FSU Nuts & Bolts: Parking, Budgeting and UACCESS
9/26/2022
Dear Member,
This issue of Nuts & Bolts contains information in three items: Parking bargaining support, MTA workshop on higher education finances, and information on a fundraiser supporting UACCESS.
Parking Bargaining Support, September 29th at 10AM
The FSU in coalition with CSU, DCU and PSU begins bargaining on a new parking agreement. The coalition has worked hard to put together a proposal that incorporates the needs of all faculty, librarians, and staff. We need your support as we work to get reasonable rates.
Why are we bargaining?
The University will be closing the Bayside lot sometime after this semester. A change in parking lots and/or the number of parking spots available triggers a renegotiation of the parking agreement all unions signed in 2018 and 2019. The current agreement can be seen here (see MOU 7).
Bargaining process
We will be making our formal proposal during Thursday’s session. This begins the process of discussing and coming to an agreement.
What is the proposal?
We will be releasing the proposal in the October 3rd Nuts & Bolts after we have had a chance to present it to the administration.
What you can do
Join us 10AM to 10:30AM on Thursday September 29th as we march from the union offices (2nd floor Quinn) to the bargaining meeting room (ISC 1- 1400). We want the administration to understand our campus is concerned about the high cost of parking and the need to have reasonable rates.
MTA Workshop on Higher Education Finances, Sept 30th
The MTA is holding a free workshop By The Numbers- Understanding Your Institution’s Finances on Friday evening, September 30th and Saturday October 1st. This workshop is open to FSU/MTA members in good standing only.
Participants will learn ‘how to read financial statements, how accounting standards affect your institution’s financial health, and how to use financial data to calculate trends to anticipate bargaining positions as well as impacts on staffing. Participants will practice locating and analyzing elements of financial statements, including for their own institutions.’
See the attached flyer for more details.
Ride for Food Fundraiser for UACCESS October 2nd (from Rick Kesseli, FSU member, Professor, Biology)
For the last couple years we have pulled together a team to ride 25 or 50 miles in this annual event that is sponsored by Three Squares of New England (TSNE) https://www.threesquaresne.org/. This event, the Ride for Food, supports dozens of hunger relief organizations across Massachusetts. Our Team specifically supports the UMB Food Pantry. As many of you also know, food insecurity is a surprisingly common condition in Massachusetts and our students, and their families are often more impacted than the average person in MA. In the last 2 years we have raised about $17,000 for the UMB pantry and UACCESS. For various reasons, we started our effort this year a little later than usual, but we are confident that we will still do well.
Our team currently has 8 members (5 members of the faculty, two friends of UMB and one student) but we would like others interested in riding and drumming up support. If any of you would like to be on the team, or know others who would be interested, please join through our web page https://ride.threesquaresne.org/team/424105) or pass the word. It would be great to have more faculty, staff, and administrators join. Ask your friends and colleagues! The ride itself is Sunday Oct 2, 2022. There are 100s of riders from the many teams of all different abilities. It is a very family friendly day with fun, music, lots of food and refreshments at the end. The ride is not difficult, and most people ride it casually and hit all the rest stops that are well stocked with supplies. The ride starts and ends at Noble and Greenough School, Dedham, MA.
Most importantly, however is to get the word out to the campus, friends and alumni to find people interested in donating to any of our riders, also through our team page (https://ride.threesquaresne.org/team/424105 ).
As mentioned, all funds raised will go to the UMB UACESS Food Pantry to support students and their families. You also must realize, given the economic situation that the need for stable food sources is greater now, more than ever before.
Let me know if you need more information. Any of us on the team would be happy to talk about the event and by hitting either the TSNE or our team links above you can find out more about the event, all the different teams and what they are riding for and our team. Visit our page and look around at all the different teams and the great work they are doing (https://ride.threesquaresne.org/team/424105). Let us know if you have questions.
Rick Kesseli, Biology Department
From the Faculty Staff Union
For information on the FSU, links to our contract and bargaining updates, and a calendar of events, see the FSU webpage
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