Pick up Your Member-Only UHPA Shirt On Campus

/in , ,

Stand in Solidarity with Style!

From left: Dwight Takeno, Sarah Beamer, Joe Sam, Jim Kardash and Christian Fern (back), and Jamie Mow and Rovena Varde (front). Missing: Kathy Yamashita.

For all UHPA members who ordered their UHPA custom-designed polo shirts in December, your shirt has come in! Kāhala, the manufacturer of these quality, dry-fit shirts promised our official UHPA shirts would arrive for the fall 2023 semester, and they have kept to their schedule. 

As you can see from the photo above, these attractive polo shirts have a distinctive Hawai‘i look and subtly incorporate our UHPA logo into the overall design. Your shirt allows us to stand in solidarity with style.

Upcoming Distributions:

 

UH Hilo and Hawaii Community College

Student Services Building, Room W201

Wednesday, December 6, 2023
9:00 am – 12:00 pm

UHPA Representative: Sarah Beamer

 

UH West Oahu

Distribution via the Office of the VCAA Mail Delivery (Respective Mailboxes)

Available for pick up beginning on Friday, December 8, 2023

 

Dates and times for the remaining campuses will be announced via email and web when scheduled.

Already Delivered

Kauai Community College

Room NATSCI 111 (Jeff Mexia’s Office)

Thursday, October 19, 2023
11:30 am – 1:30 pm

UHPA Representatives: Christian Fern and Sarah Beamer

UH Manoa – Campus Center

Campus Center Rooms 307 and 308

Tuesday, October 17, 2023
11:00 am – 1:00 pm

UHPA Representatives: Christian Fern, Dwight Takeno, Jamie Mow, Sarah Beamer and Joseph Sam

Honolulu Community College

Administration Building, Conference Room 6-101

Wednesday, October 4, 2023
10 am – noon

Leeward Community College

Tuesday, September 26, 2023
10 am – noon
UHPA Representative Sarah Beamer

Windward Community College

Wednesday, September 20, 2023
10 am – noon
UHPA Representative: Dwight Takeno

Kapiolani Community College

Wednesday, September 20, 2023
11 am – 1 pm
UHPA Representative James Kardash

UHPA Expands Leadership Team

/in , ,

This week, UHPA gladly welcomed Jamie Mow to our leadership team as an associate executive director.

“We’re glad to have Jamie on our team to broaden the capabilities of our leadership team and to prepare UHPA for the future.” said Christian Fern, UHPA executive director. “Jamieʻs background will be a valuable asset to the UHPA team.”

Jamie has extensive leadership and legal affairs experience.

Prior to joining UHPA, Jamie had been an investigator and compliance officer with Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard’s Office of the Assistant Inspector General since August 2020, responsible for conducting audits on shipyard programs, operations, and processes, and leading investigations into allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and harassment, or related civil administrative or criminal matters.

She also served at HMSA’s legal affairs department from April 2011 to August 2020, starting as an associate counsel, and rising to counsel and eventually counsel and manager. In those roles, she provided legal advice and counsel to HMSA and was responsible for research and interpretation of state and federal law and regulations, corporate governance, and defending the organization in litigation and arbitration.

Jamie also served as a law clerk to Chief Administrative Judge Bert Ayabe in the First Circuit Court in the Hawaii State Judiciary. She also was a senior tax associate with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP in San Jose, California from 2006 to 2009.
The Mānoa resident received a bachelor of arts degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting from the University of Washington, in Seattle, and a law degree from the University of San Francisco.

Hearts Going Out For Our UH Maui Ohana

/in , ,

This is a difficult time for all of us in Hawai‘i. It has been hard to watch the devastation from the wildfires occurring in Lahaina and other parts of Maui and not be moved with compassion and sadness.

Read more

New Law Creates Sustainable Future for Hawaii’s Public Unions

/in ,

Hawaii’s public-sector unions, including UHPA, can face a brighter, more sustainable future, thanks to a new bill recently signed into law by Gov. Josh Green that amends Hawaii Revised Statutes, Chapter 89, which relates to unions and collective bargaining.

Since the U.S Supreme Court decision in Janus v American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31, et. al. in 2018, public unions had the option of providing all faculty members the same benefits of dues-paying members.

This obviously is not financially sustainable for unions, especially since it is very costly and time-consuming to help faculty address grievances and to defend them when there are violations of the UHPA contract and/or a faculty member’s terms and conditions of employment. This takes time and resources away from UHPA and to those faculty who pay dues, and is not equitable nor fair to dues-paying faculty members.

UHPA Shall Only Represent Dues-Paying Members

“We have always been willing and we stand ready to support and advocate for faculty members who may be facing a challenging situation in their work environment,” said Christian Fern, UHPA Executive Director. “It’s important to note that the Janus decision did not mandate that unions were required to provide individuals with free representation or expect to receive representation without paying dues. As a union, we had to make a difficult and prudent policy decision to limit our support to dues-paying members. This new Hawai‘i law helps to clarify and codify this.”

And Now It’s In The Law

The change to the Hawaii Revised Statutes modified the statutory required duties of unions deemed as an exclusive bargaining agent. Instead of representing all members, unions can now focus their support on dues-paying members. Specifically, HB1205, HD1, SD1 amended HRS, Chapter 89, §89-8(a) to read: unions “shall have the right to act for and negotiate agreements covering all employees in the unit and shall be responsible for representing the interests of the employees without discrimination and without regard to employee organization membership; provided that the exclusive representative shall not be required to provide grievance representation to employees who do not pay dues or dues equivalents and who decline to pay reasonable costs of that representation.
When the fall semester begins, watch for information on how you can join UHPA! Enjoy the summer!

SCR 201 Primer for UHPA Members

/in , , ,

In response to the SCR 201 feedback form content we’ve received, UHPA has published a Primer on Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 201 and related UH Policy Proposed Changes to assist members with understanding and accessing relevant documents.

The primer includes:

  • Overview of the SCR 201 purpose
  • Justification for Policy Changes
  • Key Changes at a Glance
  • Links to redlined versions of each affected Regent and Executive policy

 

Read SCR201 Primer

The primer and redlined policy changes are made available to UHPA Members only using Google Drive files. Please follow the instructions on this link if you get a “You need access” dialog box and cannot immediately access the files.  

If you’re not a member, signup is quick and easy via our online form.

Submit Your SCR 201 Feedback and Recommendations

/in , , ,

UHPA has created a SCR 201 Google Form to collect your feedback on the proposed Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 201 Policy Changes. Any recommendations that you provide will be used to assist and guide UHPA in advocating and conveying faculty questions and concerns to management over the proposed SCR 201 changes during the consultation process. While these recommendations will be brought forward for discussion, they in itself do not guarantee policy language changes in line with the recommendations offered.

 

Submit SCR 201 Feedback and Recommendations

What is SCR 201 All About?

Read our SCR 201 Primer to bring yourself up to date on this issue.

Last Chance To Register For The UHPA Annual Membership Meeting

/in ,

Reminder to UHPA Members

Notice of Annual Membership Meeting

The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly will hold its 49th Annual Membership Meeting via Zoom webinar:  

Friday, April 14, 2023

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

This is a reminder that as an UHPA member you were sent an invitation on 3/23 via email to join us for UHPA’s virtual Annual Membership Meeting as we present UHPA’s new Board Members and annual reports. 

How to Attend

To attend the virtual zoom webinar, you must have a zoom account (either your UH account or non-edu is OK) to register using this link before April 12, 2023 11:59 pm. For security purposes, please be sure you register with your name and an email address UHPA has on file. Once you register, UHPA staff will verify names and email addresses. Only verified names and emails of UHPA Members will be approved.  Once you are approved, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. 

The Zoom Webinar will be open at 11:25 a.m.  Be sure you are logged into your email account that you registered with when logging into the Zoom Webinar or Zoom will not allow you access. 

We hope you will join us! If you have any difficulty in registering, please contact UHPA Staff Member Kathy Yamashita.

Don’t let DMK Pull A Fast One on US

/in , , ,

Take Action Right Now If You Care About UH’s Future

UHPA has received reliable intel that the Senate Committee on Higher Education (HRE) will be scheduling SB 3269 for a hearing early next week and HRE Chair Senator Donna Mercado Kim plans to post the hearing notice late Friday (2/4/22) evening.

Your Testimony is a Must

We need you to submit written testimony and/or testify via videoconference and you must do so at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to the hearing. 

Pulling a Fast One?

There is a possibility that HRE Chair Senator Donna Mercado Kim may schedule the bill to be heard as early as Tuesday, February 8, 2022.  Thus, all written testimony and/or registration for verbal testimony must be done on Monday, February 7, 2022, and at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled hearing.  

Start Drafting Testimony Now

If you are planning to submit written testimony, we encourage you to work on your draft as soon as possible in that you will be prepared to submit the testimony before the 24 hour deadline.  We will keep you apprised of the issuance of the hearing notice.

In solidarity we stand!

 

Some ideas on How to Testify

In response to your requests, we’ve created a detailed template for SB3269 that you can use as inspiration for your own testimony.  Please do not copy/paste – use this to get you started and come up with your own voice and own reasons for why you oppose this bill!

Slide Deck Published

UHPA Members can download a PDF of the slide deck that was used at our recent Emergency Briefing. 

 

Note: All linked content is for UHPA Members only

Sample Template Published for SB3269

/in , , ,

Record Breaking Attendance 

Mahalo to the close to 500 faculty members who participated in the UHPA Emergency Briefing on SB 3269 yesterday.  We hope that the information we shared provides the background and context you need to prepare your letters, emails, and eventually, testimony, to kill SB 3269.

Email template developed

We understand that this is a complex measure, and in following up on some of the requests from faculty at the Briefing, please find a copy of a SB3269 template for your use. 

Don’t just copy/paste/send

Please remember it is critically important to personalize your letter or email so that your individual voice is heard. Our efforts to stop SB 3269 from moving forward will be much more effective when  faculty members share their personal stories and perspectives about the potential harm, problems, and destruction the proposed bill, if passed, will create. Collectively, this has a powerful impact and makes a lasting impression, just as faculty showed in the Board of Regents meeting last October.     

Mahalo!

We greatly appreciate your participation and willingness to engage in unity over this fight for the preservation of tenure, academic freedom, and autonomy.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact UHPA, should you have any questions or concerns.

Me ke aloha, 

Christian

Tenure Is Under Attack Again

/in , ,

Just a few short months ago, UH faculty and UH administrators joined forces to express their indignation with the findings and recommendations that were presented by the Tenure Permitted Action Group commissioned by the UH Board of Regents. At the October 21st BOR meeting, the Regents heard impassioned testimonies, one after another, from more than 30 faculty members, each reiterating the concerns in the more than 600 pages of submitted testimony.

No Agreement Over Tenure PIG Recommendations

The forewarning from both faculty and administrators was clear: the Tenure PIG’s recommendations were professionally insulting and would destroy the quality of Hawaii’s public higher education system. It was a fervent show of force with compelling pleas to leave the academic system alone. Some faculty members also pointed out that the Tenure PIG had strayed from its intended purpose and did not include faculty input. 

It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

Just when we all thought logic would prevail, we see that the Tenure PIG document has reared its ugly head and found its way into a new legislative bill. It is prominently referenced in the preamble of SB 3269. (Kudos to our senators for recycling trash.) So here we go again.

A Dangerous and Unconstitutional Bill

The bill stealthily: 1) rationalizes legislative micromanagement by claiming it is in the interest of the state for legislators to get involved with tenure since it requires a long-term commitment of public funds; 2) attenuates and relinquishes the BOR constitutional rights under Article X, Section 6. of the State’s Constitution; and 3) attempts to circumvent and violate Faculty members’ constitutional collective bargaining rights under Article XIII, Section 2. of the State’s Constitution. 

Call To Action

In last October’ BOR meeting, faculty successfully stopped the recommendations of the Tenure PIG from being implemented. It was a huge victory. We are calling upon all faculty members for an encore performance on a bigger stage with the legislature. This is an opportunity to educate legislators on what makes and what it takes to create a distinguished, recognized, and reputable university and voice your concerns over inappropriate legislative meddling and interference.

Send Your Message Loud and Clear

SB 3269 was introduced yesterday. Your intervention is needed now before this gets any further. Please contact the introducers of this bill and share your perspectives.  Faculty members have made a difference before at the BOR meeting. We can make a difference again in the legislature. Gloves off!

SB 3269 Introducers:

Sen. Donna Mercado Kim

Phone: (808) 587-7200

E-Mail: senkim@capitol.hawaii.gov

Sen. Kurt Fevella

Phone: (808) 586-6360

E-Mail: senfevella@capitol.hawaii.gov

Sen. Les Ihara, Jr.

Phone: (808) 586-6250

E-Mail: senihara@Capitol.hawaii.gov

Sen. Gil Riviere

Phone: (808) 586-7330

E-Mail: senriviere@capitol.hawaii.gov

Sen. Glenn Wakai

Phone: (808) 586-8585

E-Mail: senwakai@capitol.hawaii.gov