COHE News
A Report From the NEA/AFT Higher Ed Conference
 
 by Gary Aguiar 
March 24 to 28, 2010
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
On Thursday evening and Friday morning, I attended the business meetings of the National Council of Higher Education.  They bill themselves as "an independent organization for all higher education members of the National Education Association."  They are a caucus with a direct appropriation from NEA and membership dues from individuals and organizations.
 
I joined as an individual for $24 per year.  Organizational dues vary by membership size.  They have existed for 22 years.  COHE may consider joining, because they advocate and lobby for higher education within NEA.  The President attends all of the NEA Executive Committee meetings and for the first time in a long time, we have a higher education individual on the NEA Executive Committee.  They have a link on the NEA Higher Ed website (www.nea.org/he).
TWO TOOLS FOR BARGAINING
I had hands-on experience with two NEA tools.  These are both fantastic tools to provide independent evidence and analysis of what works in other universities.
 
Higher Education Contract Analysis System (HECAS) contains 1,800 digitized higher education contracts.  It is a most valuable to find examples of strong language on particular provisions.  This is available online via a password, which I will provide to the Bargaining Team.

College and University Data Analysis System (CUDAS) allows robust analysis of peer institutions using federally collected information on a wide range of budget, student counts, and education spending.  These data are exportable to Excel and are available in CD form in the NEA Almanac of Higher Education.  Contact NEA Higher Education for your copy.
EFFECTIVE MESSAGE CAMPAIGN
I heard about this campaign "Work that Matters" sponsored by the Montana Public Employees Association. They advertise themselves as "an independent public employee union established on the principle that all dues collected should remain in Montana to benefit those who pay the dues."
Perspectives
Gary Rhoades, AAUP General Secretary spoke in one session.
 
He said we have to stop thinking like academics.  Instead, we must understand power.
 
He claims that "arguments in bargaining are worthless."  Instead we must get the community involved, that is, our members, other faculty, students, parents, legislators and their neighbors.
 
He also said that we are all contingent faculty.  That is, tenure line faculty should not feel protected and must all care about academic jobs.
Greetings!
San Jose, CA
San Jose Convention Center

Greetings from sunny California!  Not to make you too jealous, but I am writing this poolside on a warm afternoon at the end of the NEA/AFT Higher Education conference in San Jose.
 
It was great to attend a joint conference, because we drew on the faculty and staff of both organizations!  It has been an enlightening few days, so I want to share some of the information I gathered that applies to our situation.
 
Your brother in defense of faculty,
Gary Aguiar, President
Council of Higher Education
BARGAINING
 
San Jose Convention Center
San Jose Convention Center
 
Lynne Mingarelli, AFT Research and Information Services, discussed "Bargaining in the Current Environment."  Below are my notes:
 
  
 
The duty to bargain implies a duty to prepare.
Know the law related to bargaining, especially timelines.
Do your homework - identify problem areas, including bargaining history and tracking grievances.
Bargaining Team - make sure you have the right team
Review your constitution/bylaws

Bargaining Survey - know what your members want. 
o   Who receives the survey - entire bargaining unit or just your membership?
o   How will the survey be distributed?  Perhaps an e-survey, but also we must listen to people face-to-face.
o   When?  What do we want to find out?
o   Will you disseminate the results of the survey to the unit/membership?
 
Need a communication strategy, both internal and external.
 
Contract Language Review
o   Increase employer paid union release time
o   Partner in new faculty orientations
o   Build partnerships with management whenever possible.
o   Negotiate language to make financial information available to union at any time.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
 
Ed Mitchell, Executive Director, United Faculty of Florida provided tremendous insights into fiscal analysis, to follow the monies generated and spent by our universities.
 
He recommends we employ an outside, independent, recognized consultant to produce these analysis.  This way the evidence is unimpeachable and they must respond to it. Use audited financial statements, especially read the notes and spot trends. Track growth of administrative side versus instruction.  (I discussed this with NEA Higher Ed staffer Valerie Wilk and NEA might be able to fund this for us.) 
 
Although current appropriations may be cut, administrators often sock away money in two places: "unrestricted net assets" and in foundation accounts.  The former is the piggy bank or rainy day funds at the university level.  It is a reserve fund retained from surpluses.  The latter are often viewed as slush funds by university Presidents.  In some cases, these may be shielded from public scrutiny.
POLITICS
 
I attended a delightful panel that provided an overview of the 2010 election landscape.  Obviously, it will not be a good year for incumbents.   It looks like the Democrats are likely to lose a few seats in Senate and a few more seats in the House, but neither majority is really threatened.
 
A greater threat in a dozen states is TABOR (Taxpayers' Bill of Rights) initiatives on their ballots.  Basically, these laws limit state government spending to inflation or population increases unless approved by a referendum.  Some of these spending caps also apply to local governments and school districts.
 
We have seen a similar discussion in our state legislature, but there has been no action on a South Dakota initiative to my knowledge. With SDEA's assistance, we will continue to monitor this locally.
FURLOUGHS
 

San Jose Convention CenterNicholas Yovnello, President, Council of New Jersey State Colleges Locals, provided fantastic information on their successes with furloughs. 

First, furlough cannot be work for free.  If you are furloughed, they cannot make you work on those days.  A recent federal lawsuit established this principle for faculty.  So, if you are furloughed, you should not be going to office, you should not check your email, you should not be feeding your animals or any other responsibility related to your job.   Furloughs must inflict some pain on the institution.  So, management is required to take care of those tasks, not you!

 

Second, administrations will often present the union with a choice: either furloughs or layoffs.  So, it is better to negotiate the conditions of furloughs.

 

Third, furloughs should be viewed as a loan of faculty salaries to the institution.  We say, "we understand you have a temporary cash flow problem.  So, we are willing to be furloughed to help you out during this period.  But, if we are going to be furloughed, we expect to be repaid in the future."  Perhaps at the end of the current contract or at retirement.  (I noticed that this contradicts with point one above to some extent.)

 

Fourth, do not agree to furloughs unless management is also going to be furloughed.  And, since their duties do not affect instruction and they earn higher salaries (and hence offer more savings), their furloughs should be for more days than faculty.  This is key!
 
Fifth, which days to be furlough should be at the option of the faculty, but deans must certify that those days will not affect instruction.  Part-timers should be pro-rated.

 

TEXTBOOKS
 
We heard some information on the implementation of one small apect of the 2008 Higher Education Reauthorization Act, which asks universities to make a maximum effort to provide students with information about textbook prices during class registration.  The intent is to assist students to find cheaper books. This provision is due to take effect on July 1, 2010. The DOE is not required to issue regulations, but has announced they will provide a guidance letter.  The law does not state any penalities, but is a "sense of the Congress" resolution.
 
NEA successfully fought a provision that required use of the cheapest textbook for a course.  Moreover, NEA was instrumental in adding language which specifically protects academic freedom.  We have a right to use our expertise to choose the best book for our students.   As I warned some COHE members at the time, we are likely to see some local administrations ask for textbook orders even earlier than usual.  There was some concern that contigent faculty may not know they are teaching the class until well after the registration period.
ON A RELATED NOTE ...
 

Open Textbooks

 

One of the conference display tables was staffed by students with the Open Textbooks initiative http://www.studentpirgs.org/open-textbooks.  They informed me that their research shows that students spend nearly $900 per year on texts and as we know these prices have risen higher than inflation.  Also, they report one survey that more than 75% of students prefer a traditional printed text as compared to an e-text.  So, they promote innovative publication models, including specific publishers like Flat World Knowledge, who use flexible licensing.  Hence they offer free e-texts and low-price print copies (usually $20 to $40).  In many cases, the faculty-author has given up any royalty rights.