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December 4, 2020

FSU Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

December 4, 2020 (via Zoom)

Executive Committee Members Present: Steve Striffler; Caroline Coscia; Monique Fuguet; Jessica Holden; Travis Johnston; Meghan Kallman; Linda Liu; José Martínez-Reyes; Jeff Melnick; Joe Ramsey; Tim Sieber; Tracy Brown

Others Present: Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Membership Coordinator; Katie D’Urso, MTA Field Rep; Ann Evans; Joel Fish; Thierry Gustave; George Kelley

  1. Approval of the agenda: Motion to approve the agenda. Motion seconded. Motion passes unanimously.

     
  2. The minutes of the November 20 Executive Committee meeting will be approved at the December 18 Executive Committee meeting.

     
  3. Spring 2021 Executive Committee schedule: Discussion of scheduling Executive Committee meetings for spring 2021. Current availability is between 2:00-4:00 on MWF. Schedule TBD.

     
  4. Elections: Elections Committee informed Executive Committee members whose terms are ending: Vice President, two TT representatives, and two NTT representatives. Next step for Elections Committee is to send out general notification about the election to faculty in one week. Caroline will resign from Elections Committee because she is up for reelection. Discussion of forming a Nominations Committee.

     
  5. Budget: Monique: Executive Committee members should brainstorm items on which to spend our money (including goods and services). Think about how to communicate goals to our membership in order to justify upcoming dues increase. FSU office assistant needs a computer upgrade; FSU will give him $300 toward the purchase of a new computer. His on-campus computer will also need to be replaced once we are back on campus.

     
  6. Bayside Update/Discussion: Discussion of letter for FSU endorsement: “Toward a More Just and Sustainable Dorchester Bay City.” The letter includes a list of concerns regarding the Bayside development project. Discussion of those concerns, including gentrification, negative impacts on community members and residents of color, and negative environmental impacts. Letter will go to the Boston Planning and Development Agency as part of their Article 80 review process; deadline is next Friday, December 11. Motion to endorse letter. Motion seconded. Motion passes unanimously.

     
  7. FSU Spring Forums: Possible forum topics: issues around workload and service burdens; follow-up on NTT fall forum; Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (José volunteers to lead this forum); vaccines and public health; air circulation and ventilation on campus; consensual relations policy; academic freedom.

     
  8. Website Redesign: Informal Communications Committee: Steve Striffler, Linda Liu, Monique Fuguet, Jessica Holden, Jeff Melnick, Lorenzo Nencioli, and Cat Mazza. Travis Johnston has volunteered to manage the FSU website redesign. The goal is to create a website that is more seamless and user friendly while also saving money. Simple, clean design with relevant photo(s), recent communications/blog posts, social media content, and a simpler hierarchical menu. This project might involve working with a student. We need to get ownership of the fsu.umb.edu domain. Travis will work on website prototype.

     
  9. Student Organizing: Steve reached out to MASSPIRG and had a conversation with their main organizer. Their upcoming campaigns include homelessness, textbook affordability, climate change. We might work with them on those. FSU is more focused on on-campus labor education cost issues. The Labor Resource Center might be involved and would focus on the educational component of organizing.

     
  10. Bargaining/Labor-Management/Chancellor Meetings Update: New Senior Director of Labor Relations is Joel Posner. Health and safety coalition bargaining continues. Hoping the administration will bargain on travel funds and RES funds to negotiate how those funds may be used during the pandemic. Steve sent MOA draft on travel funds to the administration, which allows using the funds for virtual conference fees and professional membership fees and expanding the use of travel funds to lecturers and above and to librarians. This issue needs to be resolved soon because we are already at the halfway point of the fiscal year. The FSU Core Bargaining Team and the administration will be bargaining into the spring semester.

     
  11. Grievance: Motion to go into Executive Session. Motion seconded. Motion passes unanimously. Attendees who are not members of the Executive Committee leave the meeting.

 

EXECUTIVE SESSION

 

MEETING ADJOURNS