1977-09-02; Central Michigan Life

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V.
Volume 59, No. 3
Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859
Friday, Sept. 2,1977
Straw vote set
FA considers strike
Unpacking some gear for the night is Anita Robb from
East Lansing who is participating in the Lansing to Mackinac
bike run. More than 350 members spent the night at Central
while on their bicycle ride to the Mackinac Bridge for the Labor
Day weekend (LIFE photo by Mike Thorsby).
by PAUL RAU
LIFE Managing Editor
A phone call or straw vote will
be taken by the CMU Faculty
Association (FA) in the next
week to determine if a vote to
strike by CMU faculty would be
successful.
Approximately 200 faculty
members in near total
. agreement voted Thursday
night to instruct the FA Job
Action Committee to conduct
the straw vote by phone so that
only a few FA personnel would
know the strength of the vote
behind the strike.
The FA action was termed
"shameless game-playing" by
chief CMU negotiator John W.
Weatherford when notified
following the meeting. "In
the midst of what has every
promise of being fruitful
bargaining, in the midst - of
getting down to business after
fooling around all summer, they
want to play kid games like that.
It's a game," Weatherford said
Thursday night.
Citing a massive foot-
dragging ' and stone-walling
effort    by    the    CMU    ad
ministration in the current
collective bargaining talks,
faculty members plan to present
a "show of force" to the Administration in an effort to bring
a rapid conclusion to the contract bargaining, now entering
its fourth month.
"The negotiations have taken
a long time, and things are
perhaps unclear. But from what
r ' "
I understand, they're (the FA
bargaining team) being
stonewalled like I never was two
years ago when I was on the
bargaining team," David T.
Goodell, chairperson of the FA
Job Action Committee, said.
Calling a recent proposal by
the CMU bargaining team to
change the agency shop clause of
the current contract an attempt
at "union busting," J. Norbert
Musto, FA executive director,
said the FA would not be
satisfied by "sitting around from
3 to 5 p.m. (current bargaining
hours) until December."
A motion to call a general
strike Sept. 7 came shortly after
from   Alexander   J.   Zawacki,
associate professor of art, but
(See "FA—"page 7)
Internal alterations
face new budget
CMU's 1977-78 budget faces
alterations by account directors
for the various University
schools as they attempt to
. adjust their individual
allocations, Arthur Ellis, vice
* president for Public Affairs, said
Thursday.
This school year's budget
totals $38 million, while expenditure requests from
University schools and
departments totaled $39 million,
Ellis said. President Harold
Abel has said the $1 million in
cuts necessary to achieve the
balanced budget were made by
vice presidents, but CMU officials have declined to say
where and in what amount the
cuts were made.
"The budget is balanced ir.
total, but within the totals, the
various University structures
have until next week to decide
how to arrange their budgets
internally. Everything is out in
the hands of other people," Ellis
said.
The final budget structures
from the schools and departments will be submitted to the
Board of Trustees for approval
at the Board's Sept. 21 meeting,
Ellis said.
Leeway has been built into
the budget to accommodate
anticipated faculty salary increases, which currently are
being bargained with the
University, Ellis indicated.,
Another Unknown variable at
this time is Social Security
payments, which are being
studied for possible changes by
the federal government, he
added.
" CMU will receive $23.9 million
in state appropriations for the
1077-78 school year, an increase
of 10.5 per cent from last year.
The new appropriation, announced July 6\ gives CMU
approximately $2.5 million more
than the 1976>77 school year.
Ellis has said reductions in the
expenditure requests do not
represent cuts from last year's
funding levels and added many
or all departments may receive
less than they requested' in
order to balance the budget.
He said he knew of no
departments funded under last
year's levels.
Ellis said a budget approved
by the Trustees near the end of
September will not create a
problem for the University. The
budget was expected to be
presented to the Board of
Trustees in July, then August,
but was not completed in time.
MD, hospital
slate meeting
by KELLY KOLHAGEN
and BECKY HAAKSMA
LIFE Staff Writers
An informal meeting between
Dr. John Minster and some
members "of the Central
Michigan Community Hospital
(CMCH) Board of Trustees is
scheduled for tonight, Minster
said Thursday.
The "informal meeting"
replaces a hearing orginally
scheduled for Thursday night
before.the Executive Committee
of the CMCH Medical Staff, but
cancelled by mutual agreement
between Minster and hospital
officials.
The hearing had been
scheduled as a result of a
preliminary court injunction
issued Aug. 17 by Circuit Court
Judge Robert H. Campbell. The
injunction blocked the Board of
Trustees vote to suspend
Minster from his duties at
CMCH- without a hearing as
called for in the hospital bylaws,
CMCH Board of Trustees
voted to suspend Minster Aug.
11 over alleged conflicts between Minster and members of
the nursing staff.
"By mutual agreement, the
hearing involving Dr. John
Minster and Central.Michigan
Community Hospital has' been
canceled," Glenn Lowery,
president and chief executive
officer for CMCH, said in a
prepared statement Thursday.
Lowery said in the statement
(See "Minster—" page 3)
Drinks, knowledge served
Prof mixes well
byPAMJAHNKE
LIFE Copy Editor
"Can   I   have   two
jerkeys, some pretzels
two seven and sevens?"
beef
and
Normally this is an uncommon request to make of a
department chair
person - unless that chair-
Eerson also happens to be a
artender.
And    while    observin
Edward    Westen,    Politica
Science Department chairperson, handing out beers to
fiatrons at a local bar may
ook a bit unusual to some, he
insists "it's no big thing."
Westen, who also is a
member of the Faculty
Association collective
bargaining team, said he
began bartending at The
Cabin, 930 W. Broomfield
Road, last May. He explained
he- played softball with The
Cabin's   team   and   learned
from the manager an extra
bartender was needed.
Westen said he was happy to
take   the   job   and   began
Souring drinks the same day.
low he works one night a
week for a couple hours.
He admitted he was a bit
uneasy about working as a
bartender because he thought
it might be a problem with
many of the students who
know him. But he added,
"Now more kids that know me
stop and talk to me more than
they did before."
"Bartending gives me a
different perspective and
that's important. Most of the
people over the summer
didn't know I was a professor
or ra, department chairperson/' „*    '• "*"
Westen feels his job as
bartender makes him appear
"almost human" to students.
"Students don't want to make
us (professors) human. They
think professors are too busy
to talk with them," he said.
Calling his bartending a
"hobby,' he says it is fun to do
and has helped to give
diversity to his life. Another
advantage of Westen's part-
i he said, is "bar-
get to drink very
when   they're   off
time  jol
tenders
cheaply
duty."
When
Westen
Ed Westen, chairperson of the Political Science Depart,
ment, bartender and faculty bargainer says that the advantage
of being a part-time bartender is that it gives him a different
perspective on things and to him that's important (LIFE photo
by Peter Luke).
not bartending,
might be seen
crocheting during a faculty
contract bargaining meeting.
Presently Westen is
working on an afghan
measuring 9 by 7> feet. "It's on
the par with doodling, but it's
more productive," he
remarked. He stated he can
take notes, listen and converse while crocheting
because it does not demand
concentration.
"Once people get used to a
240-pound man crocheting it's
okay," he joked.
Union questions significance
CMU offer gets split review
LIFE
vcatlon
i—AnspsGh    remains
stable—page 3
-Marching     Chips
prepare-page 8
Due to the Labor Day holiday
CM _-F_5 will not publish
Monday. LIFE will resume its
.regular publication schedule
Wednesday* the LIFE staff
wishes the University com*
munity a safe and happy holiday.
by TONY BEARING
LIFE News Editor.
A major breakthrough .may have occurred during Thursday's
collective bargaining session between the Faculty Association (FA)
and CMU. On the other hand, nothing may have happened at all.
It all depends on the amount of significance that should be attached to a letter written by the CMU bargaining team stating its
intention to negotiate tenure, reappointment and promotion.
"We wish to assure you that we intend to bargain with respect to
tenure, promotion and reappointment," the letter, presented to FA
bargainers late in Tuesday's session, stated. "We will bargain these
issues in good faith. We do not promise to reach agreement, but you
may expect our earnest effort to do so."
John Weatherford, chief negotiator for CMU, called' the letter a
"major move" in negotiations, but Joyce Pillote of the FA team-
called it little more than "a good PR thing."
The FA has made it clear since early in negotiations that it
desires in the new contract a grievance procedure, including outside
arbitration, for faculty members1 denied tenure, promotion or
reappointment.
Until Thursday, CMU had given no real indication it would
bargain those matters.
"This letter represents* a significant change in our position,
because we haven't done this sort of thing before," Weatherford
said. "Our legal position is that we don't have to bargain these
matters, and in the past we've been reluctant to because we think
the present System works okay/
How.ever. Weatherford said CMU felt it had to; "give a little" in
order to speed up the pace of collective bargaining.
The two teams Tuesday seemed close to agreement on the
current topic of negotiations - grievance procedure - except for a
definition of grievance suggested by the FA which would have made
denial of tenure, appointment and promotion grievable under that
portion of the new contract.
Weatherford said CMU hoped by assuring the FA those issues
would later be bargained in substantative areas of the contract,
rather than in a general clause now, negotiations would quicken
both on the current topic and on the new contract in general.
However, the FA team did not see much significance in CMU's
assurance of its intent to bargain those issues later.
"Tenure, reappointment and promotion are issues we have
always bargained on," Pillote said after Thursday's session. "We
just have never reached agreement on them. I don't see their letter
as any thing different at all."
Pillote said a promise that there would be a section in the contract
on issues like tenure, would only be a significant change depending
on what was included in that section. *
"Are you thinking of contractualizing a university-wide criteria
for tenure?" she asked the CMU team. "Which decisions at what
level will be grievable?"
"We are presently trying to open the way to (reach agreement on)
the grievance clause," Weatherford responded. "We will answer
questions on tenure when we bargain that matter."
University Attorney J* David Kerr also made it clear that
although CMU would bargain-issues of tenure, reappointment and
promotion, it was not in favor of providing in the contract recourse
to faculty denied these.
* "We do not See these as primarily employ ment. issues," he said.
"We are going to bargain that these are an academic matter. Except
for these areas, we have very ■•littlecontrol over the quality of
education," 4
* *
ii.
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