Lane Community College Education Association

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team is pleased to announce an agreement reached with the College today regarding impacts and savings resulting from SB551. (See below.) The agreement provides for: building a strong foundation for ongoing collaboration with HR toward mutual interests in expanding diverse representation among the faculty; ensuring that part-time faculty receive affordable healthcare; restoring some long-lost compensated non-instructional time for contracted faculty; and providing additional compensated time for part-time faculty. The agreement is made possible through new funding provided by the Oregon legislature – please thank your legislators for their support of community colleges and part-time faculty!

The agreement will:

• Generously meet college needs by providing 10% of savings for administrative implementation costs;
• Effective January 1, 2022*, increase College contributions for part-time faculty selecting employee plus spouse/partner or children and full-family insurance to 90% and 95% of medical costs respectively;
• Retroactive to Summer 2021, modify eligibility language to ensure that PT faculty do not lose insurance only to qualify again during a subsequent term;
• Beginning with the 2022-2023 academic year, add either one or one and a half** compensated days to the contracted faculty work year, restoring 1 – 1.5 of the remaining furlough days that had become permanent with one half day reserved for class prep and the remainder for assessment activities;
• Beginning with the 2022-2023 academic year, add eight or twelve** hours of inservice/ meeting/workshop compensation for part-time faculty with four or eight** of the hours reserved for use for assessment activities;
• Provide $20,000 to a fund for course curriculum development focused on on diversity, equity, and inclusion to be administered by Faculty Professional Development; and
• Establish a justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion faculty fellowship program which will add no less than two full-time temporary contracted positions each year with a pathway to permanency for fellowship faculty and expanded support for professional development and retention of faculty from historically underrepresented groups, including $20,000 for Faculty Professional Development for this purpose.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team:

Kelly Collins

Joseph Colton

Adrienne Mitchell

Nancy Wood

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team met with the College on Tuesday and again yesterday for bargaining regarding the impacts of SB551, new legislation and funding for part-time faculty healthcare.

Each party has made updated proposals (see below) that bring us closer to an agreement. Two additional bargaining sessions are scheduled for next week. 

LCCEA presented a new proposal yesterday, which will:

• Generously meet college needs by providing 10% of savings for administrative implementation costs;
• Increase College contributions for part-time faculty selecting employee plus spouse/partner or children and full-family insurance to 90% and 95% of medical costs respectively;
• Modify eligibility language to ensure that PT faculty do not lose insurance only to qualify again during a subsequent term;
• Add one and a half compensated days to the contracted faculty work year, restoring 1.5 of the remaining furlough days that had become permanent with one day dedicated to assessment activities and one additional half day for class preparation;
• Add twelve hours of inservice/ meeting/workshop compensation for part-time faculty (four for PT faculty working in Fall and eight for PT faculty working in Winter) with eight of the hours reserved for use for assessment activities;
• Provide $40,000 to a fund for course curriculum development focused on on diversity, equity, and inclusion to be administered by Faculty Professional Development; and
• Establish a justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion faculty fellowship program which will add no less than two full-time temporary contracted positions each year with a pathway to permanency for fellowship faculty and expanded support for professional development and retention of faculty from historically underrepresented groups.

We look forward to reaching an agreement with the College before the end of next week, in time to ensure that the full $500,000-$700,000 will indeed be received from the new state fund. 

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team:

Kelly Collins

Joseph Colton

Adrienne Mitchell

Nancy Wood

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team met with the College on November 18 for a brief discussion and again yesterday regarding the impacts of SB551, new legislation and funding for part-time faculty healthcare.

We are happy to report that the College did finally make a proposal (below) in good faith late on Thursday. While there are some items in the proposal that are not acceptable such as a provision that would require that some of the savings first pay for hypothetical insurance rate increases for all employee groups before provision of any savings for the benefit of faculty, the College proposal, overall, does represent a good first step toward agreement. For instance, the College did agree to LCCEA-proposed language for increasing PT faculty eligibility for insurance coverage and for increasing College contributions to insurance coverage for family members of PT faculty.

In turn, LCCEA presented an updated proposal (see below) yesterday. The current LCCEA proposal will:

• Meet college needs by providing 5% of savings for administrative implementation costs;
• Increase College contributions for part-time faculty selecting employee plus spouse/partner or children and full-family insurance to 90% and 95% of medical costs respectively;
• Modify eligibility language to ensure that PT faculty do not lose insurance only to qualify again during a subsequent term;
• Add one compensated day to the contracted faculty work year, restoring one of the remaining furlough days that had become permanent;
• Add twelve hours of inservice/ meeting/workshop compensation for part-time faculty (four for PT faculty working in Fall and eight for PT faculty working in Winter);
• Provide $40,000 to a fund for course curriculum development focused on on diversity, equity, and inclusion to be administered by Faculty Professional Development; and
• In order to meet student needs, dedicate all remaining savings to increase PT and/or FT faculty counseling staffing, which is direly needed and which was highly prioritized by faculty at-large in the LCCEA all faculty survey this month.

We currently have bargaining sessions scheduled twice per week for the next two weeks and look forward to reaching an agreement with the College in time to ensure that the full $500,000-$700,000 will indeed be received from the new state fund. 

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team:

Kelly Collins

Joseph Colton

Adrienne Mitchell

Nancy Wood

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Please find below a statement from the LCCEA Racial Equity and Social Justice with recommendations for recruitment and retention of BIPOC Faculty.

Recommendations for Recruitment and Retention of BIPOC Faculty

The Committee on Racial Equity and Social Justice has been working to envision a future for a more just campus, including concrete strategies for increasing recruitment and retention of BIPOC faculty. The Committee presents these strategies as a matter of public concern with recommendations to: raise awareness of challenges to recruitment and retention, give voice to faculty concerns, and present concrete ideas for a future that is more inclusive and equitable for the benefit of the students, Lane Community College, and the entire community. 

The LCCEA Committee on Racial Equity and Social Justice calls for the implementation of the following action items in order to increase recruitment and retention of faculty from diverse backgrounds, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) faculty.

Recruitment

1. Expand/amend protected classes in Board Policy 505 (Affirmative Action) to include: first language(s), socioeconomic status, and LGBTQI status. Expand definition of diverse workforce to include LGBTQi, non-binary identities.
2. Establish Diversity Recruitment Plan to include targeted recruitment at colleges and universities that have a relatively high percentage of minority graduate students with progress toward recruitment and retention goals reviewed on an ongoing basis, no less than annually.
3. Expand scope of the College Affirmative Action (AA) plan; add Board of Education annual review and approval of plan, plan metrics, and assessment of progress. 
   1. Ensure that the annual AA Plan consists of three overarching components: 
      1. an annual focus which is measurable, rigorous, progressive, aggressive, and timely;
      2. a 3-year focus which is more strategic with specific goals to achieve, and; 
      3. a 5-year plan with projected outcomes. Ensure significant effort and dedicated resources are used to quantifiably and statistically increase the AA “Protected Classes” which are underrepresented at the College.
4. Post all contracted faculty positions according to standard academic hiring cycle and  within a reasonable timeframe in advance of Fall term.
5. Add a requirement to post to at least 5 publications and/or services that actively promote or recruit diverse applicant pools for every contracted faculty position.
6. Establish a new requirement to extend recruitment time if the candidate pool is not sufficiently diverse and provide annual report on candidate pools, interview recipients, and faculty hires.
7. Provide access to interviews for part-time faculty seeking contracted positions who are members of protected classes under AA plan.
8. Establish and implement a diversity faculty fellowship program with the first year for fellowship awardees, a career pathway for faculty from underrepresented ethnic minority groups to move to FT positions,enhanced professional development funding, and appropriate workloads to facilitate professional development.
9. Establish an internship/mentorship program for potential faculty who have career technical experience especially in trades but no teaching experience; explore partnerships (e.g. Oregon community colleges, K12, UO, OSU, PSU) to promote K12 and community college teacher hires in CTE after internship at LCC.
10. Remove barriers to moving to Lane County for newly recruited faculty of color (e.g., moving stipends).
11. Ensure that all levels of management and upper administration positions include strong representation of ethnic minorities and members of the LGBTQi community, including through: required external posting of all positions, required internal posting of all interim positions, and interim positions limited to twelve months.
12. Review and revise hiring policies and practices for systemic racism and disparate impact (e.g. newly implemented criminal background check prior to hire, implementation of hiring bias training, consideration of blind review processes.) 
13. Discontinuation of favoritism and any/all practices that do not provide equitable opportunities, which includes all steps within hiring practices starting with formation of search committees and creation of job postings. (Please see expanded definition of this item in document in front of you.)
    1. Posting of all internal faculty leadership and coordination positions for all qualified faculty to apply.
    2. Discontinuation of the provision of contracted faculty overloads that displace part-time faculty.
    3. Prior to providing overloads to contracted faculty, provision of  the opportunity for assignments to all qualified part-time faculty.

Retention

1. Consider Loan Forgiveness as a tool for recruitment and retention. 
2. Promote opportunities and professional development for employees from ethnic minority groups, including expanded funding for additional degrees and leadership development opportunities.
3. Appropriate workload consideration for any/all bilingual/multilingual faculty who use these skills in faculty work, including tribal languages and ASL teachers. 
4. Provision of trained mentors with diverse racial, ethnic, and/or linguistic backgrounds for new BIPOC faculty. 
5. Funding for regular collaboration opportunities for faculty of color, LGBTQi+, or other marginalized communities, who are isolated in departments or disciplines with few/no other teachers of diverse backgrounds.
6. Appropriate workload considerations in recognition of the additional work (e.g. committee service and student mentorship) BIPOC faculty do.
7. Adoption of a restorative justice model (with adequate education and professional development) in dealing with bias, discrimination, and related complaints, especially ones affecting BIPOC, LGBTQi, and other underrepresented populations.
8. Provision of mediation upon request when cultural insensitivity, bias, and/or microaggressions have led to concerns and/or conflict affecting ethnic minority faculty. (Please see expanded definition of this item in document in front of you.)
   1. Mediation by third-party, external, and culturally literate, professional mediators. Qualified, culturally literate college employees with mediation expertise and experience have the opportunity to serve as mediators with appropriate workload consideration. 
   2. The person who experienced the negative behavior or microaggressions has the opportunity to choose internal peer facilitation or external mediators.
   3. The person who experienced the negative behavior or microaggressions has the opportunity to move or request the move of the other party (e.g. to a different office,  reporting structure, or alternative team structure). 
   4. Assurance that no person experiencing cultural insensitivity, bias, and/or microaggressions may be demoted, financially penalized, or face any retribution.
   5. Appropriate workload consideration for peer facilitation (e.g. culturally competent counselors) in response to bias incidents. 
9. Equitable provision of leave time to accommodate family care needs and bereavement
10. Appropriate definition of family to be more inclusive of extended and non-traditional relationships.
11. Expanded list of paid holidays to be more inclusive (e.g. Juneteenth, Indigenous People’s Day, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and Kwanzaa.) 
12. Assurance that faculty from diverse backgrounds within disciplines receive course assignments, recognition as faculty, salary schedule placement equity, and compensation consistent with the faculty contract.
13. Retirement incentives prior to and in order to obviate layoffs stemming from budgetary concerns. Recognizing that most, but not all, program cuts result not in layoffs but in contracted faculty transfers to other disciplines that they are qualified to teach, it is important to encourage faculty professional development, and provide additional, funded professional development for faculty seeking certification in a discipline outside their primary teaching area in lieu of layoff.
14. Expansion of requirements and funding for Cultural Competence Professional Development. 

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team met with the College on October 28 and again November 4 regarding the impacts of SB551, new legislation and funding for part-time faculty healthcare.

The new funding available to LCC will amount to approximately $500,000 – $700,000 per year, according to both LCCEA and College estimates. As you may be aware, savings resulting from this bill are reserved for labor relations under the law. The reason savings are reserved for negotiations under the law is because these funds were already bargained and included within our contract. In addition, every time that there have been savings resulting from changes to insurance at LCC, those savings have been returned to employees.

Since our last update to all faculty, the College and Association had one highly positive, collaborative bargaining session followed by one in which the College reiterated their position that they will not negotiate with faculty at this time.

On October 28, the College and LCCEA had an interest based discussion, which seemed highly productive and encouraging in which the College indicated that there would be potential for an agreement that: utilizes savings to expand PT faculty insurance eligibility; makes insurance more affordable for PT faculty electing insurance for family members; and dedicates remaining savings to invest in faculty for the benefit of students.

However, on November 4, the College began the bargaining session stating that they would be unwilling to negotiate until March 2022. 

Given that it would be unlawful under both the PECBA and SB 551 for the College to refuse to negotiate when the parties are required to do so, LCCEA presented a new proposal, which is entirely aligned with what the College requested just one week earlier. In addition, LCCEA reiterated our expectation that the College adhere to its obligation to bargain, which means that the College must not only attend meetings but must actually negotiate and make proposals. 

The LCCEA proposal (see below) will:

• Increase College contributions for part-time faculty selecting employee plus spouse/partner or children and full-family insurance to 90% and 95% of medical costs respectively;
• Modify eligibility language to ensure that PT faculty do not lose insurance only to qualify again during a subsequent term;
• Add one compensated day to the contracted faculty work year, restoring one of the seven remaining furlough days that had become permanent after the 2009 recession;
• Add sixteen hours of inservice/ meeting/workshop compensation for part-time faculty (eight for PT faculty working in Fall and eight for PT faculty working in Winter);
• Provide $40,000 to a fund for course curriculum development focused on on diversity, equity, and inclusion to be administered by Faculty Professional Development; and
• Dedicate any remaining savings to add compensated time for both contracted and part-time faculty.

In addition, in order to maximize the reimbursements to LCC, the College and Association must reach an agreement that will streamline the process for automatically designating LCC as the “home institution” for eligible part-time faculty (with an opt-out option for rare instances, if any, of part-time faculty electing a different public institution of higher education). 

Otherwise, we (collectively — both the college and faculty) stand to lose $500,000-$700,000 per year. The first deadline to submit paperwork to the state in order to receive the funds is right around the corner. 

Because this matter is time-sensitive and could result in a tremendous loss of state funding without an agreement, LCCEA has requested mediation to help facilitate productive negotiations. At this stage in bargaining, both parties must agree, and we await the College response as to whether they are willing to participate in mediation.

We continue to struggle to understand why the College changes its position every time that we meet and are disappointed in the College’s unwillingness to bargain in good faith. 

We do hope that the College will consider in earnest the request for mediation and recognize that collaborating with the faculty is of great benefit, particularly in this circumstance where additional funding is available and fully accessible only through an agreement.

Proposal

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team:

Kelly Collins

Joseph Colton

Adrienne Mitchell

Nancy Wood