunct faculty often complain that the union doesn't do much for them, but you can't complain about others not helping you if you don't try to help yourself. Understandably, it's difficult for part-timers who are scrambling to make a living to do much with the union. But there are positions earmarked for adjunct faculty that go unfilled. Jane Arnold's letter elsewhere in this issue points out one. It's time to "Cowboy Up." In the future there will be some new hires, but probably not to the numbers we would like. Even if there were to be a lot of new hires soon, it would take time for them to get involved in union activities. So the responsibility is with those of us who remain to come forward and get involved. It's time to "Cowboy Up." Many of the MCCC's 15 chapters have been well organized and active. Others have fallen into inaction from lack of member involvement. The retirement of key members threatens to weaken more chapters. In response to this threat the MCCC has instituted Chapter Revitalization Grants to fund various activities at the chapter level. The grants are intended to improve chapter organization, to build member involvement and to foster new chapter leaders. A list of chapter presidents with their college phone numbers and email addresses appears elsewhere in this issue. If you have an idea for a grant project or if you want to get involved in some way, contact your president. Don't wait to be asked. It's time to "Cowboy Up." |
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Reappointment Rights and Seniority You earn reappointment rights after teaching five courses over three consecutive fiscal years at the college. These courses do not have to be in the same department. Two or more courses per year in a work area at the college earns one-year seniority. One course in one area and one course in another area in a year provide one-year seniority in each work area. Loss of accrued seniority results after a two-year break in service at the college. Canceled courses do not count toward a break in service. Salary Independent of the calculation of seniority rights, you will move from the step one salary to the step two salary upon teaching your sixth class and move to step three upon teaching your eleventh class. You will advance to step 4 effective upon attaining 8 years of seniority at the college. New faculty at the college start at step one, but may start at step 2 or 3 of the salary schedule based on degrees, qualifications and experience. Step 1: $736 per credit - Fall 2003 - $751 Step 2: $789 per credit - Fall 2003 - $805 Step 3: $848 per credit - Fall 2003 - $866 Step 4: $891 per credit (8 years of seniority) - Fall 2003 - $909 The laboratory component of a course will be paid at the rate of 1.5:1 (1.5 contact hours per week during a regular semester = 1 credit salary). Appointment Faculty with reappointment rights will be provided a course interest and availability form. A tentative appointment for one course shall be assigned first to those unit members with the longest seniority. You should, under normal circumstances, be notified of your tentative assignment five weeks prior to the beginning of classes. You should be given a contract indicating the course(s) and salary to which you have been assigned. Your course must run in the event that an administrator who hires, fires, or evaluates DCE faculty is teaching a course in DCE. Course Material Faculty must submit the course syllabus within one week of the beginning of classes. This should include the items appearing on the course material checklist contained in the collective bargaining agreement. Note, however, that faculty enjoy academic freedom which provides for professional latitude in fulfilling one's contractual obligations in this regard. Instructors have the right to choose the text book(s). The exception to this is when it is a departmental selection and you are given an opportunity to participate in the decision making process, or when the appointment is made as the semester is to begin. Evaluation A classroom observation must be conducted prior to the unit member attaining reappointment rights. Student evaluations are to be conducted during the second or third to the last week of the course. Classroom observations can only be conducted after that point for stated written reasons. If you have any questions on the DCE contract, call DCE Grievance Coordinator Joe Rizzo at 603-898-6309 / Grievance- DCE@mccc-union.org |
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Are You Over 70?If you are a full-time employee of the state and you are over 70 years old you are not required to have the pension deduction taken from your salary. If you are at the 80% pension stage (32 years or more of service) this would be especially advantageous to you. There are some conditions to keep in mind. Once you stop having the 5% deductions taken out of your pay, those years will not be counted in your retirement basis. With significant raises unlikely for the immediate future, the effect may be negligible compared to the 5% savings of the deduction. Chapter 32, Section 90 G 3 /4 of the Massachusetts General Laws is the relevant law. You should contact a Retirement Counselor at the State Board of Retirement at (800) 392- 6014 for more information. |
Important Contact InformationIf you want to volunteer for a union position, or if you have ideas for revitalizing your chapter to get members more involved contact your Chapter President. For those who don't know who their Chapter President is, see the list below.
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 Abe Sherf, MCCC Representative to the MTA Board of Directors
Dental Insurance Concerns |
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Know Your Day Contract |
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October 2003 |
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Oct. 1 |
President must notify candidates for tenure p. 30 |
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Oct. 3 |
Deadline to request agency fee status p. 10 |
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Oct. 13 |
Columbus Day holiday observed |
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Oct. 30 |
Last day to opt out of sick bank p.13 |
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Oct. 30 |
Schedule preferences due p. 32 |
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November 2003 |
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Nov. 11 |
Veterans Day holiday |
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Nov. 21 |
Unit Personnel Practices Committee established p. 30 |
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Nov. 27-28 |
Thanksgiving Holiday |
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N.B. Dates may vary depending on the first day of classes. Most of these dates are "last date" standards. In many instances the action can be accomplished before the date indicated. |
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