MSCA/Salem Chapter Newsletter
May 29, 2001

President's Message - Paul F. McGee

Committee Appointments
At the MSCA/Salem Chapter Executive Committee held May 22, 2001 it was voted to recommend the following members to serve on the committees indicated:

Contract Committees

Curriculum Committee
Area A
Clara W. Boyle (NUR)
Area B
Greg Thaller (MUS)
Benjamin Gross (ART)

Academic Policies
Area B
John Volpacchio (ART)
Susan Edwards (LIB)
Area C
Theresa M. Lyons (PSY)

Library/Media Development
Betty Dole (LIB)

Non-Contract Committees

Council on Teaching and Learning
Elizabeth P. Coughlan (POL)
Kathleen L. Skrabut (NUR)
Lucinda Damon-Bach (ENG)
Clarke Fowler (EDU)
Maryann McGovern (NUR)
Todd Wimpfheimer (CHE) one-year term

Foreign Language Waiver
Maureen McCabe (FL)

Academic Computing
One (1) vacancy - no nominations

Congratulations and thank you for your valuable participation.

Grievance Officer
Grievance Officer Bill Mahaney will be unavailable from June 22 - July 29, 2001. Please call (978) 542-6366 with any questions or concerns. For immediate action, please call Paul McGee, President, Salem Chapter at (781) 665-5092.

Nominations Needed for Search Committee
Nominations are open for two (2) unit members to be appointed to serve on the search committee for Staff Assistant, Information Technology/Human Services Technology Coordinator.

This person is responsible for the technological support of the School of Education and School of Human Services as it relates to faculty, students, and designated computer labs. This committee will hold meetings during June/July 2001.

Please respond by Monday, June 4, 2001 by calling the MSCA/Salem Chapter office at x 6366.

Post Tenure Reviews
The post-tenure review lottery was held on Thursday, May 24, 2001 for all unit members who were last evaluated for promotion or tenure during the 1993/1994 academic year. Each unit member will be notified by the Academic Affairs office of when their post-tenure review is scheduled.

For those unit members whose last evaluation was during the 1994/1995 academic year, you will have your post-tenure review evaluation scheduled this coming academic year. Notifications will be announced shortly. For these two groups, the review will include only those accomplishments from Sept. 1, 1997 to the present.

Academic Affairs will assess the time of past personnel actions for all other unit members and inform them later this summer of the year of their review.

Any person who takes a binding action to resign or retire, effective no later than the end of the year during which he or she is to be evaluated, will not be evaluated during that year.

A Message from MTA…. Senate Budget Lobbying & Grassroots Organizing
MTA is lobbying the state senate to increase funding for higher education in the budget the Senate will release next month. As we did in the House, MTA is coordinating its work with the college presidents and their representatives.

Additionally, MTA is continuing its work with the public employee labor coalition lobbying state senators to reject the Governor's proposal to increase health insurance costs for state employees from 15% to 25% (a $600-$1300 increase).

Historically we have found greater support in the Senate than the House for funding public higher education. This year could prove somewhat different. The Senate maintains that the version of the state budget passed by the House is under-funded by at least $100 million. Others have estimated that the gap could be as large as $300 million.

This means that the ability and the willingness of the Senate to fully support college presidents' funding requests might be less this year than in past years. Therefore, it is much more important this year than in the recent past, that we encourage MTA members to contact their legislators and ask their assistance in increasing the funding for public higher ed.

Toward this goal, MTA will run phone-banks this week to all our higher ed members living in the districts represented by the members of the Senate Ways & Means Committee. Our message will ask MTA members to call their state senators on Ways & Means and urge their support for increased campus and library funding.

While we are focusing our phone-banking on the Senate Ways & Means Committee, it is equally important that we ask our members in ALL districts to call their state senators and ask their support for increased campus and library budgets.

MTA's efforts to defeat the health insurance premium increase proved significant in the House. Our work on this issue with the public employee coalition is again finding fertile ground in the Senate. Nonetheless, it is useful to have our members weigh in with their state senators on this issue as well.

News from the Treasurer… Susan Sturgeon, MSCA/Salem Chapter
I am pleased to report that the Executive Committee has recommended no local dues increase for the 2001-2002 academic year.

There has been no local dues increase for as long as the current and previous Treasurers can remember, at least 10 years.

A Commendation
To: Salem State College Faculty Unit Members
From: Salem State College MSCA Chapter Executive Board
Date: 27 April 2001

The Salem State College MSCA Chapter Executive Board commends the faculty from this local who have served in the past round of contract negotiations. The Day Contract team has worked especially hard and long on our behalf during tediously protracted negotiations. In the end, they helped to secure a strong and just contract, with significant compensation. The DGCE team negotiations succeeded in securing a timely contract which breaks new ground in faculty rank and improves on the previous agreement.

Your colleagues who have been involved in these negotiations are:

Patricia Markunas, Paul McGee, William E. Mahaney, John McHale, John Steele and Thomas Luddy