MSU Administrative Professional Association

On Friday, June 8 from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m., the MSU APA Union will hold its second annual picnic at Patriarche Park, located at the corner of Alton Road and East Saginaw Street in East Lansing.

Grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, side items and dessert will be provided, and there will be games and activities for the whole family. All APA members and their families are invited to attend and there is no charge for admission. The location is great for children, since there is a lot of playground equipment very close to the pavilion. The evening also serves as an opportunity for all to network, both socially and professionally. Be sure to mark the date on your calendars!

Interview with APA member Audrey Sebolt
Research Technician: Cherry Breeding & Genetics  |  Department of Horticulture

How long have you been at MSU?
I’ve been on the third floor of the Plant and Soil Sciences Building at Michigan State University since 1993.  I transferred from Aquinas College (Grand Rapids, MI) to MSU to complete my bachelors degree and then continued on with my masters, working for the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences throughout both my degree programs.  I’ve been working for my current boss, Dr. Amy Iezzoni, since 1999 in the Department of Horticulture for the Cherry Breeding and Genetics Lab.

Have you been a member of APA the whole time?
I was a member of the CT union and then became an APA member in 1999 when I started working with my current boss.

Can you tell me a little bit about what you do?
Since 2009, I have not just been a research technician, but also a half-time project assistant for RosBREED.  RosBREED is funded by the USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative. RosBREED’s aim is to improve the fruit quality of apple, strawberry, peach, sweet cherry, and tart cherry and the project is a multi-national, multi-institutional program.  Our budget is 14 million dollars (federal and matching funds) and the project director is my boss, Dr. Amy Iezzoni. RosBREED is a collaborative project that involves more than 30 professors and 15 graduate students located throughout the United States and in six different countries.  My role is to communicate, collaborate, develop content and organize conferences with and for our participants.  I feel very fortunate to be their project assistant and have enjoyed this experience; our research community is a great group to work with and our motto is “RosBREED never sleeps” because we have someone in almost every time zone in the world working on the project and getting things done.

When I’m not working for RosBREED, I spend my time working for the Michigan State University cherry breeding and genetics program, whose mission is to develop new and improved tart cherry varieties that are disease resistant, have improved fruit quality and will be more profitable to the Michigan cherry industry.  Do you know that Michigan grows approximately 75% of the U.S. tart cherries?  I spend the summers in the field and the winters in the lab running DNA diagnostics, virus testing, however, my most of my “lab” work now involves me sitting at a computer.  Most of our DNA marker data has been generated by a core facility.  We were able to generate more than 5 million data points in one week due to the efforts of RosBREED, so data is still being quality checked and analyzed. We are finally beginning to catch up to where soybean and corn genetic research is at, but we have a long way to go!

What brought you to MSU?
I grew up and worked on a fruit farm in Oceana County, MI.  I had originally enrolled in the MSU engineering program, and though I enjoyed my classes, I just couldn’t see myself as an engineer and wanted to go back to my agricultural roots – so I walked over to the Plant and Soil Science building and immediately felt like I was “home”. I love what I do and feel it’s vital to Michigan and the world.  People need roads but I hope they are eating dried tart cherries on their way to work!

What do you love about working at MSU?
The best thing about working at MSU is that my job is never the same from day to day.  I love my job and have a wonderful boss and work for a strong department and University.  I appreciate their support and the strength of the APA union.  Because of the APA Union, I feel I have a good health care package and retirement, considering the economy.  The University is also a leader in agricultural research and I take pride in that as well as our beautiful campus – and who doesn’t love the Dairy Store?

What are the challenges of your position on campus?
Our summer field research is not conducted on campus and therefore, a typical day in the field for me is very intense.  Our research plots are located 50 miles west of campus at the MSU Clarksville Horticultural Research Station, located in Clarksville, MI. Because our research is off campus, we have to be extremely organized with our supplies and time management. We carry clipboards with to-do lists such as – weed this plot, take flower counts for our rootstock project (we are testing new rootstocks that we developed for sweet cherry), evaluate the crosses we made in the spring to see if we need to harvest the fruit, etc.  It can be pretty intense because we have to be extremely productive – if we don’t finish our to-do list, we are not able to just walk down the hall to finish the job.

Another challenge can be the long hours.  Because I work in agriculture, the spring and summer days can be stressful. For example, during bloom time (end of April/early May) we conduct our crosses and if it gets really hot, the flowers open at a faster rate and therefore I have to work seven days a week for several days straight, up to 9 hours per day.  In June and July our fruit begin to ripen and we have to start the harvest season.  During harvest, we load the van with coolers, head to Clarksville, harvest until at about 3pm so that we can drive back to main campus, unload our coolers and then start taking our data measurements on the fruit. During peak fruit harvest, I’m working 60+ hours a week because the fruit will not hold on the trees – you have to harvest and then quickly evaluate the fruit or it will rot.  Our data measurements on campus can get very tedious and monotonous.  We record data for fruit and pit weight and shape as well as fruit firmness, color, sugars, and acidity.  We end up generating millions of data points.  It’s a lot of data which we then enter into a computer in August and quality check.  Once the fruit data is “good to go”, we are then able to merge this data with our marker data I mentioned earlier to analyze and see if there are any markers that are correlated to our field data. I then help develop posters, presentations, reports and journal articles to present our results.

What do you like to do when you are not at work?
I enjoy gardening, cooking, jogging, traveling, and reading. I have a husband, seven-year-old son and four-year-old daughter and we love to play sports together – baseball, basketball and soccer.  My family and I also love nature and we enjoy hiking and biking. I am my son’s cub scout leader – for 14 second grade boys.

by Leo Sell, Legislative Committee Chairperson

Have you ever heard the expression, “starve the beast”? Since the Reagan years, this has been the name of the strategy – even crusade – engaged in by conservatives to “reduce the size of government” and such. It has been a heinous and deliberate strategy to eliminate revenue and cause so much financial pressure on the Federal, State, and local governments that all would have to eliminate virtually anything that would be considered a “social good”.

Well, fellow AP, you and I are part of the “beast” that conservatives have been starving. This is true from multiple perspective – Higher Ed/Public Ed, funding is abysmal. Student tuition costs have gone out of sight. Assaults on public employee pay, benefits, and pensions. Again, that’s you and me. With the latter, conservatives have tended to portray us grossly overpaid with huge and wonderful benefits that the “average person” will never see. Of course, what they’re really trying to do is use public employees as scapegoats.  The old strategy of playing one group of downtrodden against another – eventually they’ll kill one another (literally or figuratively).

There’s much to be said about all of this, and rather than go on and on myself I’d prefer to share a link to an article that covers much of this in a superior manner than I could provide.

Please read it over. Pay particular attention to the information deep in the article about higher education and public employees.

We have to get the Protect our Jobs amendment passed this fall and we must elect worker/middle-class friendly lawmakers instead of these conservative ideologues would would sooner see you and I out on the streets.

And take a look at a few more of the articles available at http://www.governmentisgood.com.

Michigan citizens from all backgrounds who work hard and play by the rules are joining
together and taking a stand.

For more than a year, Lansing politicians and corporate special interests have made one
attack after another on Michigan workers: cutting middle-class families’ wages, health care benefits, retirement security and safety protections.

In fact, there are more than 100 bills currently pending in the Legislature that weaken
protections for APA/MEA members, and many other workers from nurses and firefighters
to construction and factory employees.

These political attacks on basic collective bargaining rights have done nothing to put
Michiganders back to work. Instead, all they’ve done is hurt middle-class families, small
businesses and local communities.

In March, a coalition of 23 Michigan labor unions, small businesses and community-based
groups launched the Protect Our Jobs campaign. Citizens across Michigan have been
collecting signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that will
enshrine into our state Constitution the basic right of every worker to collectively bargain.

Collective bargaining gives all workers a voice and the ability to come together to negotiate a fair contract. Without these protections, we have no true voice in our wages, hours of work, and conditions of employment.

Our state organization, the MEA, is proud to help lead this charge. But it won’t be easy.
We need to collect more than 322,000 valid signatures in less than four months to put this
critical issue on the November ballot.

To learn more about the campaign, please visit ProtectOurJobs.com. If you would like to
sign the petition to place the issue on the November ballot, contact the APA/MEA office at
517.353.4898.

Please sign up to get involved in the campaign — after all, this is about protecting your job, your wages, your benefits, your safety and your voice.

Where Do I Turn For Answers?

What does my contract guarantee?  How do MSU procedures affect me?  Can my supervisor do that? These and countless other questions are asked every day by APA members about the wages, benefits, terms and working conditions of their MSU employment.  The instinct of most people is to ask a colleague we hope is knowledgeable and trustworthy.  However, if you cannot get the answer you need, do you assume your supervisor will provide an unbiased answer, attempt to find and interpret all the relevant policies and procedures, or do you give up and make the best of things?

APA is here to help fill any knowledge gap in a way designed to help YOU first.

The APA Membership Committee has been working hard to create more resources to meet the every day information needs of our fellow members. A primary focus has been expanding the Area Representative program.  The Committee analyzed the membership data and divided MSU into five (5) large areas (map). The APA has several appointed Area Representatives, but more ARs are currently undergoing an extensive education series to add to the cadre. A training series is also planned for Fall 2012.

Q:  What does an Area Representative do?

A:  Area representatives are members meant to be local, first points of contact with other APA members. ARs typically welcome new members to the Area, assist in organizing APA events, answer basic member questions, connect members with the right resources at APA and MSU, and provide information updates about the APA/MEA/NEA.

Q:  How do I contact an Area Representative?

A:  The APA website has a page devoted to the AR program (Area Representatives). Please feel free to contact any area representative listed, regardless of Area, but try your local one if you’re not sure! New ARs will be continually added to the site as they finish the training.  Any of them will be glad to hear from you.

Q:  Does my boss have to know I contacted an Area Representative?

A:  No!  You are well within your rights to ask questions of a union official, even if no grievance results. ARs will always be discrete and will not discuss your circumstances with anyone else, other than to ask further questions to the APA Officers and Staff. ARs understand the importance of your privacy.

Q:  If my boss informs me to contact my union representative, whom do I contact?

A:  Please call the APA Office right away 517-353-4898. ARs may aid the APA Officers and Staff, but will rarely replace them.

Q:  How do I learn more about or volunteer to become an Area Representative?

A:  Please contact the APA Membership Committee Chairperson, Nick Bourland at [email protected] for more information about the AR Program.

During the week on March 5, 2012, a statewide campaign to protect our jobs and our voice at work will be launched — and our most important task for the coming year will begin.

A coalition representing Michigan workers, small business owners, clergy, unions and other organizations from across the state will announce the Protect Our Jobs campaign, which aims to amend the state constitution to protect the right to collectively bargain.

Over the past year, Lansing politicians have moved one anti-worker measure after another, doing nothing to help put Michigan back to work.

In fact, there are more than 100 bills currently pending in the Legislature that weaken protections for APA/MEA members, and many other workers from nurses and firefighters to construction and factory employees.

To rebuild our economy, we all need to work together to protect Michigan workers and strengthen the middle class to help small businesses create jobs.

Our state organization, the MEA, is proud to help lead this charge. But it won’t be easy. We need to collect more than 322,000 valid signatures in less than four months to put this important measure on the November ballot.

MEA has been working on a plan that involves all field offices, staff, leaders and members — working together, we can and will protect our work, our voice and our future.

Visit www.ProtectOurJobs.com to volunteer with the campaign and help protect the middle class.