MESSA rates beginning July 1, 2009

By: Gary Thompson

The news is in, and it’s good.

MESSA rates for SVSU faculty beginning July 1, 2009, will increase by 1.45%. This increase translates into monthly rates as follows (these vary from that percentage because of the number of subscribers in each category):

Single-payer rate increases from $490 to $535, an amount below that negotiated in the SVSUFA contract.

Two-person rate for MESSA Choices 2 increases to $1101.92. The amount paid by SVSU goes up to $997, so the individual monthly contribution will be $104.92. The two-person rate for Supercare I increases to 1203.19, leaving an individual monthly contribution of $206.19.

Full family rate for MESSA Choices 2 will be $1224.19. The amount paid by SVSU goes up to $1128, so the individual monthly payment will be $96.19. Full family rate for Supercare 1 will be $208.72.

Credit is due to all of us for remaining relatively healthy and thus keeping the group rates low. Keep up the good work!

Update: HR has now made available new rates as from their office. You may download them at  http://www.svsu.edu/typo/fileadmin/websites/ecs/Faculty_Health_Plan_Monthly_Premium_Rate_Sheets_060109.pdf

Off-Campus Grievance Update

By: Elson Boles

In response to inquiries by faculty, this is an intermediate update on the Off-Campus Grievance filed last fall (see “Off-Campus Teaching Snafu” article below). Please bear in mind that these matters move at a seemingly glacial pace (global warming notwithstanding).

After the FACCG (Faculty Association Committee for Contract Grievances) voted to file the grievance, Gary Thompson and I met with Administration representatives on December 12, 2008 for the Step One meeting, per article K 2.1. The matter was not resolved and the Administration responded with a written denial within ten days.

Per article K 2.2, the FACCG met to discuss the denial, voted to appeal, and responded within ten days in writing to proceed to Step Two. Due to Winter vacation, both sides agreed to put the Step Two meeting into abeyance until early February, 2009.

The February Step Two meeting concluded with no resolution and the Administration rendered a written denial within ten days. Within ten days of receipt of the written denial, the FACCG met again and voted to appeal the Step Two denial, taking the matter to Step Three (arbitration). Our uniserve director, Saun Strobel, filed the appeal and an arbitration date has been set for January 2010. The long wait for arbitration is common.

In the meantime, information from affected faculty continued to trickle in and the FACCG discovered just recently a key difference between faculty who teach full courses Off-Campus and those who instruct Off-Campus irregularly, for example, as with an Off-Campus practicum, hybrid, or online course (instruction requiring a faculty member to travel beyond 30 miles of their designated campus).

There is no provision in D 28 or anywhere else in the Contract to prorate Off-Campus instruction. However, the FACCG concluded earlier this month (1) that the inclusion of both types (regular and irregular) in the same arbitration would muddy the waters. It also agreed to (2) to seek a reasonable Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) to prorate irregular Off-Campus instruction, and (3) barring such agreement, voted to file an “Irregular Off-Campus Instruction” grievance.

2009-10 Faculty Association Executive Board

By: Gary Thompson

Faculty listed below have now been elected to the SVSU Faculty Association executive board:

President—Bob Lane
Secretary—Margaret Borkowski
2-yr. at large—David Cline
2-yr. at-large (one-year continuation)—Chris Surfield
1-yr. at large—Ruth Copp
RA delegate—Ken Jolly
RA alternate—Russell Clark

Elizabeth Hansen was elected as 1-yr. at-large member, but resigned that position in order to fill the remaining year of Bob Lane’s RA Delegate position. Diana Trebing has been appointed to fill the one-year at-large position.

The following offices have been filled by appointment:
Webmaster—Jan Hlavacek
MAHE Delegate—Larry Kickham
MAHE Alternate—Brad Jarvis

These board members are continuing to serve:
Vice-President—Elson Boles
Treasurer—Shaun Bangert
Past President—Marcia Shannon [Gary Thompson will be on sabbatical for ‘09-‘10]
3-yr. at-large—Steve Yanca
3-yr. at-large—Moe Bidgoli
MAHE Delegate—David Schneider
MAHE Alternate—Steve Taber
RA Alternate—Fenobia Dallas

These board members are completing their service on the board as of the beginning of the fall 2009 semester. When you see them, please thank them for their good work:
Secretary—Rob Drew
2-yr. at-large—Andy Barnes
MAHE Alternate—Erik Trump

24-hour load and supplemental teaching

By: Gary Thompson

Please refer to your 2008-2011 Faculty Contract, especially MOU XIII on p. 94

Last year the Faculty Association was told that the administration intended to begin to enforce two provisions of the contract which affect spring-summer teaching. D 4.1 says that faculty must teach “not less than 24 … credit hours over a three semester appointment.” This means that if you teach fewer than 24 hours in fall and winter, and teach spring 2009, the total for your supplemental appointment will be reduced by whatever is needed to make up 24 first. So, for example, if I taught 23 hours in fall + winter and offered to teach 6 hours in spring or summer, I would receive supplemental pay as per contract for only five hours. (If you have banked hours, you may use those to make up any deficit.)

Those faculty teaching in summer 2009 will need to schedule at least 24 hours for fall-winter 2009-2010 or incur a similar penalty.

The FA and VPAA negotiated an MOU (p. 94) that specified that this provision would not be enforced for spring-summer 2008, but conceded that the administration could enforce it thereafter (i.e., this year). That MOU was based on the understanding that deans and department chairs would inform faculty about this provision for 2008-2009, so that no one would be surprised this spring-summer. Evidently some faculty have been taken by surprise.

Please feel free to talk with your FA officers, board members, or floor reps if you have any questions about these contract provisions. And you should talk with your department chair and dean about the extent to which you were or were not warned that the administration would enforce this provision for spring-summer 2009.

A few thoughts about winter ratification

By: Gary Thompson

Whenever you hear someone say offhandedly that SVSU should have a faculty senate to make decisions about curriculum, remind them of the discussion at this year’s winter ratification.

For those who missed the meeting because of other commitments, you missed one of the best public discussions by SVSU faculty in a long time. There were two areas of controversy, proposals by Political Science to offer courses in political thought—including figures commonly included in Philosophy—and the revised academic calendar which would cancel classes in 2010 and 2011 for the official Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

Both sets of proposals generated passionate and civil arguments for and against—arguments which would not have been heard without that forum. With respect to MLK day, it now falls to us to make sure that it becomes a true commemoration and occasion to educate ourselves and our students, and not—as administrators are already saying—just the faculty voting themselves a holiday.

Watch for these proposals in the near future.