Michael Rosen's Speech to the MATC Board:

Sept. 28, 2004
Chairman Marlaire, distinguished board members, members of the public and Dr. Cole,

Since the June Board meeting, MATC has received good news on the financial front. Our equalized values are significantly higher than expected and FTE's have increased. This means that MATC has approximately $2 million more dollars than anticipated in our budget assumptions. Given the cuts in services to students that were made last June, cuts in bilingual programming, the multicultural affairs office, the HEP program, in computer labs and in the hours of retention specialists, among others, it is imperative that these critical services to students be reinstated before the Board decides to utilize the additional revenue in other ways.

None of the proposals being presented to you this evening were developed in partnership with Local 212. A proposal was developed and shown to me a day before the Finance Committee (FPO) in between two classes. I objected to elements of the proposal. The next morning when Dr. Cole called me to cancel a meeting I reiterated the objections. None of our objections were presented to the FPO committee members by the administration, nor did it inform me or any 212 representative that it intended to move the proposal forward as an action item. In fact, Dr. Cole had committed to me that we would discuss these matters further. Another meeting was called this week.

Local 212 is opposed to the current proposal and incremental approach for several reasons. First, it is not fiscally responsible to begin filling positions until we have an accurate picture of the college’s finances; Second, we need a comprehensive and strategic plan on filling positions and eliminating them, not an incremental, non-strategic plan. The current plan contains no rationale for why positions are being filled or eliminated and why others that might be eliminated are not even on the table. Thirdly, the proposal doesn’t address positively or negatively the need to restore the front line student service positions to 52 week positions. It simply ignores them. A decision must be made. Filling positions without addressing this issue may de facto make a decision that this board does not desire making and that is not in the interests of our students.

When we met with the administration yesterday we had a very cordial and productive meeting where it was agreed that there were 5 positions on the list in front of your that needed to be filled and 6 student service positions that needed to be restored immediately! While this was not the comprehensive approach that we feel would be best, it is clear that these positions will be filled under all scenarios and so we agreed to move forward.

These suggestions have been rejected. This is not joint governance or shared decision making. At best it appears these meetings have been a formality. The administration is going through the motions of shared decision making to create the appearance of involvement. It can report, as I am sure it will, that it met with us. But the meat of working together is entirely absent. In fact, administrators we are meeting with have no authority to reach agreements with us.

We feel very strongly that the cutback in the hours of many of our paraprofessional employees from 52 to 43 weeks needs to be addressed. We have requested that those employees who provide critical services to students and underrepresented communities ranging from registration to retention work-year be reinstated. Reinstating these hours would cost less than $200,000 out of a $300 million operating budget.

While over 30 employees who provide direct services to students including all those who provide assistance to those for whom English is a second language have had their work years reduced, not one of the highly paid administrators who supervises them received any reduction at all. In fact, several high ranking administrators have received significant pay increases while we have been cutting these services.

In addition, this committee should examine the Board’s policy of keeping these critical positions on soft dollars when their functions are central to student access and retention!

While your first priority should be the reinstatement of the hours of those who serve students, there are other needs as well. One of these areas that deserves immediate attention is wellness. As you know, there is a joint labor-management committee that has been meeting for several years. It was that committee that worked on and reached agreement on the significant changes to our health care plan a few years ago. Even before that agreement, the committee members on both sides agreed that one significant way to slow health care expenditures was to cut utilization. And it was jointly agreed that the best way to cut utilization was through a strong disease management program and a strong wellness program.

The disease management area certainly needs strengthening and the wellness aspect has been non existent. After all these years of talking and despite the fact we have the physical resources in which we can run a strong wellness program, nothing has been done. The joint committee on health care unanimously agrees and has proposed that the school hire a wellness coordinator in order to decrease our health care utilization and minimize our health cost increases. It is a positive way to affect the long-term financial impact of health costs.

The list also includes a proposal to eliminate positions. Again this has been done in a non-inclusive and no strategic manner. In addition, in my discussion with the administration about one of the positions, the college’s photographer, they had what I can only charitably characterize as inaccurate information about what other colleges do and about the impact of digital photography on the need for education and training.

Why have certain positions and individuals been singled out when other positions, including some very highly paid ones, are never even evaluated? At the risk of repeating myself, before we move forward, we need to have a strategic plan for filling and or eliminating positions!

In regard to other expenditures, I urge your committee and the Board to be vigilant. We support initiatives that will grow our college and further our mission, but all proposals should be examined carefully before the board proceeds with authorization. All of us know that it is the meat of MATC, or should I say MA as our students call us, that sells the institution, not the table setting! In survey after survey, students tell us it is our faculty and staff that are MA’s competitive advantage. The same was concluded at the summer strategic planning retreat. We support initiatives that will grow this college by increasing students and building partnerships that have value for our students and leverage resources for the institution. But the first action this committee should take is to restore the l services to students that have been cut. Then make a through examination of our resources and needs and determine which positions we need to fill to better serve students and which we can do without.