COHE Bargaining Report #1
December 14, 2010
Greetings!

 
Meeting

Today, COHE bargainers met with BOR representatives at Al's Oasis in Oacoma from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.  The COHE team was led by myself and five members of the Negotiating Committee: Dan Talley (DSU), David Boyles (SDSM&T), Kathie Courtney (NSU), Leroy Meyer (USD), and Tim Martinez (BHSU).   Loren Paul, the SDEA UniServ Director for Higher Education, staffed our side.  Two COHE members served as observers: Alan Aldrich (USD) and Susan Gibson (SDSU). 


The BOR side was led by BOR General Counsel Jim Shekleton assisted by Sam Gingerich, System Vice President for Academic Affairs.  Paul Turman, System Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, also attended.


I presented this opening statement.   Jim Shekleton offered some general rationale for their proposals (which I hope to type up and send out sometime soon).   Then, COHE bargainers asked questions about the BOR Proposals, which can be found here.  (COHE Members: please note these are the revised proposals I sent this past weekend, which are different than the previous ones distributed to you in October.) 


COHE bargainers asked about these topics:

 Grievances (proposed changes in Articles 7 and 15) lead by David Boyles and assisted by Dan Talley.

 Twelve Month Payout (Article 8) lead by Dan Talley and assisted by Tim Martinez.

 Two-Tiered Faculty Ranks (Articles 9, 19 and other places) lead by Tim Martinez and assisted by Gary Aguiar.


On our side, we modeled shared governance and professional competency, as COHE does in all its decisions.  You can be very proud of these three men, who performed admirably by asking pointed questions and offering well-reasoned rebuttals to these proposals!  The rest of us struggled to bite our tongues.  I noticed whenever I wanted to press a point, the bargainer on that issue eventually made the same point or asked the same question I wanted to, but in a much more articulate fashion.  Great work, guys!


We did not have time to ask about these topics:

 Intellectual Property, Conflict of Interest, Consulting - Ron Utecht

 Librarian Ranks - yet to be assigned

 Performance Evaluation, PDP and replacement of Appendix G - Tim Martinez, Gary Aguiar

 Promotion and Tenure - Ed Allen, Leroy Meyers

Office Equipment, Educational Materials, Fringe Benefits Committee, Electronic Notification, Duration - Kathie Courtney, Gary Aguiar

 Removal of negotiated appendices from bargaining and into policy - Gary Aguiar


I ended with a broad critique of the lack of shared governance or even much respect for faculty by administrators and the BOR.   I pleaded with the BOR representatives that demoralized faculty want to support the BOR in their efforts to improve higher education in South Dakota, but we are looking for some additional reward.  Of course, we understand that it will not be a financial incentive in these times, but the faculty want real movement on the part of the BOR to empower faculty. We want true shared governance where faculty have the primary role in personnel and curriculum.  In my view, the BOR representatives still do not get it!   Either they do not understand or do not care about the depth of faculty demoralization.


COHE will hold a general membership meeting on January 4, 2011, beginning at 11:30 a.m. at Al's Oasis in Oacoma.   All dues-paying members are invited to attend.   At this meeting, we will begin to formulate our response to the BOR proposals.  On January 5, 2011, COHE will present our proposals to the BOR at our second bargaining session and ask our remaining questions in Pierre.


If you are not a member of COHE, I strongly urge you to consider joining now, so you can become fully informed about the issues.  Dues-paying members receive this kind of information in a regular and timely fashion. Moreover, we take COHE members' views seriously.  Of course, we value each bargaining unit member's perspectives and find that we usually share the same views.   One example of this commonality is reflected in the similar results to the surveys completed by COHE and non-COHE members.  By the way, I will be sharing the results of those surveys and our proposals after we present them to the BOR.


Sincerely,

Gary Aguiar

President, COHE