December 7, 2009

FSU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING 12/7/09

Members Present: Phil Chassler   Catherine Lynde   John Hess   Peggy Walsh   Kathy Kogan   Heike Schotten   Erin O’Brien   Larry Kaye  

Others Present: Mickey Gallagher, MTA Consultant   Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Membership Coordinator   Luis Aponte-Pares, CPCS     Reebee Garofalo, CPCS

CPCS Community Studies Issue

Reebee and his colleague Luis Aponte-Pares discussed the issue of the online Community Studies program at CPCS. The FSU will meet with all impacted CPCS faculty members to discuss a resolution to a number of issues/concerns. Catherine Lynde and Mickey Gallagher agreed to attend and facilitate this meeting, which will take place on Monday, December14th from 1-2PM.

Announcements

Status of Contract, Funding: The bill that would fund our contract is still sitting in the House and Ways committee in the state legislature. There is no word on when that might pass. It was also reported that there will likely be major cuts to the UMB budget in fiscal year 2011 (starting July 1st) due to non-renewal of Federal stimulus funds. It is possible that the union will be asked to agree to member furloughs, etc.as a result.

Committees Established Under Contract: All the committees have been convened and have started their work with the exception of the Pilot Research Intensive Semester Committee. Catherine Lynde will email committee members to set up the first meeting.

Newsletter: Feedback on the newsletter has been very positive. Dorothy Nelson, FSU Communications Director, was congratulated on the great job she did in creating the newsletter.

RES Funds: The Provost’s Office has sent out the letter to all faculty members on applying for RES funds (formerly PD money). It was noted that the FSU’s efforts in informing our members about this pushed Admin to move quickly on getting the letters out.

NTT Scholarship Program: This program, which would give funds to UMB lecturers to work on their own academic scholarship, was supposed to go into effect on 10/15/09. FSU Vice President, Larry Kaye and Mark Preble, head of HR, will be getting together soon to discuss implementation.

MTA Higher Ed Conference
KK gave a brief summary of the 12/4/09 MTA Higher Ed Conference. She noted that MTA President Anne Wass discussed three ballot initiatives that will be on the ballot next year: a sales tax rollback to 3%, an ethanol tax, and elimination of all caps currently placed on charter schools.

Political Science Workload Issues Update

At a prior Ex Com meeting, EO discussed the need to address workload issues in the department. She requested that the effected members respond with details on their concerns. EO reported that she is still waiting for this info.

UMass Dartmouth Contract Problems

CL was contacted by the president of the UMB faculty union who is seeking help with a contract negotiation dispute. The UMD faculty contract stipulates that members teach a 4/4 load. However, the practice for years has been to teach 3/3. UMD admin has hired anti-union consultants in an effort to remove the 3/3 practice. The UMD fac union would like the other Umass unions to write a letter of support that would push Jack Wilson to encourage a speedy settlement of the contract (?). CL is asking the Ex Com for conditional approval to write such a letter. Approval for writing such a letter was given by unanimous vote by all Ex Com members present

UPDATES

Grievance Committee: The next meeting will be scheduled at the end of January or just after the start of the Spring semester. There are a number of ongoing grievances but the number of new ones has dropped. Training of Department Chairs by the administration and the FSU was attributed to the decline.

CCDE Bargaining: Admin is supposed to come to the next meeting with a comprehensive offer on salary issues.

Lecturer Committee: The first meeting will be on Tuesday, December 14th. Rajini Srikanth, the Admin point person on lecturer issues, will attend the only admin person appointed to this joint committee. It was noted that this committee needs to have participation from more Admin personnel who are in positions to affect lecturer status on campus. CL will talk to Rajini and other Admin folks to ensure that they add more members to the committee.

Lecturer Retirement: MG noted that HR has agreed to hire a part-timer who will work exclusively on data collection for the impacted lecturers. MG will meet with this person and other relevant HR personnel to ensure that this happens properly. We are still waiting to hear back from the head of the state retirement board on a meeting date to discuss the issue.

Health and Safety Committee: An all-union H and S committee has been established and the first meeting has already occurred. CL is currently the FSU rep to the committee but she is looking for someone else to take over. An all-member email will be sent asking for folks who are interested. Heike also indicated that she might be willing to be the FSU rep.

FSU Budget and Money Issues

It was reported that the FSU has some additional funds. The Ex Com discussed a number of strategic uses for the funds to help advance FSU’s mission. Ex Com members are asked to think about how this money might best be spent.

Other Issues

A meeting has been scheduled for lecturers in the English department on the 15th to discuss the union and its impact on the work like of NTT. John Hess and Lorenzo Nencioli will attend.

The Lecturer Subcommittee will have a lecturer night out on Monday the 14th at the Applebee’s in South Bay Center.

A Teach-In to discuss budget cuts and disinvestment from public higher ed will take place on Wednesday the 9th from 3:30 to 5. LN will attend; the event is open to all who are interested in addressing this issue.