stccpa.org

For immediate statewide distribution: Dear MCCC, MTA, and ORP leaders and colleagues,   The Senate Ethics and Rules Committee moved our Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) bill (S1173) to the Senate Ways & Means Committee this morning where it awaits further review. We need statewide political action ASAP to keep this bill alive and moving forward. I have attached the latest talking points with some related background information. Please review this document before making your calls. Note that S 1173 has been redrafted with input from the  MTA’s tax attorney to address all concerns related to the proposed legislation’s Internal Revenue Code compliance. I do not have an electronic copy of this latest draft, but that redraft was forwarded to the Senate Ways & Means.   What you and your ORP faculty colleagues can do:

• Contact your Senator, let him/her know that this bill is important to you, and ask if s/he will support this bill.
• Ask Senators if they will contact Senate Ways & Means Chair, Steven Panagiotakos, to urge him to act favorably on this bill and move it to the Senate floor for a vote.
• Let me know if you are running into resistance or hear concerns about this bill’s passage.
• Stay tuned for further political action requests as this bill moves forward in the legislative process. Each movement will require your making more calls to your legislators.

Contact information for Senators:

• To find out who your  State Senator, go to: www.wheredoivotema.com
• To reach your Senator by phone, call the main State House number (617-722-2000) and ask to be connected to your Senator.
• To send an email to your senator, go to: http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenus.htm

Thanks to all of you who have worked so hard on this campaign and the related political action to date. Thanks in particular to UMass Amherst professors (Myrna Cronen, Larry Schwartz, and Michael Maroney) and UMass Lowell professors (Tony Sczcesiul and Garry Handelman) for joining me in meetings last week with Senator Rosenberg’s staff and Senator Panagiotakos staff. Thanks as well to the ORP and MCCC chapter leadership from Middlesex Community College this past week.    Your calls today could make a difference in this bill tomorrow. Urge your colleagues to join you in this effort.   Thank you,   Donnie   Diana (Donnie) McGee MTA Board of Directors
MCCC Vice President & SAC Chair
Cell: 508.415.1513
Email: vice-president@mccc-union.org

Dear MCCC Colleagues,

I know the end of the spring semester presents many challenges to all of us as we finish with grades, support student awards ceremonies, and ready students and the college for upcoming graduations, so my thoughts are with all of you in the important work that engages you at this time.

Please note the SAC news below, the registration deadlines for future events, and the important political action that is needed immediately on the Harkins Jobs bill in the Senate.

MTA Annual Meeting Election:
Thanks again to all who attended this meeting and supported my candidacy for the MTA Executive Committee in so many different ways. Though Max Page won the election, key issues were raised about our community colleges and public higher education that will not easily be ignored. Since I will retain my seat on the MTA Board, I will continue to speak out for our campuses and for all of you in the year ahead.

Act Now to Support Educators’ Jobs:
Since state funding for education is at an all time low, I am repeating an earlier political action request of all of you: Please contact your U.S. Senators, so that federal monies regarding S 3206 (the Keep our Educators Working Act) can be used to support state educators. The State Legislature is proposing a 4 percent cut for pre-K – 12 and 13 percent cut for higher education, so your calls are most important. This legislation would provide almost $500 million to save jobs, and Senator John Kerry is an original co-sponsor of this bill.

*
Please thank Senator Kerry for supporting educators and urge Senator Scott Brown to support Senator Harkin’s bill. Follow this link : http://www.capwiz.com/nea/issues/alert/?alertid=14952031&type=co

*
Out of state residents should contact their U.S. Senators and not Senators Kerry or Brown.

Greenfield, Holyoke, Mt. Wachusett Educators: Meet with Your Legislators
On May 18th at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center in Northampton, MTA educators from public schools and colleges are meeting with legislators from the districts serviced by the Holyoke MTA office. Be there to let legislators know that our schools and colleges, our students, and public educators need their support. For more information or to reserve a dinner and seat at this table, call 1.800.432.1117 or 413.535.2415. Or email csbaird@massteacher.org/akelley@massteacher.org

PHENOM Annual Meeting – June 5, 2010, at WSC:
Ferd Wulkan, PHENOM’s Organizing Director, invites all of you to attend this event: “Please help shape PHENOM’s future at our Annual Meeting Saturday, June 5 at 5 PM at Worcester State College (Blue Lounge, Student Center 1st Floor). PHENOM members will evaluate our work, plan for the fall election campaign and the rest of the year, debate and vote on any bylaw amendments and PHENOM’s budget, and elect a new Board.” RSVP to reserve a spot (and dinner!): massphenom@gmail.com

Sign up for MTA’s Williamstown Conference:
Each year dozens of MCCC members go to Williamstown in August to attend summer workshops and relax in the beautiful Berkshires at an MTA conference that has something for everyone. Join friends and colleagues from across the state for informative and energizing workshops with education and labor experts. Please note the MTA Williamstown brochure that was mailed to you, and the email from Phil Mahler that your chapter president distributed to you. Each chapter can send up to 3 members and possibly more. Contact your chapter president ASAP in order to qualify for MCCC funding. Go to the MCCC website for many more details: http://mccc-union.org/Williamstown2010/index.html

ORP Update:
I have been meeting with and in close contact with MTA’s Higher Ed. Director Arthur Pippo, State House Lobbyists, and a private tax attorney to finalize the language on the ORP bill (1173). The attorney has reviewed the bill and sees no conflict with the current Internal Revenue Code. Please stay tuned as we move forward very soon with a full-scale lobbying effort. I will be sending out a notice this week for a possible ORP Ad Hoc meeting to activate and organize this lobbying effort. If we want this campaign to succeed, we must work to get every interested ORP faculty in this state involved.

Higher Ed. Contracts Campaign:

* As you know, the Higher Education Leadership Council and MTA leaders and strategic action coordinators have been meeting with legislators, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and Education Secretary Reville to move these contracts forward into a supplementary budget. Our contract sits in the hands of the House Ways & Means Committee awaiting action. The Governor has told a recent higher education audience that, though he would like concessions to deal with the economic crisis, he is not putting pressure on legislators to hold off on these contracts. Note our legislators hold the key to funding these contracts, so that is where our energy needs to be focused.
* Know that MCCC and other higher ed. unions have no intention of reopening contracts at this time. We must all continue to work with the legislature to move these contracts forward.
* My thanks to those who have contacted legislators about our contracts or participated in related in-district meetings. Thanks to Brooks Smith for his weekly meetings with legislators and to Caroline Schwarzwalder and Tiffany Magnolia for their recent legislative breakfast at North Shore Community College. MCCC leadership will continue to work with MTA colleagues on this contract campaign. Please stay in touch with your legislators.
* Further action requests – including phone calls, emails, and/or in district meetings – may be needed, so please pay attention to SAC email action alerts and requests.

Best wishes for a quieter month ahead – and for some well-deserved time off in the near future for all of you.

Donnie

Diana (Donnie) McGee
MCCC Vice President & SAC Chair
Cell: 508.415.1513
Email: vice-president@mccc-union.org

The economic crisis in the state continues.

The governor’s proposed budget funds public education at the same level as last year.
However, the Legislature is proposing a 4 percent cut for preK-12 and 13 percent for higher education.
There is legislation pending in the U.S. Senate that would provide almost $500 million to save jobs.
Several weeks ago, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced the Keep Our Educators Working Act (S3206). It is similar to a House-passed bill that calls for $23 billion to be used to preserve jobs.

Senator John Kerry is an original co-sponsor of the legislation.

We need to act now, before hundreds of educators are laid off.

At the annual Meeting, look for computers by the VOTE booth, stop by and send an email to Sens. Brown and Kerry.

Or please click on http://www.capwiz.com/nea/issues/alert/?alertid=14952031&type=co to thank Senator Kerry for supporting educators and to urge Senator Scott Brown to support Senator Harkin’s bill.

It is important to push the Senate to act quickly so that students and educators do not face significant uncertainty as the next school year begins

By unanimous vote by the twenty eight members in attendance at the April 28, 2010 STCC Professional Association meeting, the following members have been elected to serve a two year term: Fall semester 2010-Spring semester 2012

President: Rob Rodgers

Vice President: Nick Camerota

Treasurer: Eric Brown

Secretary: Lynn McDonald

Day Member at Large: Carole Dupont

SCE Member at Large: Joan Quinn

Professional Staff Member
at Large: Vin Grassetti

MCCC Director: Roberta Albano

Lynn McDonald
Secretary

Good afternoon STCC PA members,
Just a reminder of the upcoming Professional Association meeting to be held on Wednesday April 28 in 13/114 during the college hour. Pizza and beverages will be served. Please see attached minutes from the March 1, 2010 meeting.
Thank you,
Lynn McDonald

Your association is still looking for a few more good members to help us help you. The annual Delegate Assembly is set for Saturday, April 24, 2010 at the Crown Plaza in Worcester. We are short of our full delegation and I am asking that you devote a few hours on that day to helping yourself and your colleagues by volunteering to attend as a delegate.

There will be several important issues to be discussed and voted upon. These will include setting the budget and dues for the next year as well as several proposed by-law changes involving how our union is governed.

If you are willing to volunteer please e-mail me as soon as possible so that I can distribute some material to the delegates and also see if we can set up some car pooling arrangements to make the drive easier.
Thanks,
Rob.

The Time Is Now!

Fight the good fight for justice and fairness in our community colleges.

Energetic capable employees wanted

for all MCCC Union positions

Look for Nomination Forms in your inbox and posted around campus.

Please consider yourself or someone you respect to run for office.

Remember: Ask NOT what your union can do for you but what you can do for your union!


• Bristol
• Greenfield
• Mass Bay
• North Shore
• Roxbury

• UMass Amherst
• UMass Boston
• UMass Dartmouth
• UMass Medical School

• Fitchburg

All day faculty members.

By  the end of the fifth week of classes, immediate supervisors are required to return all course materials to faculty along with the Checklist of Course Materials (Form XIII-E2).  While these materials were in the possession of the immediate supervisor, the confidentiality of these materials should have been maintained and the  employer should not have distributed these materials to anyone without your permission. It is a violation of the contract for the employer to place your course materials in the personnel file, to make additional copies for desk copies, or to distribute your course materials to FT and adjunct faculty.

If any of the 10 items listed on the checklist were missing or if the immediate supervisor had concerns, the faculty member should be notified and given an opportunity to submit materials or respond to the concerns within fourteen (14) calendar days.  If the missing items and/or concerns are identified,  I recommend that you respond in writing to the immediate supervisor with the updated or missing item(s) and provide your students with the updated information.

The intent of this 14 day response period serves two (2) purposes:

1. To give the faculty member the opportunity to correct an oversight without a negative comment being placed in the summary evaluation.
2. To insure that students have all of the items on the checklist.

NB: Please note that faculty have full freedom in the selection of course materials and if the faculty member believes that a directive from the immediate supervisor to change the course materials infringes upon academic freedom,  then the faculty member has the right to initiate the grievance process.  Faculty have full freedom in the selection of course materials.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Dennis Fitzgerald
119 Rocky Pond Road
Plymouth, MA  02360

email mcccfitzy@comcast.net
tel 508-746-2533
fax 508-746-5258