CHAPARRAL

CSEA Update

Spring semester is upon us, and we don’t have the pressure of FTES count this time.  The tough economy, sad to say, helps us by bringing more students back to our campus, meaning more students for us, more than we can afford with our scarce resources.

     Yes, we have a budget now and it is better than we anticipated; however, we are not at the point where we can talk about the current recession in the past tense.

     It is a busy time for the CSEA.   The CSEA Executive Board is helping our endorsed candidates for the Board of Trustees by working on a successful election.  Please do not forget to exercise your fundamental right to vote on April 7, 2009.   It makes a difference to have trustees who understand the needs of both students and employees and who are not using Glendale College as a steppingstone to a higher political office.

     We can spend funds, help with the distribution of lawn signs, stuff mailers and still fail if we do not vote on April 7.  Imagine having a candidate we do not support taking a seat on the dais.

Classified Retreat offers expert speakers

  A two-day Classified Retreat will take place during spring break.   As always, confidential employees are invited to participate.  We will have contract education workshops conducted by CSEA Labor Relations Representative Matthew Gentile and the CSEA expert in CALPERS regulations, Nadine Franklin, who often helps CALPERS professionals to interpret legislation.  You do not have to plan to retire in the near future to know about your retirement benefits and how CALPERS works. Planning your retirement definitely would not hurt.  Do not miss this opportunity to hear Nadine Franklin, and with her busy schedule, we are lucky to have her speak at the retreat.   John Queen, Academic Senate President and Accreditation Coordinator, will be a speaker on the accreditation process, and we also will have a forum so you can ask questions and get answers from the very source—administrators.

     Last year in my Chaparral article, I asked the college community to nominate a classified and a confidential employee or a classified manager for the John Davitt Award.  Thank you to those who nominated.  We’ve got a great response and had so many of you who took time from your busy schedules to nominate an employee for the award.   The nomination form is available on the website http://www.glendale.edu/davittaward/.   A person you nominate can be any employee you dealt with in the course of your college work and/or student matters.  One good example would be the recent outpouring of messages regarding the Duplicating staff.  You can put all those kind words into a nomination form and nominate an employee from that area.  The deadline for the nomination forms to be submitted to the Human Resources office is April 1, 2009. &

In Unity,
Saodat Aziskhanova

Visit us on the web! www.glendale.edu/csea