Collegial Steering Report

The Collegial Steering Committee met with a full agenda. First, the mebership of the committee is Lynn Mitchelson, Don Weiss, Terry Calaway (and usually his executive team of Dana, Jerry, Marilyn, and Dennis), and myself, Terri Teal, Vin Clark, and Jeff Anderson. We thanked the board for extending our contract voting notification date, clarified plans for graduation, updated on the health clinic and diversity initiatives. New business included reorganization, faculty engagement with the League, campus security, policy revision initiatives (particularly for grievance and progressive counseling), and then the big item -- NEGOTIATIONS.

On negotiations, we discussed how to approach it for either this coming spring or next academic year. Key items that we identified included, of course, salary and benefits. To that end, a group of faculty are working with administration on an RFP for the salary study. Another group works on the benefits committee (that will roll out health info in early January). A third group is assembling to target our goals for salary and benefits in the next contract (or succession of contracts). Another issue we identified was faculty development and support for travel and engagement with professional organizations and other initiatives. A group is being formed around that. Another potential issue was the idea of a faculty member having bookstore credits for a a personal laptop (or other device) in lieu of having a new campus computer. If there is interest in this then it will be explored. We have a group working on formulas for reassigned time, to have revisions in mind for the new contract. Depending on how reorganization plays out, evaluation may need to be explored as a negotiated item. Discussions along these lines occurred some three years ago with designs on eventual implementation. In order to be ready, the topic is being revisited. Also, the idea of opportunites for 12-month engagement in College activities is defintiely desirable by the College but limited (to the majority of faculty) both by pay discrepancies by term and the academic tradition of summer renewal. We have been invited to forward proposals for summer pro-rata pay to address at least one of those summer engagemnt issues. We're not limited to these issues and are discussing others. It will be an item for the next Executive Council meeting.