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FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Is justice delayed, justice denied?
In the past couple of years, I have been asked by faculty to accompany them to the Office of Affirmative Action concerning allegations brought to that office by students and/or bargaining unit members concerning matters pertinent to the college's policy on Affirmative Action. In all of these instances, the situations were adjudicated to everyone's satisfaction in a timely fashion. Because of the potential professional damage to the accused, I have announced at Executive Board meetings that it would be my recommendation that a member of the bargaining unit, when "summoned" to the Affirmative Action Office, be accompanied by a member of the Executive Committee to protect and explain their rights. Why do I mention this? On March 6 of this year a member of the NCCFT brought charges against an administrator. The decision was rendered on May 5. It took the Affirmative Action Officer two months to investigate the charges and to render a decision to the President. Two months! The fact that it took that length of time makes this writer wonder if administrators are treated differently than members of the bargaining unit. If certain members of the college community are treated preferentially, what does this say about the process? In my experiences there have not been any actions involving faculty that took this length of time to conclude. My suspicions were further aroused when, in my opinion, the decision rendered did not reflect all the facts presented by the accuser. The union will be monitoring these situations in the future and may reassess our cooperative participation in the process if equal treatment is not applied to all.
On a different note, I would like to thank the 340 members who responded to our negotiation survey. A very special thank you goes out to Roberta Schroder and Lyle Hallowell for the all the time and hard work they put in to the development of this instrument. You have spoken and we are listening. We will be using the basis of this survey to prepare our negotiations package that will be presented to the Executive Board at a special meeting on June 5 for approval. Once this takes place, we will notify the college/county that we are prepared to begin negotiations for a successor agreement. The key word here is prepared. We will be prepared to argue for our proposals in a concise and professional manner. Without revealing strategies, you have loudly spoken on an issue that we will not compromise or change. Let the games begin.
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