by Don Larsson, IFO State President

A “cynic,” according to one of Oscar Wilde’s characters, is one “who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”* Too much of the current debates about public higher education has focused on “price”—taxes, tuition, faculty salaries.  Even when the discussion has turned to “value,” it is often a discussion about the monetary value of higher education and the “return on investment” for the state and students (really another way of talking about “price”).  And such emphases invite the tone of cynicism that underlies so many of these debates and discussions.

As faculty members (and citizens and taxpayers), however, we know that price cannot be ignored.  Our work has a necessary price—in salaries, in benefits, in support for our teaching and professional development.  The value that we place on the often-intangible rewards that we receive for our professional lives may override the “return on investment” that we could earn elsewhere, but there are limits to that value and those rewards.  We cannot afford to be “sentimentalists,” defined by another of Wilde’s characters as those who see “an absurd value in everything” but don’t know “the market price of any single thing.” 

So, how as state university faculty members do we balance the price of what we do with what should be valued?  How do we communicate that the price of what we do has value for others? 

Part of the answer was provided through your emails to the Chancellor and your campus presidents about your need for access to professional development funds for this year.  Those funds (in Article 19) have been negotiated as part of the “price” of our work in place of adjustments elsewhere to salaries or benefits, but you clearly expressed that this issue was also about the value of professional development.  That value is not just a personal value, you said; it also rewards our students and our universities. And your voices have been heard.

Below is a column by the IFO’s newly-named Action Coordinator, Monte Bute, who offers another take on these questions.  Being able to articulate our values, he reminds us, can be a potent political force.  Reclaiming liberal arts education as a value for students and for society is one task that the IFO can set for itself, but there is much more that we can do as well.

As Monte points out, the “purpose” (or “mission statement,” if you will) of the IFO is expressed in our Constitution:

The purpose of the IFO shall be to promote the welfare of the faculties of the Minnesota State Universities and to improve public higher education through such activities as faculty participation in the governance of the Minnesota State Universities and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
--IFO Constitution, Article III: Purpose. 
                        http://www.ifo.org/constitution.pdf  [My emphases.]

Your participation in that governance through the IFO is needed more than ever.  This week will see the formal Installation of Dr. Rosenstone as Chancellor of the MnSCU system.  While he continues to develop and articulate system plans “to improve public higher education” through our institutions, the IFO will be there to insist that “faculty participation in the governance” of our universities and the system is the best way to assure that promoting the welfare of the faculties also promotes the welfare of our students and the state.  The IFO will assure that your voices continue to be heard!

*Wilde, Oscar.  Lady Windemere’s Fan.  [1892]. 

OTHER NEWS

Installation Ceremony for Chancellor Rosenstone
The official Installation of Dr. Steven Rosenstone as Chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system will take place on Wednesday, October 19, at 10:00 am in the rotunda of the state Capitol.  This ceremony, in “the people’s house,” is meant to be low-key but high-profile.  There will be no academic regalia since Chancellor is not an academic position as such.  The location, however, should draw media attention to a system with four times the students at the University of Minnesota.  I will be present to offer brief remarks, along with Governor Dayton and the leaders of the Minnesota State College Faculty, the Minnesota State University Association of Administrative and Service Faculty, and the Minnesota State University Student Association and Minnesota State College Student Association.  The ceremony will be live-streamed if you want to listen in online.  For details, go to http://www.mnscu.edu/media/newsreleases/current/article.php5?id=242. 

Please join me in offering congratulations and good wishes to Chancellor Rosenstone.  After a somewhat bumpy start, we are looking forward to a productive relationship.

Interest-Based Bargaining Continues
Negotiations continue between the IFO and the system office through “interest-based bargaining.” This process is slow but it has yielded several Tentative Agreements on language changes in the contract, and more are likely to follow.  In due time, both sides will engage in traditional, “positional” bargaining over money issues and other topics, but for now please thank your Negotiators for their hard work, patience and generosity in giving their time on behalf of us all: Brent Jeffers (Lead Negotiator, Southwest), Jeff Ueland (Bemidji), Donna Brauer (Mankato), Gary Starr (Metro), Oscar Flores-Ibarra (Moorhead), Jeff Kolnick (Southwest), and Matt Hyle (Winona).  Special thanks also go to IFO General Counsel Connie Howard and IFO Legal Assistant Tiffany Nelson for the many long hours that they have dedicated to support of the Team.

Coalition Health Care Bargaining Begins
As you know, the health care provisions in the IFO-MnSCU contract are negotiated separately from the rest of the contract.  The IFO participates with the other state employee unions in joint bargaining with the state (not MnSCU as such).  The state has made its first proposals, and negotiations are under way.  In past years, settlements have been reached before Open Enrollment for the next year began.  See Russ Stanton’s column below for further information.

Monte Bute Is Named IFO Action Coordinator; Tom Hergert Moves On
As mentioned above, Monte Bute (Metro) has been named as the new IFO Action Chair after Tom Hergert (St. Cloud) unexpectedly had to step down.  See below for biographical details and Monte’s first column for the IFO Update.  We are grateful to have his services and eloquence.  Tom has accepted a position as Dean of Learning & Technology Resources at the Manassas Campus of Northern Virginia Community College.  We offer our thanks to Tom for having stepped in quickly to fill a vacancy in the IFO Action Coordinator role and for his previous years of service as St. Cloud Faculty Association President, President-Elect, and IFO Board member.  We wish him the best in his career.

Academic/Student Vice Chancellor Candidates Recommended for Interviews
As I’ve mentioned previously, I served on the Search Advisory Committee for the important position of MnSCU Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, along with the leaders of the other MnSCU faculty unions and the student leadership groups.  The committee has now concluded its work and sent the names of several candidates to Chancellor Rosenstone.  The Chancellor will now decide which candidates to invite for interviews by him and the Board of Trustees, which has the authority for final approval.   There may be a decision as early as the November Board of Trustees meeting.

IFO-MnSCU Committees Begin to Re-Form         
Following detailed discussion last year between the MnSCU Division of Academic & Student Affairs, the IFO, and other groups represented in system-level shared governance, the outlines of a new structure for committee work emerged.  Those outlines are just beginning to fill in.  Please watch for further details from IFO Academic Affairs Coordinators Donna Brauer (Mankato) and Nancy Black (Metro).  Look especially for opportunities to get involved as an IFO representative on these system-level committees. 

All of the events above have one thing in common: They mark a starting place for new beginnings.  Expect the pace of change to start accelerating very soon.  The IFO remains here to be your voice in those changes.

by Monte Bute, IFO Action Coordinator

When speaking of faculty interests, we immediately think of economic interests such as wages, benefits, and working conditions. The IFO’s Constitution fosters this initial impression: “The purpose of this organization shall be to promote the welfare of the faculties of the Minnesota State Universities.”During the last legislative session,we accomplished that end—IFO members used political muscle to protect our economic welfare.

Our recent battle with Chancellor Rosenstone over his withholding of faculty development funds re-affirmed the need for an assertive defense of our economic interests. The upcoming legislative session will produce a series of Republican challenges to our wages, benefits, and terms of employment. We need to mobilize our membership to fend off these attempts to take back our hard-fought gains.

But is this the extent of our union’s mission?  If only economic self-interest governs an organization’s conduct, then its disregard for the public interest will leave the group vulnerable toattack.The sociologist Max Weber suggests a way of avoiding this hazard. He observed that ideal interests as well as economic ones motivate social action. What are ideal interests? They relate primarily to values that transcend economic self-interest and inspire organizations to pursue the public good.  Our IFO Constitution espouses such values with its commitment to “improve public higher education.”

Recently, we have been more effective in promoting the welfare of our faculties than we have been in improving public higher education. If we are going to fulfill the entirety of our mission in the future, we need to take the high road by leading with more civic-minded values. Let me suggest one example that integrates our ideal and economic interests—the pragmatic necessity of a liberal arts education.

In 2006, Peter D. Hart Research Associates conducted a nationwide study of more than 300 employers, companies where 25 percent or more of their new hires hold at least a bachelor's degree. "Fully 63 percent of business executives interviewed agree that too many recent college graduates do not have the skills to be successful in today's global economy," they reported.

This study also revealed the skills employers most desire in new hires to be 1) teamwork, 2) critical thinking and analytical reasoning, and 3) oral and written communication. When these business leaders were asked what type of undergraduate college education they would recommend to a young person they know, three in four said they would suggest a liberal arts education.

To frame our issues with the value of a liberal arts education puts the interests of our students and the public interest front and center. This may not seem like a big deal, but whoever defines an issue in a positive light usually wins the battle. Organizations often lose public opinion campaigns because they come off as self-serving. They are inept at cutting issues in ways that convince third-party bystanders that the organization’s positions are just. Value-based strategies and tactics are far more effective than those approaches that lead with narrow self-interest. This holds true at both the legislature and the bargaining table.

While a union will not prosper by bread alone, neither can it feed its membership with high-mindedness. The effective and enduring organization is capable of realpolitik and altruism, of pragmatic and idealistic interests. These are the motivations that gave birth to the IFO. Carpe diem!

by Russ Stanton, IFO Director of Government Relations

Bargaining for group insurance benefits (health, dental, life, disability, etc.) for state employees is underway.   Representatives from the 17 state employee unions bargain as a coalition on health benefits, since the insurance plans cover all state employees.   On September 23rd the State bargaining team presented its “opener” to the unions, and on September 30th the unions presented their opening bargaining positions to the state. 

Not surprisingly, the two sides are far apart.   We try to keep bargaining table discussions out of the press, so I can’t go too far into the specifics, but I can tell you in general that the state is looking for a “share the pain” solution to the state’s budget problems and is looking for big reforms and increased employee contributions to reduce the state’s health care costs.

The unions are looking for improved health care and dental benefits.   While the unions are not opposed to reforms that improve efficiency in the insurance plans, they are opposed to benefit cuts masquerading as “reform”.  The union “opener” includes a number of positions advocated by IFO, including:

• Domestic partner benefits comparable to benefits of married employees;
• Employer contributions to health insurance when an employee is on disability or parental leave;
• Partial reimbursements for frequent use of health clubs; and
• Additional HRA contributions.

Negotiations are on a fast track.   The state would like to get the insurance portion of the contracts done before open enrollment.  A half dozen days between now and early November have been set aside for negotiations.

Don’t expect too much out of these negotiations this year.   The state has major budget problems, and it will be a major battle to just hold on to what we have.   We also don’t want to negotiate benefit increases that result in layoffs to pay for them.

The big question is whether the Republican controlled legislature and the Subcommittee on Employee Relations will ratify the insurance package even if MMB and the unions can achieve an agreement.

IFO Fall Retirement Workshops Finished
During August, September and October, the IFO conducted a total 21 workshops at all seven state universities for faculty nearing retirement.  The purpose of the workshops was to help faculty who are considering retirement to understand retirement related benefits under the IFO contract and state retirement programs.   The IFO also conducted six workshops for new faculty members to help them choose between TRA and IRAP as their basic retirement plan.   About 190 faculty attended the workshops, and about 220 faculty members scheduled individual half-hour appointments with Russ Stanton to discuss their particular concerns.

There were fewer retirees this year—in large part because the early retirement incentives offered in recent years worked, incenting many faculty to retire earlier than they otherwise would have.  Also, there are far fewer new faculty because of all the budget cuts on the campuses.   However, there was a large turnout of faculty members who just received tenure; due to a new law IFO got passes two years ago, newly tenured faculty now have a second chance to choose between TRA and IRAP as their basic retirement plan.

October 17th was the last day for eligible faculty to give notice of intent to retire after the end of this academic year and before the start of next academic year.   Retiring faculty who did not give notice will be ineligible to receive the final year two-step increase and/or the contractual early separation incentive.   It was also the last day for faculty to apply for participation in phased retirement or the annuitant employment program starting next academic year.   However, the deadline for giving notice for faculty who want to retire at the end of fall semester of next year, or who want to start participation in phased retirement or the annuitant employment program spring semester of next year, will be January 15th 2012.

If you have retirement questions or concerns, you can visit the IFO web page at www.ifo.org , or call Russ Stanton at 1-800-325-9644, extension #14.

by Russ Stanton, IFO Director of Government Relations

At its September meeting, the IFO Board of Directors elected Monte Bute to the position of Action Coordinator.  

The Action Coordinator will chair the Action Committee and:

• Help publicize the valuable work and efforts of the IFO and its members to various external constituent groups.
• Engage in efforts to build solidarity and community within the IFO and its membership and with various external groups.
• Coordinate information flow between faculty and the Negotiating Team regarding issues and progress of negotiations.
• Coordinate actions that will move the negotiation process on and encourage settlement.
• Keep the Negotiating Team informed of action plans and be receptive to input from the Negotiating Team; and
• Work with the GRC to encourage efforts at writing letters to legislators and the local press.

Monte Bute is an associate professor of sociology at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota. His opinion essays appear on the editorial pages of daily newspapers in the Twin Cities. Bute also frequently testifies on higher education issues before the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives.

Bute began teaching at Metropolitan State as a community faculty member in 1984. He finally finished a long-delayed B.A. at the university in 1991. After a 20-year career as a community organizer, he realized that his next mission in life was teaching. To fulfill that calling, Bute began graduate school rather late in life. Professor Bute has been a prolific writer over the years, publishing 65 articles in scholarly publications and the popular press. 

Sociologists of Minnesota (SOM) gave Bute the Distinguished Sociologist award in 2004. Bute has received Metropolitan State University's Outstanding Teacher award and the Excellence in Teaching award. He has also been given awards by Minneapolis Community and Technical College, the Jobs Now Coalition, and the Job Training Partnership Association.
Professor Bute is a past president of both Sociologists of Minnesota and the National Council of State Sociological Associations (NCSSA). Bute has been the editor of Sociograph, associate editor of the Sociological Imagination, and is currently on the editorial board of Contexts, a journal of the American Sociological Association. He has been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.

by Patrice Arseneault, IFO Director of Grievances and Equity

The IFO Board of Directors has adopted a Resolution to oppose the proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would recognize marriage as between a man and a woman. The IFO resolution is in keeping with our long standing organizational goals to achieve benefits equity for the members we represent.

Currently, Minnesota has five hundred and fifteen statutes that provide rights and define responsibilities based on a person’s marital status. Some of our faculty are deprived of the opportunity to enjoy the benefits and protections provided under state law because they are barred from marriage to a same sex partner.

For many years, the IFO has been seeking legislation that would address inequities in benefits based on marital status. State laws governing pension and retirement benefits provide for a faculty member’s spouse to be an automatic beneficiary but not a same sex partner. The state offers long term care insurance coverage to spouses of employees but not to a faculty member’s same sex partner. Similarly, family health care coverage is provided based on one’s marital status. Since same sex partners cannot marry, some of our faculty members are prevented from receiving a benefit equal to the benefits available to married faculty members.

IFO Delegate Assembly Resolutions
As early as the 1990 Delegate Assembly, the IFO adopted organizational goals to seek insurance benefits that were more equitable for non-traditional families and to extend other benefits to domestic partners. In the past two decades, the IFO membership has added legislative and contract goals that aim for a more equitable distribution of benefits by extending all benefits to domestic partners or members of a faculty member’s household.

In the 2010 DA, the delegates included a resolution to support legislation that would provide same sex couples in a committed relationship with the same rights and legal protections as state law provides for married couples. The 2010 Assembly further resolved that achieving equity of benefits for all faculty and their families, without regard to sexual orientation, is recognized by the IFO to be a human rights, civil rights, and labor equity goal of highest priority.

IFO Negotiations Team Action
Beginning with the negotiations for the 1997-1999 IFO MnSCU collective bargaining agreement, the IFO negotiations team has proposed the inclusion of  benefits for partners of faculty. In the 1999-2001 contract negotiations, the IFO team held firm with its demand for equitable benefits, and the parties agreed to put the issue to a joint Taskforce on benefits for domestic partners. The Taskforce issued its recommendations for benefits equity in a Report on December 7, 2000.  Many of the Taskforce recommendations were adopted in the 2001-2003 contract negotiations, including health and dental benefits for same sex domestic partners, as defined in Appendix D in the IFO MnSCU Agreement. When the 2003 Legislative session convened, House representatives led by the Majority Leader (then Representative Tim Pawlenty), refused to approve the state union collective bargaining agreements that contained the heath and dental benefits for the same sex domestic partners of state employees. Since the 2001-2003 contract, the IFO negotiations team has continued to fight for partner benefits in every round of contract negotiations.

IFO Board of Directors Confirms its Opposition to the Constitutional Amendment on Marriage
In fall 2010, the IFO Board adopted a series of legislative goals for the 2011 legislative session to promote equity in benefits for faculty, including a goal to recognize same sex marriages that are legal in other states, to support legislation to allow same sex couples to marry and to oppose legislation that would serve to further prohibit marriage equality for same sex couples, such as a constitutional ban on same sex marriage. The 2011 legislature passed a bill that will place an amendment to the state’s constitution on the ballot in 2012 to recognize marriage as between a man and a woman.

At the September 2011 Board meeting, the IFO Board unanimously endorsed a Resolution to oppose the constitutional amendment recognizing marriage as one man and one woman. Please join your IFO leadership in helping to defeat the amendment.

by Patrice Arseneault, Director of Grievances and Equity

The IFO Feminist Issues Committee (FIC) is accepting nominations for Outstanding Contributions to the IFO by a woman IFO member to be recognized at the 2012 Delegate Assembly. The FIC is seeking to honor female IFO members who provide exemplary service to the IFO and who have made significant contributions in leadership capacities and advocacy within the organization on issues impacting women faculty.

The Feminist Issues Committee is also accepting nominations for Outstanding Contributions to Women’s Advancement in MnSCU by an IFO member to be recognized at the 2012 Delegate Assembly. The FIC will recognize an IFO member who has improved the lives and working conditions for professional women within the MnSCU system by creating equity and opportunities for women faculty through serving in leadership capacities and by advocating on issues with substantial impact on women faculty in the system.

To be considered for either award, nominees must be IFO members and not have received an FIC award in the last five years (Excel format or PDF format). Nomination forms are available on the IFO website, and may be submitted online, or sent by email to arsen@ifo.org or by mail to FIC Nominations, IFO, 490 Concordia Avenue, Suite 125, St. Paul, MN 55103. Nominations must be received by the IFO by January 23, 2012.

If you have questions on nominations for either FIC sponsored award, you may contact a member of the Feminist Issues Committee. The FIC will present the Outstanding Contributions Awards at the March 2012 Delegate Assembly.

by Donna Blake, IFO Controller

Open enrollment for 2012 will be held on November 2nd through November 15th.  Please note that this is a two week period and not a month like last year.  The SEGIP Open Enrollment Newsletter will be mailed to your home address sometime around October 15th. The address label will have your employee ID on it again this year. The website where you submit your elections will look a little different, but will still have the same functionality as last year. MMB will once again have an open enrollment call center and open enrollment informational website that will include the open enrollment guide, rate guide, clinic directory, MN Health Information, and frequently asked questions. You will also get a separate mailing from Journeywell with information on the health assessment and Journeywell programs.  If you take the health assessment during open enrollment, you will get a $5.00 reduction on your own copays as well as your dependent’s copays and have access to the Journeywell programs.

After open enrollment MMB will mail out confirmation statements. A white statement means that your open enrollment went through ok and you just need to review it to make sure that the elections listed on it are correct. The only changes allowed at this point are for errors made by MMB.  You will need to prove if an error was made, so please remember to print off your elections during open enrollment.  A yellow statement means that you made selections during open enrollment but didn’t hit the submit button to finish open enrollment. You will need to mail in the yellow form by December 9th to confirm your choices to complete open enrollment.  If you do not mail in the yellow form, your selections will default back to what you had selected for 2011.  The submit button has been changed to a hot pink color this year for easier identification.

MMB will be holding several employee and retiree open enrollment meetings.  These meetings are all open meetings where anyone can attend.  The list of meetings can be found at this link:
http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/meetings-oe

What is open this year?

Medical  (can change providers and/or switch between family and single coverage, please note that if you want to change clinics, you should call the phone number on the back of your card)

Dental  (can add dental coverage, change providers, and switch between family and single coverage, remember that dental is only open every other year, so your elections will be in effect from January 2012 through December 2013)

Long Term Disability  (can add long term disability coverage or increase your existing coverage up to 60% of your salary, please note that there is a 24 month preexisting condition limitation for any illness that was diagnosed or treated in the prior 12 months)

Flexible Spending Accounts or FSAs or Pre-tax accounts  (new elections are required during open enrollment each plan year, Medical/Dental Expense Account MDEA can elect from $100 up to $5,000, Dependent Care Expense Account DCEA can elect from $100 up to $5,000 but money is use it or lose it with no carry forward, Transit Expense Account TEA can elect a minimum annual election of $50 and carry forward is allowed if employee makes a new election the following year)

Life, Optional Life, and Short Term Disability  (are not open this year, but you can still apply for them by filling out a paper application and providing evidence of good health)

Dependent Eligibility Verification Audit DEVA (New This Year)  The State of Minnesota will be auditing dependents for everybody that is on their insurance and has family coverage. They are in the process of getting RFP’s from vendors to select one to perform the audit. The audit will check to make sure that all dependents on the plan are legitimate dependents that qualify to be on the plan. At this point, since the vendor isn’t selected yet, we aren’t sure what type of documentation you will need to provide for your dependents.  However, some examples of documents you may need to provide are marriage certificates, birth certificates, adoption papers, etc. 

Eide Bailey & Benny Card News (New This Year)  Eide Bailey is switching to a new system on January 1st that will show debit card purchases in real time.  They will also have an app that you can download to your smart phone that will show your balances and transactions.  As part of the new system installation, your existing Benny Card will be deactivated the last two weeks in December to allow Eide Bailey time to move data from the old to the new system.  All reimbursement requests during this two weeks period will have to be submitted on a paper form.  Some of the new features they will have on their new website with the new system are the ability to submit claims online, upload pdf files of receipts instead of mailing or faxing them in, request a new debit card, see history of communication, see real time transactions, and download forms.  Eide Bailey will be sending out a letter in January with new login instructions for their new website and a new debit card that will work with their new system.