Advocate The Independent Student Voice of Mt. Hood Community College
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www.advocate-online.net February 21, 2014
Volume 49 Issue 18
Footloose opens tonight Pages 4-5
Negotiations may be at an end Faculty, board ratify and sign full-time contract by Katelyn Hilsenbeck The Advocate MHCC full-time faculty members are now working under a new labor contract that will run through September 2017. The contract was ratified by unanimous vote by the MHCC District board and signed into effect on Monday. Full-Time Faculty Association members voted to ratify the contract by a “comfortable” majority during a voting period that ended Feb. 12, according to Sara Williams, association president. “It’s final. No backing up,” Williams said with a laugh. She said she feels peaceful knowing the contract is settled. Williams said she believes faculty members are “very pleased with the language improvements that we were able to accomplish. “I think the financial package is a compromise that is acceptable in the light of (MHCC) needing to pass a bond (measure)... working together is a critical piece of that,” she said. Williams wants the broader community to know the pay package in the new contract “really was a compromise and that the association is willing to accept that because it’s the right thing to do for the college,” she said. “I think it’s important that people know that.” The deal closes lengthy, often-stalled negotiations that began with preliminary talks in autumn 2012. MHCC President Deb-
13 months later...
bie Derr, who arrived in July, sat at the table during latter stages of the negotiations. Ultimately, a mediator was brought in to broker a settlement. Maggie Huffman, MHCC director of communications, said, “Unfortunately, the process took many months. It is important to note that bargaining was collaborative and collegial, which is the evidence of successful bargaining.” Williams’ tenure as faculty leader comes to an end after the winter term. Her successor has already been elected by union members (results were not disclosed by The Advocate’s press deadline). “I love the job and I would certainly be interested in doing it again someday,” Williams said. But her three-year stint “is a year longer than I think is healthy,” she said. “I think it’s really critical for the health of an organization to not have too much stability.” She said she’ll turn her attention to a ballot measure Oregon Education Association hopes to place before Oregon voters in the fall to increase state revenue. “We cannot continue to make due with less money and to attempt to balance the budget on the backs of (employee) contracts and student tuition,” she said. “There has to be a public investment in education.”
Classified employees voting on agreement by Katelyn Hilsenbeck The Advocate
Mt. Hood’s classified employees are now voting on a labor contract agreement tentatively reached by union and MHCC negotiators on Feb. 4. Voting began Wednesday and will continue through noon Monday. If the employees vote to ratify the contract, the MHCC District board would vote on the proposed contract in March. The employees association held a general meeting for its members Wednesday morning. Cathy Nichols, classified association president, said she has received mostly positive feedback. “I believe for this three-year period (through September 2017), this is a good contract,” Nichols said. “The language that’s in this contract, I believe, sets us up for better negotiations in the future.” Substantial changes to current rules governing classified workers would include “tight language” in department outsourcing, a notification policy for layoffs, a cost of living adjustment and updated salary “step” system (both retroactive to last July 1), Nichols said. Graphic by Heather Golan - The Advocate
The “step” system is salary grid for employees that schedules regular pay rate increases to reward longevity. In all, there are 11 steps. About half of classified employees at Mt. Hood have reached that final step and are considered “maxed out,” said Nichols. “We had language in there... under the automatic steps that got put in the last negotiations, that said no steps (would be implemented) until the contract was negotiated,” she said. This froze classified employees in place, while Mt. Hood’s full-time faculty members did not face such restrictions. She called the discrepancy “a real slap in the face to some of the members.” Another “win” for the classified association is that in the event of a planned employee layoff, the college would have to notify the union 20 days before notifying the affected worker. That lag would give the association time to examine alternatives and potentially save the worker’s position, Nichols said. In the previous contract, no advance notice was required.
Classified
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MHCC may be getting a ‘new pair of shoes’ by Katelyn Hilsenbeck The Advocate It’s been four decades since east Multnomah County voters agreed to pump money into major campus improvements at MHCC. A significant makeover is long overdue, the school’s first-year leader believes. She’s leading a strategic charge by Mt. Hood to win new spending resources by May 2016. “It’s time for a new pair of shoes and a new hairdo,” said MHCC President Debbie Derr, whose administrative team is in the initial planning stages of placing a general obligation bond measure before local voters. Success at the ballot hasn’t come for Mt. Hood since 1974, with several bond measure failures since. This happened in 1995, twice in
2002, and most recently, in 2006. “The college was built for the future, without question. But since that time, we have been unsuccessful in convincing our voters that capital investment in their community college is necessary,” Derr said. A new bond measure has quickly become one of her larger priorities, and she’s eager to take on the challenge. “I want it to happen this time!” she said. In 1974, voters passed a $6.3 million bond measure for Mt. Hood, with 59 percent support. That followed successful bond measures in 1969 ($5.9 million, 68 percent support) and 1967 ($6.65 million, 76 percent support). Derr’s strategy for this measure centers on in-depth advertising and connecting with the local community, she said. That will require extensive out-
reach efforts. “We will be in service clubs. We will be in (city council) chambers,” she said. “We will be in economic development organizations. We’ll be talking with parents of students who will be coming to Mt. Hood and getting support of our local K-12 systems. “We’re going to be very methodical and really reach out into our communities and talk to them about what their community college is all about – how we support economic development and how we support job creation and the vitality of the community,” she said. Derr intends to make Mt. Hood’s financial impact on east Multnomah County clear to all. “My goal is to really get people thinking about how important this college is to the district we serve,” she said. The college is currently conducting
a facilities audit to “look at what our needs are in relationship to the infrastructure of the college,” Derr said. A safety and security audit is also under way. When completed, the audits will give a better idea of how to steer the college into the future – both in technology for engineering and mathematics, for example, and the physical security of students, staff and visitors. Derr won’t speculate on a dollar amount for the bond necessary to fund a major facelift. Any proposed bond would supply funds to all three MHCC campuses, including the main Gresham campus, the Bruning Center and the Maywood Park campus.
Bond
Debbie Derr MHCC president
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