Lane Community College Education Association

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

A few brief updates on changes to Fall plans since last week as we navigate the ongoing surge in COVID cases due to the Delta variant:

Social Distancing Restored for Fall Classes
The College has agreed to restore social distancing for Fall classes, which means that class capacities that had been increased over the past few weeks will be reduced to previous levels (i.e. 50% of classroom capacity) to ensure space for distancing for face-to-face instruction.

Vaccine Requirement Implementation
As you are likely aware, the Board of Education voted in July to require vaccines for students and employees participating in face-to-face activities at all LCC locations, allowing medical and non-medical exemptions. Faculty should complete the required form by September 14. Some concerns have arisen because the vaccine mandate forms do not require proof of vaccination status and allow philosophical and other exemptions. Effectively, this means that LCC will not be a “fully vaccinated campus.” 

LCCEF and LCCEA are working together in solidarity to address this gap in bargaining with proposals that require the publication of the campus vaccination rate weekly and safety measures tied to both public health guidelines and the campus vaccination rate. Publication of the campus vaccination rate will promote transparency and help galvanize efforts to increase the rate in order to help protect students and employees on campus as well as to promote public health in the broader community.

Please see the proposal below provided to the College by LCCEF and LCCEA today. The next Bargaining session is scheduled for Monday, August 23. Please join me in sending appreciation to faculty members Kelly Collins and Nancy Wood, whose service on your LCCEA Bargaining Team frequently requires several meetings per week.

Reminder — Flexible Workplace Arrangement Requests: Two Options
It is possible to request an ADA accommodation for remote work due to a faculty member’s own serious health condition. In addition, it is possible to request a flexible workplace arrangement due to concerns about household members, school/daycare issues, etc. Please see email from Sharon Daniel in HR to all LCC employees from May 11 at 5:24 p.m. (copied below), which provides more details on the process and links to forms to make requests for remote work. 

My best,
Adrienne

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

A brief update as COVID conditions, public health guidelines, and campus plans for Fall, continue to change —

External data and changing guidelines:
Please see a brief list of recent information reviewed by LCCEA, LCCEF, and the Covid Advisory Team.

1. CDC recommendation that all wear masks indoors, including fully vaccinated, in areas of substantial or high transmission (See: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html )
2. Lane County high transmission rate (See:https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view )
3. Data on highly contagious nature of Delta variant (See: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/delta-variant.html )
4. Oregon data: one in five COVID cases in July were in vaccinated people; one in ten deaths in vaccinated people: https://www.opb.org/article/2021/08/07/covid-19-oregon-cases-delta-variant-vaccine-health-authority/ and OHA Breakthrough Report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FzqDmjrZhXvqC538QhlzTe-fdomLme9W/view?usp=sharing 
5. Data on record number in ICU in Oregon as of yesterday: https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2021/08/oregons-coronavirus-icu-record-shattered-once-again-as-all-signs-point-to-out-of-control-5th-surge.html 

Evolving Plans, Contradictory Messages, and Bargaining:
As reported last week, LCCEA and LCCEF made a joint proposal based on shared interests for the campus community with additional provisions specific to the needs of each group. LCCEA and LCCEF representatives met together with the College yesterday to discuss the joint proposal. The College provided a counter proposal by email this morning (see below), and the three parties will meet again tomorrow. More information will be forthcoming from your LCCEA Bargaining Team. Please do not hesitate to reach out to any one of us: Kelly Collins, Nancy Wood, Cynthia Campos, or myself.

In the meantime, the Lane Weekly sent to all campus members today includes a link to an “Operational Framework” for Fall created by the Administration without input from stakeholder groups. 

Please note that the Administration’s Operational Framework does not align with current public health guidelines (e.g. social distancing for unvaccinated on college campuses, masks indoors for all).


Please also note that this “Operational Framework” does not align with the LCCEA/LCCEF joint proposal, nor does it align with the College’s own proposal sent earlier this morning. For instance, both the College and LCCEA-LCCEF joint proposal include a provision that ensures LCC will follow mask recommendations based on the most protective public health guidelines. In addition, the LCCEA-LCCEF joint proposal also includes a provision that social distancing be implemented in accordance with public health guidelines.

The COVID Infectious Disease Advisory Team (re-named Reopening Team) had its first meeting today shortly after the Administration’s “Operational Framework” was released. Without the opportunity to contribute to the “Operational Framework,” many committee members expressed confusion and concern that the purpose of the newly reconvened committee was to collaboratively develop the framework only to learn it had already been published.

The Committee approved a temporary suspension of non-essential, non-instructional meetings indoors and also agreed to a recommendation that all campus protocol align with public health guidelines, including masks indoors in Fall term consistent with CDC and OHA guidance. Ultimately, once the College and both unions reach agreement on an MOA for Fall, the provisions will be binding and will supersede any “operational framework” that is less protective. Your LCCEA representatives will provide updates as more information becomes available and as negotiations proceed.

Reminder — Flexible Workplace Arrangement Requests: Two Options
It is possible to request an ADA accommodation for remote work due to a faculty member’s own serious health condition, In addition, it is possible to request a flexible workplace arrangement due to concerns about household members, school/daycare issues, etc. Please see email from Sharon Daniel in HR to all LCC employees from May 11 at 5:24 p.m. (also below), which provides more details on the process and links to forms to make requests for remote work. 

My best,

Adrienne

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

As reported last week, LCCEA, your faculty union, and LCCEF, the classified union, are committed to working together in solidarity as we navigate the transition to a more substantial campus reopening and vaccine requirements for Fall. [See email correspondence from July 29 2021 and June 29 2021 at the end of this post for more information].

The Administration commitment (also reported last week) to include stakeholder groups in planning for campus COVID protocols for Fall has not yet come to fruition. 

In the meantime, the Administration notified LCCEA yesterday that class capacities would increase to “normal” class sizes or “approximately 75%” depending on the size of the room but has provided no response to questions about what social distancing measures would determine these changes to class capacities, nor which classes would be affected. In addition, this week some faculty members have reported seeing increases in class capacities for their Fall courses on the schedule as well as cancellation of sections affecting part-time faculty after the increased class capacities caused reductions in the number of sections.

LCCEA and LCCEF continue to advocate together and have requested joint bargaining with the College. Our shared interests are many, and primarily focus on health, safety, and working conditions that affect the entire campus with implications that extend to the public health of the broader community.  The College is required under the PECBA (Oregon’s Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act) to negotiate in good faith for this interim bargaining, resulting from proposed changes in working conditions, and to do so for at least 90 days before implementing any such changes.

Today we sent the joint proposal (below), which you will see includes one section of joint proposals affecting both groups (e.g. mask protocol, distancing, etc.) as well as separate sections for faculty and classified related to the unique needs and working conditions of each group.

The proposal includes provisions that link campus COVID safety protocols to the campus vaccination rate as well as to public health authority recommendations. In addition, a number of provisions in the faculty section address workload and compensation implications for instruction over this transitional period.

We look forward to continuing to build solidarity among faculty and classified as we await a response to our request for joint bargaining from the College.

More communications from your LCCEA Bargaining Team (Kelly Colllins, Nancy Wood, Cynthia Campos, and myself) will be forthcoming.

My best,
Adrienne

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team met with the College again yesterday and reached agreement on an MOA (below) regarding the impacts of hyflex instruction:

 The MOA provides:

• The College will provide a fully functioning, up-to-date computer in classrooms for use during hyflex instruction, and if it is not functioning and cannot be remedied within five days or moved to another classroom, the faculty member has discretion to offer the class face-to-face or online.
• The College will provide functioning wifi at reasonable speeds to facilitate streaming in faculty offices and instructional spaces or will provide alternative space if it takes more than five days to fix wifi issues.
• Faculty teaching hyflex who attend workshops on the use of Dtens shall be compensated at regular rates.
• If the College offers professional development workshops on hyflex instruction, part-time faculty who have exhausted in-service hours shall be compensated at regular rates.
• Faculty who convert courses to hyflex modality shall be compensated for 70 hours at the Curriculum Development rate as part of regular ATC processes. These hours are in addition to any hours awarded previously for development of the online or hybrid course.
• Classes in hyflex modality shall have the maximum class size reduced by 12.5%.
• For courses that are team taught where class sizes cannot be reduced, faculty teaching in the hyflex modality shall be compensated an additional 0.67 hours (at regular rates below 1.0 FTE and at the overload rate above 1.0 FTE) for each hour of synchronous hyflex instruction.
• Upon request, the College shall make all reasonable efforts to identify, hire, and train a student assistant who shall be provided and assigned to attend all synchronous hours of hyflex courses.
• The College shall provide data including course success rates for in hyflex courses. Consistent with Art. 39.1.2 Faculty Council shall participate in developing campus-wide tools to assess the hyflex modality.
• Individual faculty may refuse distance learning courses (including hyflex) consistent with the Distance Learning MOA.
• All other provisions of the contract and MOAs remain in effect, and this MOA will expire at the time a new contract is completed (e.g. June 30, 2024 or thereafter).

On whole, we think this MOA protects workloads for faculty teaching in hyflex modality through the provision of student assistants and reduced class sizes while also providing compensation for time devoted to curriculum development, and ensures that other basic necessities are provided (e.g. functioning hardware and wifi) to set the stage for faculty to do their best work in serving students. (Please note: the attachment is the messy document used in bargaining. The properly formatted, signed MOA will be posted on the LCCEA website as soon as it is available.)

On an unrelated note, LCCEA has not yet received a response from the College regarding reassignment time for faculty participating on governance councils and looks forward to receipt of a response that demonstrates a renewed commitment to shared governance. (For details see update sent to all faculty on May 28).

In addition, while an MOA is in place for Summer term working conditions, the parties have not begun negotiations regarding Fall reopening. We anticipate more changes to health and safety guidelines soon within Oregon. Given the many changes that have already occured since the April survey of all faculty (e.g. CDC no longer requires masks for fully vaccinated individuals), your LCCEA Bargaining Team may initiate another survey during the summer, if needed, once anticipated updates to health guidelines are announced. 

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team

Kelly Collins

Adrienne Mitchell

Nancy Wood

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team reached agreement with the College on an MOA for Summer (linked below):

In addition to provisions already agreed as of our last update (below), we are happy to report that the MOA meets the strong interest of faculty in requiring the College to notify faculty if they have been in contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 on campus or at LCC activities, a practice that had not been in place unless the circumstances required contact tracing as determined by Lane County Public Health (e.g. close contact of less than 6’). See #22 on attached for details. The MOA also provides that social distancing and mask requirements shall continue for summer in accordance with whichever external guideline in effect is most protective (e.g. CDC, OHA, etc.)

Among other provisions on the MOA, LCC and LCCEA agreed as follows to:

• Extend additional CD (curriculum development) funding for part-time faculty who are teaching classes that they have not taught before in an online or hybrid format at the rate of 1.25 hours of CD compensation for every hour of instruction delivered asynchronously that would otherwise be face-to-face class time;
• Provide additional compensation for faculty members who teach extra hours to accommodate social distancing requirements at the rate of 1.25 times the hourly rate for every extra hour of instruction;
• Maintain numerous safety provisions
 for Summer;
• Require that managers make reasonable efforts to collaborate with faculty stakeholders in developing or amending department reopening plans
;
• Protect faculty from loss of pay if all sick leave has been exhausted and the faculty member becomes ill with COVID-19; and
• Ensure provision of hardware and software for online teaching to faculty who do not have the necessary equipment, among other provisions.

We appreciate the robust participation of faculty in the bargaining survey and your support in achieving this agreement. Please watch for more updates regarding negotiations over the impacts of the hyflex modality soon.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team:

Kelly Collins

Adrienne Mitchell

Nancy Wood