Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

February 20, 2014

Present  Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, David Scott,Jeri Sykes, Jackson Schultz, and Will Silvio.

  1. Rich made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting. Jeri seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
     
  2. Jackson opened the meeting. Two MOU groups are meeting today: Grad Studies and Benefits.
     
  3. There will be a meeting on faculty evaluations next Friday hosted by Camille. Marti and Jeff will be attending.
     
  4. Jackson had lunch with Larry to continue the dialogue about all faculty issues.
     
  5. A rough draft of our Vision for 2025 has been completed by Wendy and Beth, it’s a fantastic start and we will present the final version to Roger on March 6thwhen he comes to our union / management meeting.
     
  6. We discussed distance learning during snow days. A lot of miss-information, we are not obligated to teach while the college is closed. Some chairs have put pressure on faculty to Skype lessons during snow days; this is not appropriate and not required. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.
     
  7. We discussed technology issues in the classroom, they want us to adjust how we teach to use technology and yet nothing works in the classrooms!!
     
  8. Four new FT positions have been posted as conversions with specific duties and areas – Music Therapy, Voice, Piano, Songwriting & Ensemble (with the position located in the Songwriting Dept.) We discussed the new conversion process.
     
  9. As our older faculty retire, is there a plan for Berklee to honor and catalog their knowledge and tradition?