FSU Update on COVID-19 Impact Bargaining
4/6/2020
Dear FSU Members,
We write with an update about COVID-19 impact bargaining with the Administration. Along with the other campus unions, and based on your input, we developed the set of proposals we sent to you last week. The administration refused to negotiate with the campus unions together, and therefore the FSU Core Bargaining Team met separately with the administration on Tuesday, March 31st and Thursday, March 2nd. We only discussed the FSU-specific proposals in the larger document (but will eventually discuss the larger, shared, proposals).
Although there are details to be hammered out, we are fairly optimistic that faculty will be reimbursed for FSU travel money for cancelled plans; that faculty and staff will be involved -- through the creation of a task force -- in planning for the Fall semester should the COVID crisis continue; and that the Administration will provide the option to junior faculty to extend tenure clocks by a year. At the same time, we have thus far been disappointed by the Administration’s unwillingness to fully recognize the unprecedented nature of this semester and thus insure that faculty and librarians are not negatively impacted in performance measures around teaching evaluations, research, service, and other responsibility areas for Spring 2020.
Our next bargaining session is Wednesday, April 8th.
Sincerely,
Core Bargaining Team
Caroline Coscia, Senior Lecturer II, Political Science, FSU Vice President
Katie D’Urso, MTA Field Representative
Maria Mellone, Associate Lecturer, Mathematics
Alex Mueller, Associate Professor, English
Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Membership Coordinator
Jason Rodriquez, Associate Professor, Sociology
Heike Schotten, Associate Professor, Political Science
Steve Striffler, Director of the Labor Resource Center and Professor, Anthropology
Tony Vandermeer, Senior Lecturer II, Africana Studies
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