eInside Briefs

New Collective Bargaining Agreement Between Kent State University and Its Tenure-Track Faculty Unit Now Ratified

Kent State University and the full-time, tenure-track faculty unit of the American Association of University Professors-Kent State Chapter (AAUP-KSU) are pleased to announce that a new, three-year collective bargaining agreement has been ratified. The Kent State University Board of Trustees held a special board meeting last week in Independence, Ohio, at the university’s new College of Podiatric Medicine to complete the ratification process for a successor collective bargaining agreement for tenure-track and tenured faculty. The Board unanimously approved the new contract. The Board’s action follows the AAUP-KSU membership accepting the agreement by a vote of 414-31 (or 93.03 percent) in favor of ratification.
 
“We’re glad we have reached an agreement that was approved unanimously by the board and with very strong support of the faculty,” says Jacqueline F. Woods, chair of Kent State’s Board of Trustees. “The administration and faculty share many common goals and a strong commitment to our students. On our campuses, we all want to create the best possible environment for learning and scholarship.”
 
“We are pleased that a new collective bargaining agreement is now in place,” says Eric Mintz, associate professor of biological sciences and chief negotiator for AAUP-KSU. “With the fall semester upon us, the faculty members are looking forward to working with the administration to provide the best possible education for our students and enhancing the visibility of Kent State as an internationally recognized research university.”
 
Kent State President Lester A. Lefton expressed his appreciation following the completion of the ratification process.
 
“I’m grateful to everyone involved for the dedication they demonstrated throughout the negotiating process,” Lefton says. “I am pleased that after good-faith effort from everyone on both sides of the negotiating table we can now move forward. We enter a new academic year in a spirit of cooperation and commitment to academic excellence and student success, which are hallmarks of Kent State’s faculty and our university.”
 
The successor collective bargaining agreement with the tenure-track/tenured faculty unit will become effective starting Aug. 23, 2012, and expire on Aug. 23, 2015. The new agreement includes:
 
For Academic Year 2011-2012, a 2 percent across-the-board increase, applied retroactively to the beginning of the 2011-2012 academic year. For Academic Year 2012-2013, a 2 percent across-the-board increase, plus a 1.4 percent pool for Faculty Excellence Awards (merit). Merit reviews at the department level will be conducted during the fall semester and salary increases applied by March, retroactively to the start of Academic Year 2012-2013. For Academic Years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, a 2 percent across-the-board increase, plus a 1.3 percent merit pool each year.

The percent of total medical costs paid through premiums will increase from the current 14 percent for an employee at the median university salary to 16 percent in calendar year 2013 and 17 percent for calendar years 2014 and 2015. In terms of net cost compared to salary, it is estimated that this represents 0.5 percent of salary for the average Faculty member. There will be no changes in deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums or coverage.

Regarding parental leave, the president will convene a commission with broad representation across campus to examine best practices and make a recommendation on a paid parental leave policy. Faculty will be permitted to use three weeks of sick leave as paid parental leave in the interim.

A university-level handbook will be created by a broadly representative committee in which faculty are a majority. The current handbooks will be maintained but will transition to college/campus/unit subsections of the university handbook, which will be made available on the university website.
 
To view a copy of the new agreement, visit www.kent.edu/hr/labor/collective-bargaining.cfm.

Announcing Dedicated Faculty Tech Support From the Experts

Faculty, mark your calendars!  Information Services will once again kick off the start of the fall semester with dedicated faculty tech help sessions.  This year’s “Technology Tune-Up” sessions were organized to help faculty with their Blackboard Learn courses, plus resolve any password and Internet issues before the start of the semester.

10 Opportunities to Drop In
Monday, Aug. 20 - Friday, Aug. 24, 3 - 5 p.m.
Monday, Aug. 27 - Friday, Aug. 31, 3 - 5 p.m.

Three Drop-In Locations
University Library: 1st Floor Reference Desk
Satterfield Hall: Main Entrance (facing the Business Administration Building)
White Hall: Room 217

Subject-area experts will be on site to show faculty how to build new courses, reuse content from previous courses and resolve common technical issues. Watch for additional information in next week’s e-Inside or visit www.kent.edu/is/helpdesk/kickoff.

University Libraries Unveils New Website

The website for University Libraries
has a new look. The redesigned website
makes it easier for users to navigate.

University Libraries’ website has a new look. A team composed  of library faculty and staff members, and members of University Communication and Marketing’s Web team have been working on the redesign project for more than a year. Web committee member Ken Burhanna explains that the new design focuses on three goals: “To better integrate the library into the look and feel of Kent State’s Web presence, to make the site easier to navigate and use, and to increase opportunities for reaching new audiences on and off campus.”

Users should encounter a more engaging and dynamic University Libraries Web presence, but they will also find all the resources, tools and services they have come to rely on.
 
What should users know about the new site? “Most of the changes will be seamless,” says Burhanna. “University Libraries’ Web URL will be www.kent.edu/library, but this address has always taken you to University Libraries. We’ve also worked hard to put redirect URLs in place. So if you’ve bookmarked library pages, those links won’t be broken, but instead will redirect you to similar pages on the new site.”
 
The University Libraries’ Web committee gathered lots of input to inform their design process. Over the past year, they have undertaken focus groups, card sorting exercises, surveys and wire frame testing to gather feedback on the needs of University Libraries’ website.

A formal usability study is planned for the fall. If you or your students are interested in participating in a usability test of the new site, please send a note to Diane Sperko at dsperko@kent.edu. All feedback about the new site is welcome.  Share your feedback at the “How Are We Doing?” link found at the bottom footer area of every page on the University Libraries website.

College of Education, Health and Human Services Announces 2012 Hall of Fame Winners

Seven alumni will be recognized at third annual awards ceremony

Kent State University’s College of Education, Health and Human Services will honor seven distinguished alumni at its third annual Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony on Friday, Sept. 28, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Kent Student Center Ballroom. Tickets for the event are $38 per person and include hors d’ oeuvres, followed by a sit-down meal.

The third class in the 2012 College of Education, Health and Human Services Hall of Fame includes:

Centennial Alumni Award
Lou Holtz (1959)

Lou Holtz (Photo credit: ESPN)

Holtz, who grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio, received his bachelor’s degree in history and education from Kent State. He played linebacker at Kent State for two seasons before an injury ended his career. Holtz has established himself as one of the most successful college football coaches of all time. He is the only coach in the history of college football to take six different teams to a bowl game, to win five bowl games with different teams, and to have four different college teams ranked in the final top 20. He is most known for his 11-year tenure at Notre Dame University, where he led the Fighting Irish to a national championship in 1988, and an overall record of 100-30-2. He is a motivational speaker and talks about overcoming impossible challenges by setting goals and working to achieve them.











Distinguished Alumni Award
Mark L. Savickas, Ph.D. (1975 )

Mark L. Savickas, Ph.D.

Savickas, a resident of Kent, received his Ph.D. in guidance and counseling from Kent State. Currently, he is professor of family and community medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) and adjunct professor of counselor education at Kent State. He was named chair emeritus at NEOMED for 27 years, leading the department of behavioral sciences. His 80 articles, 40 book chapters and 500 presentations to professional groups have dealt with vocational behavior and career counseling. He serves as professor extraordinaire at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and previously served three-year terms as a visiting professor in the Department of Organisational Behaviour in the School of Business at Loughborough University (United Kingdom), the Faculty of Psychology at Vrije University (Belgium), and the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Lisbon (Portugal).












Recent Alumni Award
Shakhnoza Yakubova (2009)

Shakhnoza Yakubova

Yakubova, a resident of Almaty City, Kazakhstan, and staff member at KIMEP University, received her Master of Arts degree in higher education administration and student personnel from Kent State. She was awarded the Presidential International Scholarship “Bolashak” provided by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan from 2007-2009 to study abroad. She founded and directed a nonprofit organization, Academic Resource and Career Consulting Center, to educate and counsel secondary and high school students in rural Southern Kazakhstan. In her spare time, she volunteers to help orphaned children in Kazakhstan and organizes and leads international charity fundraising activities for children and women in Kazakhstan who are in need of urgent surgeries or medical treatment abroad.












Diversity Alumni Award
Kenneth Cushner, Ph.D. (1973, 1978)

Kenneth Cushner

Cushner, a resident of Cuyahoga Falls and a professor of international and multicultural teacher education at Kent State, received his Bachelor of Arts degree in biological sciences and secondary education, and his master’s of education degree in guidance and counseling from Kent State. In the past 30 years, he has published seven books and received numerous awards. He led the College of Education, Health and Human Services in receiving the Best Practice Award in Support of Diversity in 1999, and the Best Practice Award in Global and International Education 2004 from the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE). In 2008, he was a Fulbright Senior Specialist at Gotland University in Sweden. He continues to encourage students to teach overseas and currently serves as the director of the Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching (COST), which sends student teachers to more than 15 different countries.
 











International Alumni Award
Ibrahim Makkawi, Ph.D. (1999)
Makkawi, a resident of Ramallah, Palestine, received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from Kent State. He is an assistant professor in the psychology department at Birzeit University in Palestine. He is actively involved in the Community Psychology Program at Birzeit University, and has published six journal articles and presented papers at more than 20 conferences worldwide in the last 15 years.



Distinguished Service to EHHS Award
Mary Cibella, Esq. (1980)

Mary Cibella, Esq.

Cibella, an attorney and counsel to the law firm of McGinty Hilow & Spellacy Co. L.P.A in Cleveland, received a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Kent State. Cibella concentrates her practice in the area of professional responsibility. She is a lecturer on various ethics, discipline, professionalism and substance abuse topics, and has published eight papers. She received the Ohio State Bar Association’s Nettie Cronise Lutes Award in 2009 and the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland Trustee Award in 2004. She is a member of the Supreme Court of Ohio Commission on Professionalism and the Cleveland Metro and Ohio State Bar associations. Also, she volunteers her time as an advisory council member for the College of Education, Health and Human Services.














Alumni Leadership Award
Frank A. Fecser, Ph.D. (1989)

Frank A. Fecser, Ph.D. 

Fecser, CEO of Positive Education Program and Mentor resident, received his Ph.D. in special education from Kent State. He is the co-founder and vice president of Life Space Crisis Intervention Institute (LSCI). LSCI is an advanced strategy for adults working with troubled and troubling children and youth to help them gain insight into self-defeating patterns of behavior. Also, he serves as a board member for the Woodruff Foundation and the American Re-EDucation Association, and is a contributing editor to Reclaiming Children and Youth. In 2012, Fecser received the American Re-EDucation Association Lifetime Achievement Award.














To purchase tickets to the College of Education, Health and Human Services Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony, visit https://commerce.cashnet.com/halloffame or contact Hope Bradley at 330-672-2208 or hbradle2@kent.edu by Sept. 21.