The bargaining team met with BOT representative Dr. Keith Samuels Monday, January 23 to discuss the administration's invoking of Article 12 (Retrenchment). The impetus for this action is the anticipated 6 to 7% budget cut (including current 4% cut announced this January).
It was clear at this meeting that the administration feels that it has done all that Article 12 requires by informing PJCFA of the process it will follow to determine which faculty members will be retrenched. While Dr. Samuels said that administration would consider cost-saving measures suggested by PJC faculty, it seems that they are determined to cut some faculty positions.
Finally, the faculty comes first in administration's planning.
While department heads are calculating points for each faculty member, no such formal calculations are being made for support or professional personnel. In fact, Dr. Samuels acknowledged that PJC will strive to cut to the minimum SACS standards of 60% fulltime faculty to 40% adjunct. He went so far as to admit that fulltime faculty members will be displaced in favor of adjuncts.
We've suspected it for years, but now we have proof. The only way the faculty comes first is in getting the shaft.
What are you willing to do? PJCFA is holding a general faculty meeting Thursday, January 29, at 1:30 p.m. in Room 252 to discuss plans to combat administration's attempts to further marginalize fulltime faculty. It is urgent you attend the meeting and get involved as we fight to save our jobs and the jobs of our peers.
8 comments:
Good move, PJC administration. Refuse to look for cuts in staff--ONLY cut faculty. I'm impressed by so many staff who have time to stand around chatting, drinking coffee, talking on their cell phones and generally conducting their personal lives on PJC time. Too bad faculty can't do that from their packed classrooms, then there would be a good reason to cut our ranks even more.
How about some Faculty First! buttons we can wear as we're "retrenched?" They'll look really nice as we stand in line for Unemployment checks. They'll give us a starting point for conversations about getting the need for higher education--stay in school! Get a degree! It pays! :-/
Why is no one mentioning the elephant in the room? Sports/athletics? While it is great to have students involved in athletic programs, just how much does this affect other students and how much does it cost the college? A million dollars a year? How many of us would miss basketball if it were gone tomorrow? How many LOCAL students benefit from PJC athletics?
Second BIG elephant--WSRE. Is it truly self-supporting? How much does PJC hand to the television station? How many faculty have offices and/or classrooms like the facilities at WSRE?
How interesting that a group so interested and concerned about what trust issues and what administrators are saying "behind closed doors" would ask one administrator to leave the meeting today. What happened to the sunshine law? Are we really so terrified about losing our jobs that we close the door on one who could have heard our real concerns? Am I the only person to read this situation like this?
You're correct. There are "trust issues" between faculty and the administration at PJC. And those issues have all been created by the administration's refusal to discuss anything with faculty. Amazingly, when PJCFA holds a meeting to discuss retrenchment and the press agrees to appear, THEN AND ONLY THEN does an administrator appear---ready to do what, exactly?
We have nothing against Dr. Gonzalez and would be happy to meet with him or Dr. Meadows, but NOT in a meeting in which we are discussing what we will do in response to administration's decision to FIRE FACULTY.
The sunshine law applies to elected and public officials who have significant control over how our government is run and how taxpayer dollars are spend. Since when is PJCFA a publicly elected body or made up of public officials? We are a union designed to protect our own interests and those of our students. We're not allowed into the board's discussions on bargaining, etc., why are some so eager to let them in on ours?
As the writer above said, we have nothing personal against Dr. Gonzalez. As a matter of fact, he seems to be about the only Sr. Administrator who has a clue. He was applauded at the meeting today for having the guts to turn down a recent pay raise.
Sometimes you have to keep things closed, and today's meeting was for our faculty, not administrators. Period. When they pay us the big bucks to be the ones making the decisions, and we're the ones responsible for the taxpayer's dollars and their fair allocation, everybody's welcome. Until then we will continue to have periodic faculty only meetings. After all, we are the Pensacola Jr. College Faculty Association, not the Pensacola Jr. College Faculty, Administrator and everybody else Association.
Interesting comments. In any management 101 class, the first rule of union organization is: management and union are always divided by a very broad line--unions are not concerned with issues that do not directly affect the union membership (employment and benefits); management has every right to keep all other business separate from the union. How did the automotive industry end up with their benefits? By having a narrow vision for the industry that ultimate placed it in the peril it is in today.
Will we also have that same narrow range? It is time for all of us to work together--can the union officers and members do this? Who makes the first offer?
I am concerned that a meeting held in a public facility is closed to some.
I'd like to respond to this post: "I am concerned that a meeting held in a public facility is closed to some." Are you also concerned that faculty aren't allowed to attend the President's Council? Or that faculty members can't attend the Program Viability Committee meetings? Thursday's meeting was a meeting of an organization whose collective bargaining agreement states in Article 5 that "The Association shall have the right to use college facilities and services on the same basis they are generally available to other groups in the community." Thursday's meeting was a general membership meeting for faculty.
The association has made multiple attempts to sit down with administration and work toward goals that are in the best interest of the college. This year the bargaining team asked the college to explore interest-based bargaining. The college wasn't interested.
I'm sure the association would be happy to hold a joint meeting of faculty and administration, but rather than faulting the association for wanting to hold its meeting in private, why not ask administration why they have been so silent on the issue. Why wait until PJCFA holds a meeting to answer questions? Retrenchment was activated nearly two weeks prior. Wasn't that the time to answer questions and to address faculty concerns?
Be careful when talking about STAFF. Some of us STAFF need our jobs too. Don't forget that. Yes, there may be those STAFF that could do a more productive job. However, there are also those STAFF members who run the departments and get no credit for it. Those same STAFF may make sure your paycheck is processed. Let's not start cutting other's throats to save our own jobs. Some of the STAFF around here do not appreciate such "heartless" suggestions that our jobs should be first on the firing line. The STAFF at PJC have children to feed too.
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