SANTA MONICA COLLEGE FACULTY ASSOCIATION
REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING

October 23, 2008

Members present: Dianne Berman, Sandra Burnett, Steve Contarsy, Rebecca Curtis, George Davison, Jim Downs, Gail Edinger, Tracey Ellis, Ron Fitzgerald, Dennis Frisch, Claudia Garcia, Keith Graziadei, Irina Gromova Ben Jimenez, Lesley Kawaguchi, John Kennedy, Deborah Kraut, Marilyn McGrath, Colleen McGraw, Mitra Moassessi, Suzanne McDonald, Eric Oifer, Jim Pacchioli, Nick Pernisco, Tom Peters, Paris Poirier, Jenny Resnick, Saul Rubin, Audrey Sandoval, Lisa Saperston, Michael Schwartz, Jackie Scott, Elisha Shapiro, Lantz Simpson, Tara Shima, Howard Stahl, Michael Strathearn, Kathy Sucher, Nina Theiss, Joy Tucker, Odemaris Valdivia, Alicia Villapando, Sal Veas, Kayli Weatherford, Carol Womack, David Zehr.

Excused: Martin Goldstein, Kym McBride.

Absent: Vini Angel, Diana Aghabegian, Maria Alvarado, Rebecca Anderson, Jill Assadi, Espy Bolivar-Owen, Chuck Brinkman, Troy Cardenas, Katarina Cerovic, Fran Chandler, Tom Chen, Anna Collier, Gail Davis Culp, Giulio Dellarocca, Michael Dixon, Fereshteh Mobasheri, Donald Gantner, Richard Goldenson, Jeff Gordon, Matilda Krivan, Richard Lavallee, Ming Lu, Ken Mason, Sue Moisin, Jeffrey O’Connell, Darrell Ogata, Pauli Peter, Franklyn Phillips, Juan Quevedo, Elaine Roque, Michelle Scholefield, Mario Semere, Esau Tovar, Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswin, Frank Turner.

I.  Approval of Minutes – Dennis Frisch moved to approve the minutes of September 25, 2008.  Motion seconded by Jackie Scott, passed unanimously.
 
II.  DPAC committee appointments - David Zehr moved to approve the following DPAC committee appointments: Steve Contarsy, Facilities; Chris Fria, Technology.  Motion seconded by Dennis Frisch, passed unanimously.

III.  Endorsement of Candidates for School Board - Dennis Frisch moved to endorse Jose Escarce, Maria Leon-Vasquez, and Ben Allen for Santa Monica School Board.  Motion seconded by Steve Contarsy, passed unanimously.

IV.  Memorandum of Understanding  approval - Ron Fitzgerald moved to approve the MOU regarding AB 591, the 67% law.  Motion seconded by Jackie Scott, passed unanimously.

V. Resolution regarding collective bargaining and SLO’s:

Motion from the Executive Committee:
While ACCJA (Accrediting Commission for the California Junior Colleges) is free to encourage colleges and their faculty organization to negotiate over SLO’s in the evaluation process, it is not free to mandate or coerce the adoption of such standards by sanctioning colleges which do not adopt standards that ACCJC would prefer in these areas. Given its state function, ACCJC must respect the negotiations process mandated by state law, and academic freedom rights adopted by contract or policy.

This motion was prompted by Marty Hittleman, president of the state CFT, who issued a letter to the ACCJA disputing its claim that SLO’s must be a part of faculty evaluations.  Rich Hansen, president of CCCI , and representatives from 14 CCCI districts supported CCCI issuing a letter in support of the CFT president’s letter.

Sandra Burnett moved to amend the motion from the Executive Committee by adding the following sentence from Mr. Hittleman’s letter referencing ACCJC’s Accreditation Standards:
“Faculty and others directly responsible for student programs toward achieving stated student learning outcomes have, as a component of their evaluation, effectiveness in producing those student learning outcomes” (ACCJC Accreditation Standard III.A.1.c.).  Dennis Frisch seconded the motion to amend. Motion to amend passed unanimously.

Amended Motion from the Executive Committee: While ACCJA (Accrediting Commission for the California Junior Colleges) is free to encourage colleges and their faculty organization to negotiate over SLO’s in the evaluation process, it is not free to mandate or coerce the adoption of such standards by sanctioning colleges which do not adopt standards that ACCJC would prefer in these areas: [“Faculty and others directly responsible for student programs toward achieving stated student learning outcomes have, as a component of their evaluation, effectiveness in producing those student learning outcomes.”  (ACCJC Accreditation Standard III.A.1.c.)]  Given its state function, ACCJC must respect the negotiations process mandated by state law, and academic freedom rights adopted by contract or policy.
Amended motion passed with four abstentions.

Marty Hittleman’s letter is posted on the SMCFA website:
http://www.smcfa.org/accreditation/CFTaccreditation13oct08.htm

VI.  Presidents Report: Irvine Valley College will host the FACCC Part-time Symposium on Saturday, October 25, 2008. Several SMCFA representatives will attend.

Part-time faculty retirement issues:  Previously, the FA filed suit to get the District to fix the problem that occurred when part-time faculty were moved into STRS without their knowledge.  The issue is currently being resolved.  Another problem with part-timers who exceeded the 60 hour rule is still in dispute.  The District conducted an audit and found that approximately 60 part-time faculty exceeded the 60 hour rule and were automatically moved into STRS.  So far none of those faculty have made any contributions to STRS while they continue to contribute to their MetLife plan.  There is a proposal under discussion that would allow faculty to use their MetLife contributions to pay for back contributions they may owe to STRS but nothing has been agreed to yet.

The part-time faculty service credit task force was established in the contract to correctly calculate STRS service credit for part-time faculty.  Service credit was incorrectly calculated from 1996 to 2005.  The District needs to go back to 1996 to correct faculty service credit.

Problems with reporting of STRS Cash Balance accounts:  Contributions are being taken out of faculty checks for STRS Cash Balance accounts, but there are problems with the way the District and LACOE have reported data to STRS.  Since there have been discrepancies in data, STRS has denied the whole batch.  Not a single participant from our district has had a Cash Balance account established by STRS. However, Mitra Moassessi reports some progress.  STRS will now communicate directly with the District.  When STRS receives an error-free report, then the CB accounts will be established.  Each faculty’s contribution is currently collecting interest at STRS.

DPAC is reviewing its charter.  The FA supports the proposal that the President’s response to DPAC recommendations will be included in the revised charter.

The Safety Committee, which is established in the collective bargaining agreement, is charged to meet, to record and distribute minutes, and to make sure the college is in compliance with state and federal law.    The FA has two representatives on the committee while the classified staff has four representatives. However, the Safety Committee has not met recently.  After a discussion at DPAC, Randy Lawson agreed that the Safety committee needed to meet regularly and to report minutes to the FA.  Personal safety is covered in Article 23 of the contract.   Always report instances of threats to the college police and to college disciplinarian Judith Penchansky. 

VII. CCCI Report:  Mitra Moassessi, Howard Stahl, Kathy Sucher, and Dennis Frisch attended the CCCI conference held October 10 -11 in San Diego.  The conference passed a resolution that CCCI endorses FACCC’s mission and pledges to support FACCC’s efforts to increase membership.  SMC reps, led by Mitra Moassessi, encouraged other independents to join FACCC as contract campuses. Carl Friedlander, President of CCC (CFT) reported on merger talks between unions CTA and CFT. The talks are in the preliminary stages. The next CCCI conference will be held in the spring of 2009 in Sacramento.
http://www.smcfa.org/FACCC/FACCCmemberRes.htm

Respectfully Submitted,
Rebecca Curtis