The University of Northern Iowa Faculty Agent and Advocate
for over a Quarter of a Century
Official Minutes of the
Executive Board/Central Committee
December 2, 2006
Meeting Minutes of the United Faculty Executive Board and Central Committee
December 2, 2006
College Eye Room, MU
Present: Frank Thompson, Jeff Funderburk, Hans Isakson, Jesse Swan, Catherine Zeman, Barbara Cutter, Linda Adkins, Melissa Beall, Dan Power, Chris Neuhaus, Katherine VanWormer, Sonia Yetter. Guest: Susan Baker, AFSCME.
I. Call to Order and Announcements [Thompson]
The meeting was called to order at 3:35 p.m. Thompson made the following announcement:
• The UF Newsletter The Unionline will go out on Monday.
II. Membership Report [Isakson]
The membership has not changed. There was discussion on initiatives for building membership.
III. Presentation and Approval of the Minutes [Thompson]
Thompson commended Christine on her detailed minutes.
Motion by Isakson with second by Yetter to accept the November minutes. Motion carried.
IV. Treasurer's Report [Isakson]
The Treasurer's Report was distributed. Isakson noted that the amount under Legal Services will increase with the ongoing negotiations, as in past years. The report was approved.
V. Grievance Reports [Funderburk]
VI. Old Business
A. Update of Collective Bargaining. Both sides, UF and the Iowa BOR, have provided their proposals. The negotiations have now entered the stage where the meetings are closed to the public. There was a discussion of the Board's initial proposal relating to post tenure review. Isakson indicated the faculty may be misinformed about the nature of United Faculty's role with respect to seeking faculty rewards for teaching, research, and service. Some faculty have been misinformed about the merit increases in the master agreement. They appear to believe that these negotiated increases are maximum amounts. However, in the contract, merit increases are minimums. The UNI administration, therefore, is free to reward faculty for amounts greater than the minimums. UF in no way is restricting the rewarding of faculty. Under the master agreement, the UNI administration has the ability to review faculty performance which it does every year.
B. Funderburk announced the members of the grievance committee. Those serving as members are Catherine Zeman, Kurt Meredith, Hans Isakson, Dan Power, Barbara Cutter, and Bob Krueger.
C. Student Assessment Proposal Request under the 2005-07 Master Agreement. One concern is how they are used. UF is concerned about the reliability of the instruction and how the information is used to evaluate faculty teaching. UNI students don't think the student assessment instrument addresses what they want it to do. The last change made to the student assessment instrument was to change the evaluation numbers from five (5) to four (4). The reason given for this change was to ensure the students made a definite decision about whether the teaching was good or bad, rather than be neutral in terms of an evaluation. However, as in all surveys, some respondents are neutral in terms of their findings, so the student assessment may be flawed in terms of this issue. Section 3.2 Students Assessments of the Master Agreement was discussed. At issue was the committee as outlined in this section. Of the nine members of the committee, United Faculty appoints three members, the Provost appoints three members, and the Student Government appoints three students. A motion was made by Isakson to have United Faculty request that the Provost convene this committee (with copies of the request going to the President of the Student Government), and the United Faculty will submit its names upon request. Swan indicated this could not be done because we are in negotiations. Isakson indicated it could be done through the conditions of the current master agreement. After further discussion, the motion passed with 8 for and 3 against.
D. Newly Enacted Iowa Code—9.7 Violence Free Workplace Policy. Susan Baker of ASFCME presented information about this code and the work AFSCME is doing at UNI regarding it. Baker indicated that this code is to protect the employees from the general public, although that is not the wording in the code. AFSCME developed a policy along with the Iowa Department of Administrative Services and the Board Office. This policy is on the Human Resources page; however, no notice of this policy was ever sent out. Baker also indicated that this policy was in the last bargaining agreement. Thompson indicated that UF should consider updating the language to include faculty and introduce it into bargaining. Also important is the need to have programs and training. Power indicated that if it's code, the administration hasn't been doing it. In explaining the need for this policy, Baker cited problems at other schools where bullying and mobbing were used against employees. Therefore, the wording of the contract may need to be expanded to include bullying and mobbing.
Next meeting will be in February.
VII: Adjournment
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Adkins for Christine Channing, Secretary