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SANTA MONICA COLLEGE FACULTY ASSOCIATION
REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY MEETING
October 8, 2009 - MINUTES Members Present: Terrin Adair-Lynch, Javid Afrasiabi, Rebecca Anderson, Vini Angel, Espy Bolivar-Owen, Chuck Brinkman, Laura Campbell, Katarina Cerovic, Fran Chandler, Tom Chen, Steve Contarsy, Rebecca Curtis, George Davison, Abbas Dehkhoda, Gail Edinger, Tracey Ellis, Blue Fier, Mark Foster, Elena Garate, Martin Goldstein, Keith Graziadei, Matt Hotsinpiller, Josh Kanin, John Kennedy, Richard Lavallee, Ming Lu, Ed Markarian, Mario Martinez, Suzanne McDonald, Colleen McGraw, Mitra Moassessi, Feresteh Mobasheri, Jim Pacchioli, Nick Pernisco, Pauli Peter, Franklyn Phillips, Paris Poirier, Jenny Resnick, Saul Rubin, Audrey Sandoval, Jackie Scott, Lantz Simpson, Jim Smith, Howard Stahl, Michael Strathearn, Nina Theiss, Joy Tucker, Odemaris Valdivia, Alicia Villapando, Lisa Willaims, Carol Womack, Anne York-Herjeczki, David Zehr. Excused: Ken Buckner, Sandi Burnett, Dennis Frisch, Martin Goldstein, Eric Oifer, Tom Peters, Kym McBride, Judith Remmes, Kathy Sucher. Absent: Eve Adler, Maria Alvarado, Garen Baghdasarian, Greg Brookins, Troy Cardenas, Gayle Davis Culp, Anna Collier, Ian Culbertson, Guilio Dellarocca, Michael Dixon, Jim Downs, Brian Dunniway, Heather Eisenhardt, Claudia Garcia, Ben Jimenez, Steven Kaufman, Lesley Kawaguchi, Jim Martin, Ken Mason, Marilyn McGrath, Joan Mills, Sue Moisin, Bill Price, Juan Quevedo, Michelle Scholefield, Christine Schultz, Michael Schwartz, Elisha Shapiro, Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein, Holly Thiercof, Sal Veas, Kayli Weatherford, Ventris Woods, Guests: Jo Kidd, Bill Nault, Vivian Rosenberg. The meeting was called to order at 11:20; a quorum was present. I. Approval of Minutes, September 24, 2009: the minutes were approved as submitted. http://bit.ly/3q7zex II. President’s Report: Article three of the By-Laws concerning the duties of the Faculty Representatives was reviewed. Parking: A year ago the FA filed a grievance with the district over parking. On September 29, there was a parking arbitration hearing with arbitrator Doug Collins. The arbitrator tried to convince the FA and the district to resolve their differences to avoid the actual arbitration; the FA proposed several solutions, but the district didn’t accept any of the proposed solutions. The arbitrator then listened to both sides. Witnesses for the FA were Howard Stahl and Lantz Simpson; the witnesses for the district were Tom Donner and Don Girard. The arbitrator will decide on the main argument, whether lot six is part of the main campus or not. The lawyers have 30 days to send their briefs to the arbitrator; then the arbitrator has 30 days to make a decision. The Board Meeting was held on October 6. The board approved the 2010-11 calendar. Human Resources reported on employee diversity. According to this report, the current number of SMC employees is as follows: 48 academic administrators, 39 classified managers, 473 classified support, 310 full-time faculty, and 1008 part-time faculty. Currently 30% of full-time faculty are 60+ years old. Faculty can access the Employee Diversity report at: http://www.smc.edu/apps/docs.asp?Q=756 The number of full-time faculty has decreased; last year the college had 318 full-time faculty and 1114 part-time faculty. The faculty obligation number remains very low. Dr. Tsang has promised, however, that if the budget holds, the college will hire 10 full-time faculty this year. Jennifer Merlic, Chair of the Academic Senate Department Chairs Committee brought forth a resolution from the committee to the board asking the Board of Trustees to make the hiring of full-time faculty its top faculty spending priority. III. Motion from the Executive Committee: The Executive Committee authorizes the Faculty Association representatives to the Budget Committee to offer a fourth scenario recommending that any additional cuts to categorical funds be backfilled 100 percent from the unrestricted fund reserve. Passed unanimously. Background report: The state budget was based on the assumption that the California Community Colleges would receive $130 million from the federal government for ARRA funds; that number has been reduced to $37 million and is expected to be cut again to $35 million. When the adopted budget was put together for Santa Monica College, it was based on the assumption that the SMC would be receiving its share of the $130 million ARRA funds. The district planned on backfilling the categorical programs by 50% of the cut, which amounted to approximately $850,000. With the current projected ARRA funds, there will be an additional $900,000 to $1,000,000 cut to categorical. The district has come up with three scenarios to deal with the categorical cuts: - To backfill none of the cuts.
- To backfill half of the categorical cuts and use class cuts to fund them.
- To backfill half the cuts and use reserve funds to make up the difference.
The DPAC Budget committee met on Wednesday and agreed to backfill additional cuts to the categoricals, but not to exceed one million dollars, and also to use the reserve funds for this purpose. This motion now will be sent to DPAC, and if DPAC approves it, it then goes to the president. IV. Government Relation Report – Dennis Frisch- deferred. Jo Kidd reported on retirement. Jo Kidd, Second Vice-President of membership for the California Retired Teachers, reported on a retirement conference held in Pasadena. Their priority is to sponsor two rallies, one in Sacramento and one in Pasadena. The California Retired Teachers is an 80-year-old organization organized to protect pensions and look at the offset. Website: http://area7.calrata.org V. Negotiations Report – Howard Stahl: The negotiating council for the new contract meets every Monday. A faculty survey will go out soon. The Faculty Association urges all faculty to please participate. An on-line survey will go out soon. Paper surveys will be made available. The Negotiating Council is working through the contract and building a position. Our current contract expires in August 2010. Part-time faculty will see that their paycheck looks different; there used to be two line items: one for hourly pay and one for office hours. This fall and spring these items are combined into one line item, which includes office hour pay. VI. For the Good of the Order: Introduction of Matt Hotsinpillar, the new editor for the FAB. Nick Pernisco, FA web master showed faculty how to access the FAB on line: http://www.smcfa.org/index.php/newsletter Respectfully Submitted, Becky Curtis Recording Secretary
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