Report to the Board of Trustees

for October 1999

 

Good evening Chair Roney, members of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Robertson, colleagues and guests.

 

 

The Classified Senate met in September and we took the action to elect Lee Peterson to the Personnel Commissioner Selection Committee, with Steve Levine serving in the capacity as the alternate.  We are confident that both Mr. Peterson and Mr. Levine will serve the classified well in their capacity on the selection committee and represent the Senate very well. 

 

In my previous reports I have stated that we were beginning the election process for Classified Senators.  In the past few weeks the Senate has experienced the resignation of several senators due to the pressure of their respective assignments in their worksites. Each resignation I have received talked about not having enough time to devote to their senate responsibilities. This is not a new challenge.  It is frequently difficult for Classified staff participate in the college governance and keep up with the demands of a forty-hour week.  When the Classified Senate first began, I asked Dr. Robertson if the college was indeed committed to classified staff participating in governance and there was a strong resounding yes. At that time I asked that it be relayed to the managers and administrators that we were starting a senate and that if classified were to effectively participate in the governance process, classified be encouraged to participate.  This seemed to work well for the first three years. Unfortunately that the support seems to be eroding.  This points to a larger issue and one that I am sure you are all familiar with.  With the growth in our college, our hiring for classified, while increasing, is not in sync with the growth rate.  The workload must be spread among the existing staff until the new staff is hired.  The formula works ONLY if there is new staff hired. With limited resources there cannot be enough hiring to meet the unlimited demand.  This is not information that is new to any of us.  The problem however, results in a domino effect and severely limits the participatory governance of classified staff.  Each year when making appointments to committees the Senate must struggle to match committee times with classified staff availability.  The free hours are not free for everyone.  Let it be said however that the Academic Senate are extremely accommodating and meet at different times of the days and weeks and this helps tremendously.  However, some classified staff still must use their lunch hours to come to meetings.  I have purposely never asked for release time for the senate since I felt it was inappropriate and unfair to gain release time for the senate if CSEA Chapter 36 was not offered the same.  Some managers are “pro-governance” for lack of a better term, and classified simply work it out and everything is fine, but some are not so fortunate.

 

So what does this all mean?  In the coming weeks, Senate will try to brainstorm some new and creative ways to increase participation, both amongst ourselves and when we meet with Dr. Roberston for our monthly meetings. We will also set up a meeting with Vice President Sammis to incorporate any input and suggestions as well.   One quick-start suggestion would be to re-affirm to the Department Chairs, Managers and Administrators the college commitment to classified participating in governance.  Disseminating the information from the Administration to management will have a stronger affect.  The Senate realizes this is not a one way street, we will need to disseminate our own information to the classified community and encourage them to participate as well.  Work has already begun on a newsletter from the Senate that will seek to promote governance opportunities and encourage participation. 

 

Due to our current status in the Senate it seems of little value to begin senator elections until the awareness and interest and commitment pieces of this process is put in motion.  Consequently, I have made one of my few executive decisions and asked the Election Committee of the Senate to delay elections for senators for a period of time so that our probability for success would be greater. To build more stability on the Executive Committee we will, however, begin elections for the current vacancies on the Executive Committee. Hopefully the combined outcomes of all of our objectives in the future weeks will allow the senate to continue its reputation as a vital part of the governance arena.

 

In other news, I reported last month that I was attending the statewide Classified Senate Executive Board meeting.  It came to my attention though informational reports from the Community College Committee of the state CSEA Association that recommendations were to amend AB1725 statutes to recognize the exclusive representative for shared governance purposes.  In my capacity as Area Representative, I relayed this information to the board. We continued to work on our position paper on Unions and Senates in the hope this would dispel some of the history and myths surrounding the functions of the senates as they relate to unions.  It is in final draft and we hope to have it ready in the next few weeks for wide distribution.  We spent many hours working on language and I personally am extremely proud of the document and believe it will be a critical information tool.  We are also working on a newsletter bulletin for distribution to all community colleges to try to keep classified informed in relation to goals of the statewide senate.

 

That is all I have to report at this time. Our next scheduled meeting of the Classified Senate is for Thursday, October 12, 1999 at 12noon. Please note this will not be the new senator orientation meeting as previously stated.  This will be to handle regular business. The new Classified Senator orientation will be held once the elections are completed at a future date.

 

Thank you,

 

Tony Prestby

Classified Senate

 

 

 

Thank you,

Tony Prestby

Classified Senate