At today’s negotiations meeting with the District, we presented our counterproposal for Article 16, continuing to seek middle ground related to coverage of TB clearance for all faculty. Our initial proposals to remove the full-time employee contribution for Delta Dental PPO and allow part-time faculty to buy into Delta Dental PPO were unable to be agreed on this round while the District waits for the insurer to assess any impacts to the cost structure. We have requested that the Benefits Committee pursue this as soon as possible in the hopes that we can make improvements to our dental coverage in upcoming years. We expect a counterproposal from the District at our next meeting.
We also presented an MOU to pilot a faculty chair position for DRC, as requested by DRC faculty. As one of the few remaining departments without a faculty chair, and in the absence of a Director, the need for a faculty chair has become even more emergent. We expect a response from the District at our next meeting.
The District presented their initial proposal for Article 8, which reflected their interest in ensuring that online class caps meet student need by increasing some online class caps. The current language is that online caps are 42 or the face-to-face cap, whichever is lower. We had lengthy discussion with the District and will be examining our options for counterproposals that reflect the evolving nature of online instruction and protect pedagogical expertise. The District also presented an MOU related to large class compensation for classes with caps over 42. We will counter at our next meeting.
Discussion topics at today’s meeting included our request that the District present draft academic calendars for 2025/26, 2026/27, and 2027/28 in the interest of negotiating those calendars before the end of this academic year; requesting that PT librarian and counselor payroll reflects recent language that they be paid at their instructional hourly rate for primary duties; a request for follow-up clarification on the District’s counterproposal for Article 4; and issues affecting some faculty’s initial step placement.
We met with the District earlier this week for continued class caps negotiations. Progress remains slow and inefficient, particularly for the outstanding areas in the MSE division. We have another meeting scheduled at the end of November and hope that more substantive progress can be made on the outstanding departments still under discussion. The new request form for class caps changes will be sent to FT faculty in the next few months, as our interest is to have a “clean” and updated primary class cap list to work from with new requests.
Our next class caps negotiation meeting will be on 11/29 and our next regular negotiations meeting with the District will be on 11/30.