Adopted
Minutes
July 30, 2001
Organizational
Meeting
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at
4:37 p.m.
Roll Call
Present: Canady, Heywood, Holden, Jeffries, Patterson, Pelleran
Absent: Rasmusson
Trustee
Rasmusson arrived at 4:38 p.m.
Additions/Deletions to the Agenda
None.
Limited Public Comment Regarding
Agenda Items
Gary VanKempen
- My name is Gary VanKempen, I am addressing the agenda item
under President's Report, Part B, Michigan Education Association
of Higher Education, Tentative Agreement.
I would like to begin with a thank you to the Board for
your support and encouragement through the negotiations process.
Last year you committed one million dollars to be used to
improve faculty salaries at the college.
You have stood by that commitment even with the concerns
of next year's state funding.
I thank you for that.
I also want to thank Chair Jeffries for your extra effort
as the Board chair and helping us meet the time lines that we
needed to meet to bring this process to a successful conclusion.
But mostly I would like to encourage Board members to
continue your commitment to this process by approving the
tentative agreement that has been ratified by the faculty.
And it is not because I would like to spend the rest of
the summer at the negotiating table, although that is part of
it. This tentative
agreement represents a second phase of a process that is
designed to help us compete in the current faculty labor market.
The first phase was reducing the contract length from 3
semesters to 2. The second phase is to establish for the first
time in the history of a college a salary schedule for faculty
that is competitive with other community colleges in Michigan
and throughout the nation. When you ask students what they like
about LCC one of the first things you hear is that they
appreciate the quality of our faculty, the knowledge and
expertise they bring to the class along with the concern for
student learning. I
believe this salary system will help us retain our current
faculty and maintain this excellent faculty reputation.
In the next 5 to 10 years we will be hiring a lot of new
faculty. We will
need this salary structure in order to continue to bring the
best and brightest faculty to LCC.
Finally, I would like to encourage each of you and all of
you here to lend your full support to the millage campaign.
Putting a salary schedule in place is a start, but to
stay competitive we need to assure that the structure moves in a
manner that is comparable with the market.
In order to do this we need the millage revenue.
It is a pretty exciting time at the college.
We have six ratified and improved employee contracts in
place, and I hope we are about to have all seven.
We have the opportunity to position the college to move
into this decade as a dynamic leader in education and training
in this community. Let's
go for it.
Joe Warren
- I am Joe Warren, on behalf of MAHE, just to report to the
Board that the union did vote last week, there was a quorum and
it did pass. So
that is the official notice from the union and we would like to
thank the Board for their support in getting it through and
getting it done. Again,
I didn't want to spend the rest of the summer negotiating but if
we had to we would. Just in response to Mr. VanKempen's comments.
This contract does give internal equity to the bottom
part of the faculty that are woefully under paid, but it does
not give external equity. We
are still incredibly low on the community colleges statewide. That will hurt us in the long run as he pointed out in being
competitive and getting people or retaining people since people
are looking at other options.
Given the fact when they look at their incoming salary
and what options they do have.
So, again, I thank the Board and request the Board in the
next four years to look very carefully at the other salary
schedules and how not competitive LCC is and work in the
direction of taking us where we should be, number 3 in the state
in comparable with our size. Thank you again for your support.
Stanley Chase -
Good evening Board of Trustee members and those in attendance. I rise to speak to the negotiations, as well.
As a bargaining unit member I wanted to share with you
something about the process.
I have been negotiating for some 15 years in K 12 and
some other business contracts and this time this is one of the
best negotiations I have ever experienced because we embark here
at LCC on a new day, a new day that talked about interface
bargaining. Looking
at those things that are important to both sides and working to
get them completed. I
saw in the bargaining rooms cooperation.
Cooperation among labor and management.
I saw respect. Respect
between each member; respect of each member's skills, and more
importantly, a respect for the process.
A process that focused upon the task at hand to get it
completed within a time frame, which we were successful.
The pay off for that was cooperation.
We received cooperation from MAHE, from the President,
from the chair of the trustees that made themselves available.
And that is the second watchword, is access.
We had access, MAHE had access, and communications were
open. And lastly, I
say it is a new day. A
new day that promotes trust because through these negotiations
the seed of trust was planted so it behooves all of us, the
management, MAHE, the community, to water that seed so it grows,
and I urge you to ratify that contract today and the rest of you
to vote on the millage so we can blossom into the flower that
LCC is.
Gary
Knippenberg - Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I, too, would like to speak as a member of the Board's
bargaining team, and particularly address the sub team that Jan
Stewart and I worked with on the faculty sub team with Sally
Pierce, Ed Thomas and Barry Stearns.
One of the goals of the institution was to find ways to
further promote our student access to our services through
technology. And our
sub team worked on that, and I believe you probably know some of
the outcomes but I want to highlight a couple of them.
One of them is the Michigan Virtual University
Certification that is encouraged for people teaching virtually,
and I believe next fall of 2002 it will be required for teaching
virtually. And that
we believe will assure a level of quality for our virtual
courses. We have also built in incentives for teaching virtually or
hybrid classes and we maintain the incentives that were in the
previous contract but added to them, as well.
And I think that will serve us well.
The seat limit for virtual classes has moved from 20 to
25. The 20 was set
several years ago as just part of an experiment because we
weren't sure how many students faculty could effectively deal
with, but now we believe it can be set to 25.
Apart from the virtual development we experimented with
learning communities in the last few years on campus and in
terms of compensating faculty we sort of scrambled to find ways
that are equitable for that, but now we have contract language
that deals with learning communities so both faculty and
administration will know what the expectations are. I hope, too, hope you support the contract.
Trustee
Rasmusson - Mr. Chair, I would like to say how happy I was to
see Joe Warren and a number of the other people from the faculty
participate in this process. They have been active in bringing up ideas in the past and it
was good to see their input.
Oath of
Office
Kathy Pelleran and Mark Canady took the oath of office
and were sworn in by the Honorable Beverley Nettles-Nickerson
from the Lansing 54-A District Court.
Nominating
Committee - Election of Officers
Trustee Holden
presented the slate of officers for two-year terms.
Chairperson -
Jeffries
Vice
Chairperson - Patterson
Secretary/Treasurer
- Canady
IT WAS MOVED by
Trustee Holden and supported by Trustee Pelleran to accept the
slate of officers as presented.
Roll call vote:
Ayes: Canady, Heywood, Holden, Jeffries, Patterson, Pelleran,
Rasmusson
Nays: None
Absent: None
Motion carried.
Chairperson
Jeffries thanked everyone for their support.
He thanked the Board and the past Board for all the hard
work that was put in last year with issues that were critical
such as the implementation of the strategic plan, labor issues,
and selecting a president.
He stated that the results are a product of hard work
from this Board and hopes the Board can continue along these
lines. Chairperson
Jeffries stated that he looks forward to working with them this
year.
Chairperson and Board Member
Reports
Chairperson's Report
Recognition of Athletic Teams and
Vocational Industrial Clubs of America
Chairperson
Jeffries asked President Cunningham to recognize and introduce
the students that were involved with the Vocational Industrial
Clubs of America competition.
President
Cunningham recognized the students that participated in the
Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA) competition in
Kansas City, Missouri. Ryan
Phillips won a gold medal in the Electronics Technology
competition. Matt
Hanks won a gold medal in the Technical Drafting competition.
Keith Ross won a silver medal in the Residential Wiring
competition and Chad Belbeck won a bronze medal in the Technical
Drafting competition. President Cunningham stated that the other top ten finishers
were Aaron Dempsey in Automotive Service Master competition and
Jason VanAken in the Welding competition.
President
Cunningham asked Ms. Annette Parker to introduce the faculty
responsible for training the students.
Ms. Parker
stated that Dean Jim Predko had been very supportive in
providing funds for the students to attend.
She introduced Cathy Lindquist, Patty Hanley, Bill
Eggleston, and Marvin Argersinger who are faculty members.
Ms. Parker stated that everything that is done follows
national skill standards and it helps the faculty see where the
programs are doing well and where improvement is needed.
Chairperson
Jeffries recognized the Men?s Cross-country, Men?s Track,
Men?s Golf, and the Women?s Softball teams for their
achievements this year. The
Men?s Cross-country team finished as state champions and 7th
in the nation. The Men?s Track team finished as Super Regional
Champions and qualified as a team for the National Championship
meet. The Men?s
Golf team finished as State Champions, Region XII Champions, and
13th in the nation.
The Women?s Softball team finished as State Champions,
Region XII Champions and second in the nation.
He asked Mr. Bill Turowski, Athletic Director at the
College, to introduce the coaches.
Mr.
Turowski introduced the coaches.
Mr. Chuck Block, Men?s Cross-country and Men?s Track
coach; Mr. John Nagel, Men?s Golf coach; and Bob Every,
Women?s Softball coach were present.
Each coach introduced his or her players that were
present.
Board Committee Appointments
Chairperson
Jeffries made the following Board committee appointments that
will be for two-year terms:
Regional
Economic Developing Team - Trustee Pelleran
LCC Foundation
Board of Directors - Trustee Holden and Trustee Canady
Ingham County
School Officers Association - Trustee Rasmusson
Michigan
Community College Association Board of Directors - Trustee
Patterson, alternate - Trustee Holden.
Trustee Patterson will continue his affiliation with the
Association of Community College Trustees on the national level
which will be consistent with Board policies.
Mason Local
Development Finance Authority - Trustee Pelleran
Leslie Local
Development Finance Authority - Trustee Heywood
Policy Committee Appointment
Chairperson
Jeffries stated that it was recommended very strongly by the
college attorneys that all of the College's existing policies
and procedures be put together, whether they are operational
procedures that pertain to the President or policies established
by the Board. A
Policy Committee will be charged to work with the attorneys in
putting together list of all of college policies.
This will be brought back to the Board for final review
and consideration. Chairperson
Jeffries appointed himself, Trustees Holden and Rasmusson to
serve on this committee. The
President has appointed herself, Barbara Larson, Jennifer
Wimbish, Dave Davidson and Rich Howard to serve on the Policy
Committee.
Calendar of Meetings for 2001-2002
and 2002-2003
Chairperson Jeffries presented the
calendar of meetings for 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 (the calendar
is on file with the official Board minutes.)
He stated that the meetings scheduled for December and
January have been changed due to the holidays and are reflected
on the calendar.
Chairperson Jeffries stated that
Foundation Executive Committee and Board meeting was rescheduled
from July 26 to August 9.
Board Member Reports
Trustee Patterson - He reported on
the MCCA Summer Workshop held in Traverse City, Michigan.
He stated that it was great to see the 28 community
colleges coming together and working together on issues.
Trustee Patterson stated that there was a lot of
discussion regarding State funding.
This year community colleges and universities received an
increase, and there were a lot of departments in the state that
did not receive increases, but received decreases. The emphasis
on higher education in the state has been established and is a
priority, and that is encouraging.
He said that the issues of how to authenticate
credentials in terms of the virtual college and the new gun
permitting statute in the state were discussed at the MCCA
workshop.
President's Report
Informational
Millage
Update
President
Cunningham stated that the MAHE (Michigan Association of Higher
Education) contract was ratified; therefore, the college will
proceed with the millage proposal.
She stated that the committee has been formed.
Tom Ferris is the treasurer of the committee, citizens
for Lansing Community College. President Cunningham stated that one of the co-chairs has
been confirmed, Alton Granger, and are waiting to confirm with
the other co-chair.
Human
Resources
Appointments
Administrative:
Ruth
Hohl Borger, Director of Public Relations and Government
Affairs,Executive
Office
Faculty:
Onai
N. Chityo, Faculty Member, Geography, Liberal Studies Division
Resignations
Administrative:
Barbara L. Lytle, Coordinator of Student Employment, Career
and Employment Services, Careers Division
Action Items
Approval of
Minutes - June 28, 2001 Regular Meeting
- President Cunningham presented the June 28, 2001 meeting
minutes.
Human
Resources
The renewal of contracts for Barbara
Larson, Jennifer Wimbish, and Dave Davidson were presented for
the Board's approval.
Michigan
Association of Higher Education - Tentative Agreement
President Cunningham presented the
Michigan Association of Higher Education tentative agreement to
the Board for ratification.
IT WAS MOVED by Trustee Canady and
supported by Trustee Holden to accept the President's report
as presented.
Ayes:
Canady, Heywood, Holden, Jeffries, Patterson, Pelleran,
Rasmusson
Nays:
None
Absent:
None
Motion carried.
Public
Comment
Trustee
Pelleran - I would like to recognize a few other people.
My cousin Randy Carmen, thank you for being here today. And I would like to recognize dear friends, Claudia and Joel
Solomon and their family. Merrit
and Miss Emily, two future community college students here.
And my dear friends, Elizabeth and David Nistell, and
their daughters, Katie and Amy, they are from Eaton Rapids.
We have to hook them in here.
Sharon Darr, who I used to work with many, many years
ago. And I would
like to say to everyone here, the folks at, my stage workers, it
has been a pleasure working with you, Michael David and William
Minihan. To all of you here, thank you for allowing me to serve you as
your public servant, I hold this in the public's trust and for
the next 6 years you have the permission to give me the benefit
of your thinking, good, bad or ugly, and I appreciate being here
to serve you, so thank you so much for that honor.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 5:28 p.m.