FA elects officers, Domina as president-elect

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The CMU Faculty Association elected new officers in a second election after the first was deemed illegal.

The new association officers doubt the officer changes will affect current FA contract negotiations with CMU administration.

“The bargaining teams remain in place,” said chemistry Professor Phil Squattrito, newly elected membership officer. “I don’t see it having an impact one way or the other on the negotiations.”

The FA conducted its election last spring for the 2002-2003 academic year, but skipped a step in the election process, thereby nullifying the results.

Speech, communication and dramatic arts assistant Professor Bill Dailey, chairman of the first election, said the nominating committee, which recruits members to run for office, failed to submit the candidate list to the executive board for approval before the ballot was distributed.

When the mistake was discovered, Dailey said, the old ballots were thrown out and a new election was scheduled for this fall.

“We didn’t want to have any taint on the elections,” Dailey said.

Political science assistant Professor Doug Roscoe, newly elected FA secretary, said the mistake wasn’t a big issue because it is usually hard to find people to run and there is rarely a need to suppress the number of candidates.

“It wasn’t as if the nominating committee was trying to limit who was nominated,” he said.

Human environmental studies associate Professor Tanya Domina, FA president-elect, said the FA board moved to rectify the situation as soon as it realized it had violated the by-laws.

“We wanted to get (the election) done,” she said. “We sent out the ballots and then realized we’d forgotten (to have the ballot approved by the executive board.) It was an oversight.”

The newly elected officers will take over immediately because the previous officials’ term was extended only through September.

Squattrito said he is unhappy about how long contract negotiations have taken.

“I’m frustrated that it has taken this long. It makes it hard to do my job; I’m still doing my job, but I’m spending a lot of time in meetings, when I could be doing other things,” he said.

Sociology, anthropology and social work Professor Brigitte Bechtold, FA president, said the association met with the administration on Thursday, but called the meeting “unproductive.”

She said the FA team presented a contract idea to the administration’s team.

“It was our team that was presenting, and (the administration) didn’t want to talk about it,” she said.

Bechtold said the administration had some “harsh words” to say to the FA, but the next meeting, on Oct. 15, will be mediated.

“With the mediator present, I think the discussions will be more fruitful,” she said.

Bechtold said she is hopeful the contract issues will be resolved soon, possibly as early as Oct. 15.

“That is pretty optimistic; the talks may go into November,” she said. “If it goes that long, the membership will get impatient, and we may begin talking about a job action.”

She said the FA filed an unfair labor practices complaint on Wednesday, but could not elaborate because of the nature of the complaint.

2002-03 Faculty Association

officers-elect:

President: Tanya Domina, associate professor human environmental studies

Membership Officer: Phil Squattrito, professor of chemistry

Secretary: Doug Roscoe, associate professor political science

College Representatives:

Science and Technology: Kathy Benison, assistant professor of geology

Education and Human Services: Tara Saathoff-Wells, assistant professor human environmental studies

Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences: Joyce Baugh, professor and chairperson political science, and Heidi Holder, associate professor of English

MEA/NEA Representatives: Bill Cron, professor of accounting, and Marcia Mackey, associate professor physical education and sport

MAHE Representatives: Joyce Henricks, associate professor of philosophy and religion, and Rebecca Torres-Rivera, associate professor foreign languages