As the college changes, so changes the FA.

Through the FA’s five-plus decades, we have regularly monitored our member demographics, but over the past decade and especially since the pandemic, we recognize that some of our 35 Executive Council (EC) constituencies have grown too large, while others have grown quite small. Also, as people focused on labor issues, we aim to have as much equity in workload among our EC reps as feasible, yet the above growth and contraction in different areas is exacerbating some inequities among EC constituency sizes.

Thus, the EC authorized the creation of an EC restructuring task force to address these changes. The task force’s proposal, described below, will be presented to the entire membership for a vote this spring since it necessarily includes a proposed revision to the FA Constitution.

EC restructuring task force

Our EC restructuring task force consists of EC reps John Capurso, Jen Champagne, Brian DeMasi, Deb Provenzano, Mary Sierra, Eric Weinstein and me as an ex officio member. The charges before us were as follows:

1. Divide the EC constituencies that have grown too large
2. Address the constituencies that have grown too small as the college continues contracting
3. Address size differences among constituencies to make EC rep workloads as equitable as possible.

I am deeply grateful to this hardworking team, as we kept revising and trying different permutations of the proposal you see below. The work was tedious at times, but with their smart suggestions, gracious good humor, patience and attention to detail, the task force worked through it successfully together.

Process for a Constitutional revision

We are proposing a Constitutional revision, since Article IV of the FA Constitution specifies the membership of each EC constituency. To amend the Constitution, the process first requires discussion and approval by 2/3 of the EC (FA Constitution Article VI.A.1). This was achieved with a 28/0/1 vote at our December 12, 2024, meeting.

Next, the proposal must go before the entire membership for consideration. We will include the proposal in the election ballot mailing, just as we have done in the past, to save distribution costs.

Should 2/3 of the membership approve (FA Constitution Article VI.B), our Constitution will be amended. Then, in fall 2025, the elections committee would run special elections (Election Procedures Article XI) for any constituencies that are vacant, new or have had disciplines/groups added.

If a constituency has a specific group of faculty removed from their area, the current EC rep would stay in that position as long as they are not a member of the group being removed. For example, one proposed change is to remove adjuncts in criminal justice from the adjuncts in social sciences constituency. Should this proposal be approved, since the new rep in that area is not in criminal justice, they would continue to represent the adjuncts in social sciences constituency.

The proposal

The following proposal, developed by the EC restructuring task force and approved by the EC in December, achieves the three charges identified above and also maintains the number of EC reps required for quorum. Article VII.A of the FA Bylaws says, “At the Executive Council meetings, forty percent (40%) of the elected Faculty Association members shall constitute a quorum,” which would remain at 16 reps as is the case currently. Again, I am grateful to the task force for their diligent work in assuring this continuity as well as our assigned three charges.

Below, for your convenience, I itemize the proposed changes, and then provide a side-by-side comparison of the current and proposed EC structure. Please contact me or any task force member with questions you may have about the proposal.

Proposed constituency changes for full-time EC representatives:

• Combine full-time Ammerman business, accounting and legal with full-time Ammerman art, music, theater, philosophy, women’s studies
• Combine full-time Grant business, accounting, HVAC, computer information systems and technology with full-time Grant social sciences
• Remove ETU coordinator from full-time Grant business, accounting, HVAC, computer information systems and technology; add ETU coordinator to full-time Grant counseling, library and media
• Add automotive to full-time Grant business, accounting, HVAC, computer information systems and technology
  

Proposed constituency changes for adjunct EC representatives:

• Divide adjuncts in nursing, health science and physical education into
  

  1. Adjuncts in nursing
  2. Adjuncts in health science and physical education
     

• Divide Guild, retirees and adjunct PAs & specialists in programmatic areas into
  

  1. Guild
  2. Adjunct PAs & specialists in programmatic areas
  3. Place all retirees who work as adjuncts into their original disciplines; e.g., if a math professor retires and continues teaching as an adjunct, they would be placed in the adjuncts in mathematics constituency
     

• Remove adjuncts in library from adjuncts in culinary, library, fire science, electrical tech, drafting, interior design; place them with adjuncts in foreign language, ESL, ASL and reading
  
• Remove adjuncts in criminal justice from adjuncts in social sciences; place them with adjuncts in business, accounting, communication and telecom
  
• Remove adjuncts in engineering and automotive from adjuncts in sciences, engineering and automotive; place them with adjuncts in culinary, library, fire science, electrical tech, drafting, interior design
  
• Rename adjuncts in culinary, library, fire science, electrical tech, drafting, interior design, HVAC, engineering and automotive as adjuncts in “professional disciplines”
  
• Combine adjuncts in professional disciplines with adjuncts in counseling, education and college & freshman seminar.

The following table shows our current EC structure on the left and the proposed EC structure on the right.