ARTICLE III: USE OF COLLEGE FACILITIES

A. THE ASSOCIATION

1. Upon a request in writing made to the President of a College, the Association or any Chapter thereof shall have the right to meet at such College if appropriate facilities are available. All requests must be received at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to the time requested for the meeting. The parties agree not to schedule meetings involving members of the bargaining unit which would conflict with any previously scheduled meetings or regularly scheduled classes. The parties intend that this provision shall not be deemed to prevent the reasonable scheduling of Association meetings or to permit interference with the normal conduct of College affairs.

2. The Association shall be provided with an office on each campus with a desk, chair, and filing cabinet, reasonable use of an intra-College telephone, and a separate campus mailbox, for the purpose of contract administration.

3. The President of each College shall assign at least two (2) bulletin boards for the exclusive use of the Association for the purpose of posting Association notices concerning the administration of the provisions of this Agreement.

4. The Association shall be permitted to use the intra-College mail system for the distribution of Association communications.

5. The Association and members of the bargaining unit shall be entitled to make reasonable use of such telephones as may from time to time be available in their respective department for the purposes of local and intra-College communication of official Association or departmental business.

B. MEMBERS OF THE BARGAINING UNIT

1. Each faculty member shall have office space, a desk and chair, use of a closet or its equivalent, space in a file cabinet, and reasonable access to an intra-College telephone. The Board hereby further agrees that it shall continue to provide at each College such number of private offices for unit members as exist at each such College on the date of execution of this Agreement.

2. The parties recognize the desirability of permitting members of the bargaining unit to have access to unit members’ offices and work areas twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week. The parties further recognize the necessity for maintaining the security of all College properties and buildings. The parties therefore agree that procedures shall be established to permit bargaining unit members to have such access to their offices and work areas, but agree that such access shall be subject to any applicable rules and regulations that may be in effect from time to time at each College for the purpose of maintaining such security.

3. The Board shall continue to maintain available secretarial and/or clerical assistance for the use of unit members in connection with the proper discharge of their duties. The parties recognize that this undertaking is made subject to the actual availability of secretarial and/or clerical assistance at each College as that availability may exist from time to time. Necessary secretarial assistance shall be provided to unit members to whom the Vice President assigns responsibility for the preparation of accreditation reports, institutional reviews, work in the educational advising center, and other similar duties.

4. Essential teaching supplies such as paper, examination books, chalk and like materials, and stationery for use in College business, subject to the availability of the same, shall, upon request, be provided in reasonable amounts to members of the bargaining unit.

At each College, up to fifty (50) laboratory coats shall be provided at no cost to those faculty teaching in laboratories and in the industrial and fine arts. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Boards shall not be required to expend more than Three Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($3,500.00) cumulatively, at the State Colleges, for the purpose of providing such coats.

5. To the extent that the same are now provided in the existing buildings of each College, the Board shall continue to provide in each such building that is used by members of the bargaining unit in the discharge of their responsibilities each of the following, namely:

a. Clean, separate restrooms and lavatories for male and female unit members; and

b. A faculty lounge furnished with appropriate lounge furniture.

In addition thereto the Board shall continue to provide sufficient typewriter, duplicating and computer equipment in good repair for the use of members of the bargaining unit, and shall do so in a manner that maintains typewriting, duplicating and computing services at a level not less than that which exists immediately prior to the date of execution of this Agreement.

6. The Board shall provide service for the distribution of all unit members’ mail throughout the calendar year. During the months of June, July and August, the Board shall forward the first-class mail of any unit member who shall have submitted a written request for that purpose to the business office of the respective College, which request shall state the address to which such mail is to be forwarded.

7. The Board shall provide and maintain at each College properly surfaced parking facilities without cost for members of the bargaining unit, such parking facilities to be located as close as is practicable to the appropriate teaching and/or work areas of bargaining unit members. The Board further agrees that the number of designated unit member’s parking spaces shall be at least equal to the number of parking spaces presently used by bargaining unit members.

New, secured and specified parking facilities may be established where they do not now exist upon the agreement of the President of the College and the Chapter President, and subject to the prior approval of the Chair of the Council of Presidents and the President of the Association.

At those Colleges where on the date of execution of this Agreement there exist secured parking facilities for the use of bargaining unit members, rules and regulations pertaining to such facilities in effect on the date of execution of this Agreement shall not be altered or amended without the prior agreement of the Association.

Notwithstanding the foregoing there shall be reserved at each College preferred unit member parking spaces for those unit members who are handicapped or otherwise disabled, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 5 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth.

In addition, each College shall maintain a system of parking stickers which shall be issued upon request to bargaining unit members annually at a cost for the sticker of not more than $1.00. No additional sticker charge shall be made at secured facilities. Bargaining unit members shall maintain parking stickers on vehicles used by them in all parking facilities.

The College agrees to enforce rules prohibiting the unauthorized use of such designated facilities.

In addition, if the designated areas are filled or be otherwise unavailable, bargaining unit members shall be permitted to park in spaces other than those so designated for unit members whenever such unit member’s vehicle has a unit member parking sticker affixed thereto.

8. The Board shall maintain reasonable security for instructional equipment, libraries and offices. The Board shall honor unit members’ expectation of privacy in campus areas such as their offices, the offices of the Association, restrooms and locker rooms, and shall not use surveillance technology in such areas except as necessary for criminal investigations and in accordance with judicial standards. Additionally, no surveillance technology shall be used in classrooms, studios, laboratories, or meeting rooms except as necessary for criminal investigations and in accordance with judicial standards.

9. Members of the bargaining unit shall have access to computer terminals at the College at which they are employed for the purpose of discharging their duties hereunder, provided that such access shall be governed by any applicable rules and regulations in effect from time to time at such College regarding the use of any such terminal. No such terminal shall be used for Association business.

10. All unit member work areas shall be cleaned regularly.

11. Part-time members shall have the use of college facilities to the extent that the same were provided at each College on June 30, 2001.

12. The rights to intellectual property as between any member of the bargaining unit and any College, the Council or the Commonwealth shall be governed by the applicable provisions of state and federal law and, if there be any, by the applicable provisions of any agreement made between such member of the bargaining unit and any College.

C. SAFETY PROCEDURES

The Boards shall comply with any and every applicable statute, federal and state, and with any such rules and regulations as may be promulgated thereunder, that govern the conditions of health and safety in the place of work of its employees. Each College may promulgate and enforce any such rules and regulations as it may deem appropriate from time to time to provide for the safety of its employees and to ensure compliance with any such statute or with the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder. Prior to the promulgation of any such rules or regulations by the College, the President of the College shall first consult with the Chapter President regarding such rules and regulations and their enforcement; provided, however, that such consultation shall not be required in respect of any such rules and regulations in force at any College on the date of execution of this Agreement.

Whenever, upon the recommendation of the Director, Library, or Library Program Area Chair, as may be appropriate, the Vice President shall have determined that the work environment in the Library or a portion thereof shall be intolerable, he/she shall take such steps as may be practical to provide alternative work areas for the performance of the unit member’s contractual responsibilities.

Whenever any Board shall have been informed or shall have other cause to believe that any work location or part thereof is unsafe or unhealthy, it shall investigate the same and shall, as soon as may be practicable thereafter, take such steps as it deems necessary and appropriate to correct any unsafe or unhealthy condition that it determines actually to exist.

At the request of the Chapter President, the Board shall provide annual asbestosis tests, at no cost to any member of the bargaining unit, to those members of the bargaining unit who, while in the employ of the Board, have worked in buildings or other facilities where asbestos is or has been present. Members of the bargaining unit shall be provided information concerning test results promptly upon receipt of the information by the College.

Grievances involving the interpretation or application of the provisions of this Section may be processed through Step 2 of the Grievance Procedures set forth in Article XI of this Agreement but shall not be processed to Step 3 thereof.

Grievances not resolved at Step 2 may be submitted by the Association for consideration by the Employee Relations Committee established pursuant to Article II of this Agreement.

Consistently with the preservation of rights of privacy and the effective conduct of investigations by law enforcement personnel, the College shall, if the same are known to it, inform members of the bargaining unit of any threats made against their persons or property by any other member of the academic community.

#71989