Index of Past State of the Union Reports 

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February 6, 2004

The State of Michigan is projecting another $900 million budget deficit for the 2004-05 fiscal year. Last year’s $900 million deficit resulted in HFCC losing $2.3 million in State funding and necessitated further concessions in Local 1650's “five year” contract, even after a wage freeze in 2002-03.

While Governor Granholm has pledged not to cut the 2004-05 State funding of colleges which adhere to her tuition restraint guidelines, nothing is certain, particularly in light of Michigan’s prolonged recession and the looming prospect of a “jobless recovery.”

In addition, the impact of new auditing regulations, requiring the costing of all prospective severance payments in the 2003-04 College budget, has transformed a $3 million College fund balance into a $670,000 College deficit. That budget gap must be closed this year; and because of these auditing regulations, $1.2 million in VESP obligations will now impact the College’s 2004-05 budget, rather than over eight years.

Although our “five year” contract contained no reopener in 2003-04, the Federation voluntarily reopened the contract and offered concessions to secure College programs and full-time teaching positions. The contract does, however, contain a reopener clause for the 2004-05 College year. At this juncture, we once again await the impact, upon the College and our contract, of decisions made in the political arena.

John McDonald

At the General Membership meeting on January 26, members were informed about the negative impact that the VESP dates in the current contract would have on the College’s budget. In short, auditing requirements would require future VESP expenditures to be factored into this fiscal year’s budget, an added expense that the College cannot absorb. Therefore, the Executive Board recommended the following revisions to the Local 1650 VESP.

• Eligible VESP Retirement Period: Current: June 1 - August 31, 2004

• Revision: July 1 - August 31, 2004

This revision is necessitated by auditing requirements, which would generate a $1.2 million budget deficit if VESP were fully costed in the 2003-04 fiscal year.

• Declaration Date: Current: July 20, 2004

• Revision: March 15, 2004

This earlier declaration date affords hiring committees greater time to advertise positions, review applications, and interview candidates. The Local 1650 contract requires replacement of all VESP retirees for the Fall 2004 semester. While the declaration of intent to participate in VESP is earlier than originally provided, teachers still have four to five months to rescind their declarations should they reconsider VESP.

• Rescission Date: Current: Retirement date or August 23, 2004, whichever is earlier.

• Revision: Retirement date July 1, 2004: rescission date June 14, 2004.

• Retirement date August 31, 2004: rescission date August 17, 2004.

The revised rescission dates permit the College Board of Trustees to act on replacement hires as early as possible.

Members ratified these changes with the following vote (conducted after the Membership meeting and in the two days following): 69 yes; 3 no

Under two provisions in the contract, departments and divisions can pursue new hires of full-time teachers. The College must hire permanent, full-time teachers to replace those who retired or resigned under VESP; unless an exception is agreed to by the Union and Administration, a replacement must be made within the Area (Academic Education, Career Education, Student Services) from which a teacher resigned. Additionally, the contract provides for full-time hires if a department or division’s use of part-timers becomes excessive.

One objective of the revised VESP declaration deadline is to enable hiring committees to work efficiently and productively. Each department and division will have a better idea early on of the need for new hires. Chances are good that many will opt for the VESP. Therefore, even before the declaration deadline, departments and divisions are strongly encouraged to begin the process of drafting job specifications, assembling hiring committees, and even coordinating schedules for hiring committee meetings.

Local 1650 warmly welcomes many new teachers this winter: Furat Ali Al-Shemeri, Science; Hashim Al-Tawil, Fine Arts; Carla Bell, English; Bonnie Bodart, Nursing; Gail Frederick, Nursing; Gillian John, Math; Gregory Laskowsky, TAE; Linda Myler, Nursing; Kathleen Murray, Nursing; Steven Murrell, Science; Anthony Perry, Social Science; Elaine Saneske, Business; Scott Still, English; Dale Van Dorp, Fine Arts & Fitness; and Roger Weekes, TAE.

At an orientation session on February 4, new teachers were invited to meet and socialize with members of the Local 1650 Executive Board. Over refreshments, President John McDonald provided an overview of the Local’s role on campus and in the Dearborn community, described key features of the contract, and reminded new teachers that the very existence of their positions at the College was the result of very difficult negotiations with the College Administration. The new teachers were encouraged to become active in Local 1650, by attending the monthly membership meetings and by joining one of the Union’s standing committees.

At a recent Executive Board and General Membership meetings, the faculty evaluation process was discussed at length. Its uniqueness and value as a faculty-generated and faculty-controlled process, as opposed to an administratively controlled process, was noted, in addition to its importance to the College accreditation process. With the NCA visit and report fast approaching, the Union is being asked to supply evidence of the evaluation process’ timeliness, thoroughness, and thoughtfulness. While most members have faithfully met its requirements and deadlines, others have not. Some student class evaluations are being returned well after the deadline, and some faculty self-evaluations are not being submitted or are woefully incomplete. Such poor response not only undercuts the credibility of the process, but it also creates problems for compliant teachers awaiting their evaluation results and makes institution-wide assessment impossible.

In order to address these problems, President John McDonald will request time this semester at a meeting for each division or department to discuss the faculty evaluation process and its importance. Deadlines for returning the evaluations (which are a contractual obligation) will be set to satisfy as many members as possible; members are reminded that they have a two-week window for doing the course evaluations, automatically giving them some flexibility.

As the College pursues its initiative to increase on-line course offerings, the Union must address the question of how students will evaluate those classes. Obviously, the format and some of the wording on the form used in traditional and hybrid classes are inappropriate. Therefore, a committee is forming to adapt the current evaluation form for on-line use. Two basic issues need to be addressed: 1) how to edit the form so that it reflects the nature of on-line teaching and learning and 2) how create a form that can be accessed and completed on line and whose results can be easily tabulated. If you would like to be on this committee, please notify Betsy Cohn (x9886; bcohn@hfcc.edu).

Help us inaugurate a new semester and welcome new faculty by meeting, greeting, and eating at our traditional Friday afternoon Pizza Extravaganza! Please join us for pizza, salad, beverages, and good conversation on Friday, February 13, at Buddy’s Pizza, 22148 Michigan Avenue in west Dearborn. Stop in any time between about 2:30 and 5:30 p.m., and look for the most jocular crowd-that will be us!

The AFT Convention will be July 13-17, 2004, in Washington, DC. Given the election- year politics, it promises to be especially interesting. If you would like to run for a delegate position, please notify Marsha Steele or John McDonald in writing. The Local is entitled to three delegates. Nominations will close at the General Membership meeting on March 15.

President Bush's spin doctors liked to characterize his January 20 State of the Union speech as "above the fray" of election-year politics. But it was soon evident that the Democrats - and the country - were being treated to a partisan, political harangue. As the President exhorted Congress to make his tax cuts permanent and begin privatizing Social Security, it was clear that the White House is set to gloss over the nation's growing deficit, joblessness and the serious budget crises plaguing the states. The President's claims that "jobs are on the rise" and that "manufacturing activity is increasing," for example, were disingenuous at best. Labor Department figures for December show an anemic gain of 1,000 jobs in December (created only because 225,000 of the jobless stopped looking for work), along with continued losses not only in the high-paying manufacturing sector but also in government employment. The President also touted his new Medicare prescription drug plan for seniors and came up with several ideas for holding down rising healthcare costs--but failed to mention that his drug bill specifically prevents Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices. And while President Bush proclaimed a "36 percent increase" in funding for schools since 2001, he failed to mention that his 2004 budget request leaves funding for No Child Left Behind programs $7.8 billion below authorized levels. One way to start fulfilling the promises he made to public schools, said AFT president Sandra Feldman January 21, "is to stop providing the massive tax breaks for individuals and corporations that don't need them and instead redirect those resources to where they are needed."

(Article taken from Inside AFT for the week of Jan. 26, 2004)

Among the education initiatives President Bush announced during his State of the Union address was "Jobs for the 21st Century," a $500 million job training and education program aimed at preparing workers for high-skill jobs. The program includes $250 million to fund partnerships between community colleges and employers and $33 million to enhance the Pell Grant program with $1,000 bonus grants to recipients who take rigorous courses in high school. The proposal's outlines are notable for what is left out, however. President Bush has repeatedly cut job training and vocational education programs--proposing $800 million in cuts over the past two years alone. In the President's 2004 budget, he proposed cuts of $300 million in vocational education and $60 million in adult job training. He seeks to eliminate Youth Opportunity Grants, a job training program from which he has tried to cut $225 million over the past three years. Meanwhile, the morning after the State of the Union address, the President went to the battleground state of Ohio to tout his education initiative at Owens Community College. Angela Ondrus, President of the Owens Faculty Association, an AFT affiliate that represents 245 full-time faculty and professional staff there, notes that since the Bush administration took office, Ohio has lost 175,000 manufacturing jobs, and in the week before the President's visit, six nonunion employees in the College's Workforce Development and Retraining Center had their positions eliminated due to State budget cuts.

(Article taken from Inside AFT for the week of Jan. 26, 2004)