Spotlight on Michelle Farnam, Counselor, SAS What attracted you to join Faculty Assembly Council? I have worked as a Student Accessibility Services Counselor at MCC for 15 years. During this time, I have attended All-Faculty meetings regarding changes in our policies, read FA newsletters, held signs on a corner supporting incoming Board of Trustee members and attended “Get to Know the Contract” events. Recently, it dawned on me that even though I participated in these activit

by dara Our committee has fun, important, and interesting tasks and goals ahead. Committee members—Ruth Gay, Casey McFarland, Abby Burd, Richard Ma, Billy Gunn (FA Treasurer), and I—will be involved with the District-wide Fringe Benefits Committee (FBC), and we will update full-time faculty on changes to benefit plans and open-enrollment (which is coming quickly). In the past, we have worked with HR to provide even more training and guidance for the open enrollment process, b

by Luke Lara, Ombudsperson Since its establishment over six years ago, the Faculty Assembly (FA) has recognized the importance of working collaboratively with the Academic Senate (AS) to make decisions on “overlap” issues. On the surface, there seems to be a clearly defined line of separation between the Senate’s areas of legal authority (the “10+1”) and FA territory (working conditions). Faculty issues such as curriculum and professional development are at the heart of the S

Some time ago, a faculty member asked, “dara, how do I know if I’m paying FA dues?” Being a person who believes in the “Teach a Person to Garden” style of helping, I sent them a screen shot I took from workday (everyone’s favorite!) and was able to very quickly demonstrate where to find the answer on our pay slips. It looks like this: Note: to locate your pay slips in Workday, go to "View All Apps > Pay > Payslips" and click "View" for a recent pay slip to see your Post Tax D

by Mary Gross You have seen “MOUs” on our FA Council Agendas or referred to in various meetings, but what exactly are they? MOUs are Memorandum of Understanding, or more technically the written agreement which captures two or more parties understanding on mutually agreed upon issues. The District and FA have entered into a number of MOUs over the past few years, particularly with matters involving responses to the pandemic that necessitated agreements for some temporary chang

by Mary Gross Welcome to the 2022/2023 Academic year and the first of several newsletters coming your way. I am privileged to work with an outstanding Executive team and Faculty Assembly Council, and we have had a busy start to the new academic year. As you may know, our FA Council meetings are scheduled on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month from 12-2. We will have one meeting per month on-campus and one via Zoom. Your attendance is welcomed and encouraged! We are also pla

We want to help. The purpose of the FA Education Committee is to demystify our contract and make it more accessible to our membership. Some of the ways we will be doing this is to identify relevant and timely contract areas to spotlight throughout the academic year as well as invite questions about the contract from faculty. You can submit questions to our new column, Ask Annie, using our contract question submission form link. The new column will be published after we hear f

by Billy Gunn, Treasurer As Treasurer of the MiraCosta College Faculty Assembly, my main role is maintaining a budget, while keeping track of our revenue and various expenses. Our revenue comes from the generous contributions of approximately 70% of full-time faculty, most of whom contribute 0.4% of their paychecks. The expenses incurred by the FA cover a wide range of categories, from legal counsel to institutional memberships to basic operating expenses. The purpose of this