Who is UHPA?
We are UHPA! Our Assistant Executive Director is snapping quick YouTubes of our members and you might be next!
UHPA Vice-President Sally Pestana instrumental in expanding iCAN program
Between 2011 and 2014, the UHCCs received fifty million dollars in four rounds of federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant funds through the U.S. Department of Labor. The grants focus on all aspects of job creation — including new workforce training program development, existing program enhancement, and job placement. For the past two years, UHPA Vice President Sally Pestana has been the grant coordinator for the first round of funds received by Kapiolani CC.
One part of the KapCC grant outcomes was the creation of the iCAN program (Individualized Career Achievement Network). The iCAN Career Skills course is a 130 hour course designed to help participants prepare for a job training program at a University of Hawai’i Community College or entry-level employment. The course focuses on upgrading the reading, writing, and math levels for students who never thought college was an option for them. In addition, Sally developed a 30 hour iCAN Health Care Foundations course this semester. This course focuses on medical terminology, ethics, safety, and communication skills needed for entry level employment in the state’s health care sector.
Sally was instrumental in expanding the iCAN program to off campus venues such as the Oahu Work Links (OWL) office and McKinley Community School for Adults. She is quick to give credit to a fabulous team of instructors and counselors she coordinates who deliver the program. You will have a better feel for the iCAN program through two short videos highlighting the great work this program is doing for our state — one person at a time!
Read more: Non-traditional students discover they can with iCAN
Non-traditional students discover they can with iCAN from University of Hawai’i System on Vimeo.
UHPA Director Sets World Record
Congratulations to UHPA Director, Jennifer Small Griswold, Ph.D., and her husband Brett for setting a new Guinness World Record for longest time danced by a couple. They danced the Argentine Tango for over 36 hours while simultaneously raising money for the National Federation of the Blind.
Dr. Griswold is an Assistant Professor of Meteorology at UH Manoa.
UPDATE: Congratulations Jennifer and Brett on ANOTHER world record!
The Griswolds did it again!
This past Sunday (12/14/14) in the Honolulu Marathon, with a time of 11 hours 43 minutes and 8 seconds, UHPA Director, Jennifer Griswold, and her husband Brett broke the Guinness World Record for “The Fastest Marathon Tango Danced by a Couple”!
Executive Director JN Musto Announces Retirement
NEWS RELEASE
Date: November 10, 2014
Contact: Kris Hanselman
(808) 593-2157
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UHPA Executive Director J. N. Musto Announces Retirement;
Search for Successor Now Under Way
(Honolulu, Hawai‘i) – J. N. Musto, Executive Director and Chief Negotiator of the University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly (UHPA) has announced he is planning to retire in August 2015 after more than 35 years in the position.
“Dr. Musto first informed us of his plans to retire at a board meeting in 2012, and this has given us ample time as an organization to develop a transition plan to continue to effectively serve our 4,000 faculty members across the ten University of Hawai‘i campuses statewide,” said David Duffy, UHPA President. “Still, this is a major change for us as an organization, and we have now begun to execute our roadmap for the future.”
UHPA’s transition plan includes finding a successor to Musto. A nationwide search for qualified candidates officially began this month with ads placed in such publications as the Chronicle of Higher Education. The UHPA board plans to start reviewing candidates mid-January 2015.
“We recognize it will be difficult to find a leader of Dr. Musto’s caliber, which is one of the reasons we are starting now and casting a very broad net,” Duffy said. “His leadership and negotiations experience combined with his ability to advocate for the needs of UH faculty and for higher education in a collaborative, respectful manner set a new bar for public sector unions in Hawai‘i. Dr. Musto’s example of relationship-building and his contributions to the advancement of collective bargaining in our state definitely earn him a permanent place of honor in the history of the Hawai‘i labor movement.”
Under Musto’s leadership, UHPA also emerged as a recognized force in political races, providing substantial financial and tactical support to those it endorsed despite its relatively smaller membership size in comparison to other public sector unions. Musto culminates his career with a signed two-year contract with Gov. Neil Abercrombie, the UH administration, and the UH Board of Regents, which is set to go into effect when the current contract expires at the end of June 2015, pending funding support from Hawai‘i’s legislators.
Position Requirements
According to the position description, the new Executive Director will be expected to “provide leadership to the Board of Directors and oversee the union’s collective bargaining, contract enforcement, service to members, and the faculty’s commitment to providing the people of Hawai‘i with the highest levels of public higher education,” while also being “able to work in the diverse, unique and complex culture of Hawai‘i.” A full description and application information is available on UHPA’s newly established web pages.
Background on J. N. Musto
While pursuing a graduate degree, J. N. Musto was a secondary school biology teacher, with the intent to revolutionize the development and teaching methods of biology curricula. It was his personal mission to introduce new education reforms based on experiential teaching.
His focus on science later transitioned to a deeper academic pursuit of law and education, which led to Musto earning a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1973. His dissertation was titled, “Policies, Practices, and Extent of Professional Staff Reductions in Selected Michigan School Districts.”
He taught educational law and public sector employment at Northern Michigan University, while also spending two years supervising student teachers in both Michigan and Wisconsin. This experience gave him insights into the full spectrum of educational settings, extending from Native American reservations to the most advanced university research facilities.
Before coming to Hawai‘i, Musto was the Executive Director & Chief Negotiator for the Central Michigan Faculty Association and the Ferris State College Faculty Association, affiliates of the Michigan Education Association. During this period he participated in the organizing of faculty unions from California to New York and Florida on behalf of the National Education Association. Throughout his career, he has often been called on to give national presentations on a wide range of topics related to public employment and the unionization of college and university faculty.
In addition to serving with UHPA, Musto has supported the community in other ways. He served on the board of directors of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawai‘i (RCUH); was a trustee and chairman of the Hawai‘i Public Employees Health Fund and later as a trustee of the successor Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF); and served on several nonprofit boards, including the Aloha United Way, the Epilepsy Society, and Hawai‘i Literacy, Inc. During the 2014 Legislative Session, Governor Abercrombie re-appointed Musto as one of seven Commissioners to the Education Commission of the States (ECS).
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About the University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly
The University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly (UHPA) represents nearly 4000 faculty members at 10 campuses in the University of Hawai‘i system statewide. It has been the exclusive bargaining agent for all UH faculty since 1974.
Signing of Two-Year Faculty Agreement Marks A New Milestone in Collective Bargaining
When UHPA, Gov. Neil Abercrombie, the UH Board of Regents and the UH administration announced in late June 2014 that they had reached a tentative two-year agreement, a year before the current faculty contract was to set to expire in June 2015, it raised a new bar for collective bargaining in Hawaii.
It was the first time a public sector successor contract had been reached so far in advance. The UHPA Board of Directors unanimously voted in favor of ratifying the tentative agreement and the nearly 4,000 Bargaining Unit 7 members across the 10 UH campuses subsequently ratified the contract via electronic vote on August 24, 2014.
This past Monday, November 3, the all of the parties involved in the negotiation that led to the unprecedented agreement convened to officially sign the two-year agreement.
The agreement was signed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, J.N. Musto, UHPA Executive Director and Chief Negotiator; and David Duffy, UHPA President; David Lassner, UH President; John Morton, UH Vice President for Community Colleges; and Jan Sullivan, Vice Chair of the UH Board of Regents.
The Governor gave special recognition to John Radcliffe, who has been instrumental in negotiations over the years. Before launching his own company, Radcliffe had served 17 years as Executive Director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) and seven years as Associate Executive Director under J.N. Musto with UHPA.
The event at the State Capitol underscored what can be accomplished when there is a collaboration, mutual respect and a desire to uphold the spirit of collective bargaining, as envisioned in Chapter 89 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, said J.N. Musto. This was Musto’s last contract before his planned retirement in August 2015.
Gov. Abercrombie, whose term officially ends in January 2015, said in a quivering voice that the contract represents his 55-year relationship with the UH. He noted that he had been in contract negotiations for UH faculty since he first came to Hawaii as a lecturer and graduate student at UH-Manoa.
The Governor added that four years ago, the state faced unfunded liabilities and a budget deficit, and the agreement represents a positive turnaround in the state’s fiscal picture.
The agreement includes an across-the-board 4 percent increase for all UH faculty and lecturers on July 1, 2015 and another across-the-board 4 percent increase the following year. It will also address minimum salaries and the increased employer contributions to the health insurance premiums provided through the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund. The projected total for this contract is $32 million.
Funding for the agreement must be approved in the upcoming legislative session, which ends in early May 2015, a month before the current faculty contract expires on June 30, 2015.
As part of the agreement, three working task forces are being established to address issues of workforce housing, childcare and child care leave, and distance and online learning.
Historic Contract Signed!
Today, our 2015-2017 Collective Bargaining Contract was formally signed by Governor Neil Abercrombie, UHPA Executive Director J.N. Musto, UH President David Lassner, Vice President for Community Colleges John Morton, UH BOR Vice-Chair Jan Sullivan, UHPA President David Duffy, and State of Hawaii Chief Negotiator Neil Dietz.
A special “fourth copy” of the contract was signed by the aforementioned parties and given as a gift to John Radcliffe, former UHPA Associate Executive Director who played an important ambassadorial role in bringing all parties together in this agreement.
Could the University of Hawaii’s latest move, firing men’s basketball head coach Gib Arnold, cost the school more in the long run?
UH will pay Arnold $344,000 for the final year of his contract, which was set to expire in June 2015. He will remain officially employed until Jan. 26, but will not be coaching.
J.N. Musto, executive director of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, is familiar with contracts and how they and the university work. He says it’s a tragedy for the university to go through another personnel situation.
Read the rest of the article at “Recent payouts, losses cost UH nearly $1.8 million” KHON news.
Chief UHPA Negotiator Reaffirms the UH/ Union Joint Commitment
J. N. Musto reaffirmed UHPA’s commitment to contractualizing important principles related to MOUs on Workforce Housing (R-19), Childcare and Child care Leave (R-20), and Distance and On-Line Learning (R-21) at UHPA’s Faculty Forum held on Saturday, October 18, 2014.
Invited guests, President Lassner speaking on Distance and On-Line Learning and Mayor Kirk Caldwell speaking on Island Wide Affordable Housing, received a supportive reaction by an enthusiastic audience comprised of UHPA state-wide Faculty REPs.
LifeSmarts
The State DCCA Office of the Securities Commissioner coordinates a youth-oriented program called LifeSmarts. It is a free educational program for teens from grades 6 through 12 that develops their consumer and marketplace skills. It teaches them to be smart and responsible consumers and citizens in the areas of personal finance, health and safety, the environment, technology, and consumer rights and responsibilities. Students compete and prizes are awarded. If you would like to participate as a volunteer, be a sponsor, make a donation, or simply want more information, the contact information for LifeSmarts are: (website) LifeSmartsHawaii.com (email) iep@dcca.hawaii.gov (phone) 808-587-7400 (fax) 808-586-3977
NOTE: Prizes and promotional items donated are due to the DCCA by Friday, January 23, 2015 or earlier. Mahalo for your involvement to help Hawaii’s youth!
2014 UH Executive & Managerial Salaries Posted
Along with other changes in the UHPA website, the section covering faculty salaries, and those of UH administrators, has been enhanced and improved. The faculty salaries are updated monthly, and we request the disclosure of current administrative salaries in the Fall and Spring semesters. You find searching for salary information to be much easier, and enabled by specific search parameters, e.g., campus, rank, discipline, etc.