RSI Action Team Addresses MATC District Board

What happened at the MATC Board meeting on Tuesday, August 18 matters.
For the past year, faculty have raised serious concerns—not about the importance of Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI), but about how MATC is measuring, interpreting, and using it. On Tuesday, those concerns were brought directly to the Board.

Lisa Conley spoke to what true collaboration, key to Shared Governance, does and does not look like and how faculty's lived RSI compliance experience to date has on many fronts not involved true collaboration.

Brian Kirsch shared what this looks like in the real world. His IT students described feeling supported, connected, and well served—yet the metrics still resulted in RSI warnings and HR involvement. His message was simple: Blackboard activity is not the same thing as teaching.

Lori Kornblum addressed the constantly shifting standards, lack of transparency, and inability for faculty to see or verify the very metrics being used to evaluate their work. She also highlighted factors outside faculty control, including class size, student participation, and whether students choose to attend office hours or respond to outreach.

And the Board listened.
Following the faculty comments, a board member asked that RSI be placed on an upcoming MATC District Board agenda for further discussion.

Read the full report and Local 212's RSI requests HERE

View recording of comments HERE