February 20, 2013
FSU EX COM MEETING 2/20/13
Members Present: Catherine Lynde Heike Schotten Peggy Walsh Marlene Kim Kathy Kogan Larry Kaye Steven Levine Meredith Hoy Mary Oleskiewicz Tina Mullins John Hess
Others Present: Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Membership Coordinator Jeffrey Keisler, FSU Tenure Track Faculty Grievance Officer Daniel Finn, FSU Administrative Assistant
Announcements
Spring 13 Newsletter-Members with ideas for the new FSU newsletter should contact the FSU. The new edition will be out sometime mid semester.
FSU Workshops- The FSU has organized a number of workshops and orientation sessions, including workshops for tenure/4th year review, department chairs training, employee rights workshops for new tenure track faculty, employee rights workshops for new non-tenure track faculty (there will also be a DPC chair workshop in Fall 13). The content for the TT worker rights workshop has not yet been produced. Members with suggestions on what should be included should contact the FSU office.
March 5th Higher Ed Lobby Day
The FSU plans to encourage members to participate in the lobby day (more information here: http://phenomonline.org/wp-content/uploads/Advocacy-Day-flier-2.pdf). We will send email to members. Ex Com members should also encourage their students and colleagues to attend. Catherine stated she, along with the presidents of the CSU and PSU, sent a letter to Chancellor Motley urging him to tell the UMB community to participate as well (there has been no response).
March 12th Lobby Day for the Campaign for Our Communities (CFOC)
This lobby day is designed to support CFOC, including the proposed bill ‘An Act to Invest in Our Communities’ (more info on CFOC here: http://ourcommunities.org/). There was a motion to have the FSU Ex Com vote to endorse CFOC. Motion was seconded. The motion to endorse CFOC was passed by unanimous vote.
Report: Parking and Transportation Bargaining
It was reported that it has been difficult for the FSU to come to agreement with the other unions on a coalition proposal. The central areas of difficulty have been the FSU bargaining team’s desire to 1) have faculty/staff designated lots (opposed by the other members of the coalition) and 2) whether or not to have a sliding scale based on income (opposed by the FSU team). These are the 2 central questions facing the coalition. However, there is consensus in the coalition that students should pay the least. The rationale for proposing designated lots is that faculty members often drive to UMB later in the day and have a very difficult time finding spaces which are taken up primarily by the 9 to 5 employees. It was noted that Admin has indicated their unwillingness to agree to designated lots or an income based sliding scale.
There was discussion of what faculty desire re parking. Some noted easy access to parking was the key issue and that medium term lots for faculty who might come to campus for only 1 class would help with this problem. There was debate over whether or not the faculty would accept a sliding scale based on income.
Proposed Legislation on Retiree Health Insurance
There was discussion of a proposed bill that would increase retiree health insurance for those with less than 20 years of service (from an 80/20 cost split between the state and the retiree to 50/50). It was noted that if this bill passes it could impact close to 80% of current FSU members. It was also noted that the MTA leadership endorsed the work of a committee that recommended the aforementioned changes. However, HELC (the MTA’s Higher Ed Leadership Council, comprised of the presidents of all MTA higher ed locals) passed a resolution opposed to the legislation. A motion was made to have the FSU oppose the proposed legislation. The motion was seconded. The motion passed by unanimous vote. A motion was made to have the FSU Ex Com voice strong opposition and discontent with the MTA’s support for this legislation. The motion was seconded. The motion passed by unanimous vote.
CLA 2/2 Pilot Program
It was noted that the CLA NTT have 2 primary concerns with this program: 1) increased class size, and 2) reduced number of sections. It was noted that there is information that a few departments have increased their class sizes across the board (the increases were only supposed to be for certain classes). It was also noted that the number of sections this semester is down relative to last semester though it is unclear the reason (i.e. lower enrollments). Catherine will request information from the CLA Dean’s office on current stats re class size and class reductions for NTT. Until that information is received it will be difficult to determine if changes in the latter are due to the 2/2 implementation or other factors.
NTT Bargaining Update
It was reported that bargaining is moving slowly but that there might be some headway from Admin on certain issues. An NTT bargaining update meeting will be held next week (February 26th).
Grievance Committee Report
A report was given on active grievances, including a number of class action grievances on behalf of NTT.
Other Items
Gift for Diane Rackowski- A motion was made to have the FSU give a gift of $50 to Diane, the accountant for the FSU and MSP, who is expecting her 1st child. The motion was seconded. The motion passes by unanimous vote.
DSA Event on Student Debt- The Democratic Socialists of America are hoping to have an event at UMB re student debt and are looking for organizational support/endorsements from the FSU. There was discussion of whether or not the FSU should support this group and/or the event. Catherine will get more information on this group and report back to the Ex Com before a vote is taken.
FSU Facebook Page- It was reported that Daniel Finn created a Facebook page for the FSU.
Spring 13 Ex Com Elections- Elections will take place later in the semester. Lorenzo will determine which Ex Com members are up for re-election and ask them who would like to run again.
Campaign for the Future of Higher Education (CFHE)- A link to the CFHE website will be added to the FSU website. Information on the CFHE will be included in the next FSU newsletter.