Tuesday, July 31, 2012

KVCCFT MEMBERSHIP MEETING

A meeting has been scheduled for all KVCCFT members:

Wednesday, August 29, 2012
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Room 8570; TTC

The agenda will include, survey results, the slate of officers, and presentation of proposed bylaws.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Chronicle of Higher Education
July 9, 2012

NEA Votes to Press Labor Dept. on Unemployment Benefits for Adjuncts
By Peter Schmidt

Washington

Adjunct instructors achieved a significant victory within the National
Education Association last week as the union's Representative Assembly
overwhelmingly voted to urge the U.S. Department of Labor to help secure
unemployment benefits for contingent faculty who lack jobs.

In the long term, the Assembly's vote offers adjunct faculty members
hope of much more easily collecting unemployment benefits during periods
when they are not teaching and their prospects for future work remain
uncertain.

In the short term, the vote represents a major win for adjuncts in their
struggle to gain more visibility in the nation's largest teachers union,
where they make up a small fraction of the Assembly and the overall
membership.

The measure, passed by the Assembly at the union's annual meeting here
last week, calls for the NEA to collaborate with its Contingent Faculty
Caucus to ask the Labor Department to issue a letter clarifying that
contingent faculty members who are out of work lack "reasonable
assurance" of being employed by their colleges in the future. The
measure calls for the Contingent Faculty Caucus to suggest language for
the Labor Department to use in the letter, which the NEA and adjuncts
want the department to issue as an advisory connected with the agency's
unemployment-insurance program.

Contingent faculty members, who generally work on contracts covering a
semester or an academic year, often have difficulty receiving
unemployment benefits, especially during the summer months, because the
colleges that had employed them say there is a chance they will be
rehired. Advocates for adjunct faculty members argue that federal
unemployment-insurance guidelines, written to keep full-time professors
and schoolteachers from exploiting the system, fail to take into account
the uncertainty of continued employment for adjuncts, who may see
prospective jobs disappear at the last minute due to lower-than-expected
class enrollments and other factors outside their control.

Adjunct faculty members in the National Education Association formed the
Contingent Faculty Caucus three years ago partly in hopes that such an
organized body might have better luck than individual faculty members in
getting the national union to take up issues of importance to adjuncts.

Although the caucus accounted for only about 30 of the roughly 8,000
delegates at this year's Assembly, the measure drew no significant
resistance and passed overwhelmingly in a voice vote. The measure had
been endorsed by the National Council for Higher Education, which
represents members who work at colleges and sets the NEA's
higher-education agenda.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Friday, July 13, 2012

Mark Your Calendars

There will be a mass meeting for ALL KVCCFT members on 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.

The agenda and location will be posted at a later date.

Attention Part-Time Faculty

When KVCCFT won the right to organize, it did not automatically make all part-time faculty, members of the union.  Becoming a member of the union is a choice.  The only part-time KVCCFT members are those who have signed yellow membership cards.  If you are interested in becoming a member, gaining a voice, and taking part in decision making you must join officially.  In order to do so, contact one of the stewards.

KVCCFT Leadership Team

The following are the stewards for the various departments on all Kalamazoo Valley Community College Campuses.  If you have questions, comments, or concerns please contact your assigned steward.

John Badham:  (Automotive, Construction, Drafting, Welding, Electrical, Heating/Ventilation, Air Conditioning, Machine Tool)

Catherine Barnard:  (Anna Whitten Hall)

Paula Chee:  (Business)

Peggy Ezell:  (Humanities)

Frank Gryzebyk:  (History: Political Science)

Tom Hamann:  (Center for New Media)

Christopher Karbowski: (Transitional Studies; English)

Jackie Neil:  (Wellness and Physical Education)

Kelly O'Leary: (Foreign Language)

Carol Roe:  (Dental Hygiene; Medical Assistant Technology; Respiratory Care; Health Careers; Nutrition)

Jean Snow:  (Psychology; Sociology; Law Enforcement)

John Tucker:  (CIS; Accounting)

Carol Weatherford:  (English; Communication)


KVCCFT Membership


Many have ask about KVCCFT membership eligibility.  The following should clarify who may and may not become a member:

All employees appointed by the Employer as part-time faculty. 
Part-time faculty are those who: 
1. Have been appointed to teach at least 1 credit hour in the current academic year 
2. Are not represented by the KVCC Faculty Association (AAUP). 
3. Are engaged in the following teaching/instructional duties: course development, including syllabus preparation; in-class teaching/lecturing and/or on-line instruction (and preparation therefore); grading/student evaluation; office hours; and advising.


Those excluded from membership:
1. Those enrolled as students at KVCC, unless they possess an appropriate degree in the subject they teach.
2. Employees in the following classifications: lab assistants (including computer lab assistants, wind turbine lab assistants), lab coordinators, models, tutors, police academy parapros, special assignment staff/interns (including lab assistants, corrections academy and HVAC), and hourly-paid (not paid on a credit-hour basis) clinicians and others filling instructional roles in KVCC?s EMT and Police Academy programs.
3. Full-time KVCC employees whose primary non-teaching/instructional position involves ancillary instructional duties for which the employee receives no additional compensation.
4. Volunteers and others who engage in teaching/instructional duties but receive no monetary compensation.
5. Advisors, Coaches, Coordinators, Managers/Supervisors, Confidential employees, and all other employees.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Steward's Meeting

Friday, July 13, 2012
10 a.m. - 3 p.m
Parkview Hills Clubhouse
3707 Greenleaf Circle
Kalamazoo, MI