Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

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Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio. 

Guest - Charles Cassara.

  1. Jonathan made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting and Dennis seconded, the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
     
  2. Charles talked about the audit on October 13, 2011. He is finishing the 3rd quarter then Jeff will take over the books with much assistance from Michael Bijan. 19.4 million, 10.6 million, 30 million total faculty salaries, 1.25 % to base our budget on. We will have a monthly financial report and a budget committee.
     
  3. Jackson met with Larry Simpson yesterday as a meet and greet. They discussed many things including the new Master’s programs both here and in Valencia. We want all new faculty to be in our bargaining unit. Workload is another issue, curriculum development, and salary structure. They are still in the planning stages and trying for approval to start fall 2012, maybe only the performance component. There are two stages; state approval and NEASC. Music Education, CWP, Film Scoring, Studio Performance, Music Therapy.
     
  4. Next week is the Union/Management meeting. Main topic will be ADA and access to the 150 building. What has happened to all the plans for access and where are they now? Jackson passed out a synopsis of ADA access. Equal access for all individuals. The liability issue is huge, what happens during a fire?
     
  5. Another topic that is very important for a future meeting is a discussion of teaching of students with learning disabilities or visually impaired students with no assistance or training for faculty. The training should take place before the class is taught for the faculty not while the student is in the faculty member’s class.
     
  6. The on-line issue is a very large issue. Berkleemusic pays a royalty to all authors that have written a course when it is taught. It is a separate entity from the college. With the new on-line on-campus courses, what will the compensation be? Will there be a royalty for authors? If not, why not? Intellectual Property rights are a very important topic. Berklee is interested in offering two on-line Baccalaureate degrees. Perhaps we can get Dave Kusak or Debbie Cavalier to come in and talk with us.
     
  7. Space is another issue throughout the college, especially felt in the voice department, we will discuss in future meetings.