Top Social Menu

Facebook

Latest admin proposal: RES funds

12/23/2020

Dear FSU Members,

Update: During bargaining on Tuesday the Administration verbally presented a possible proposal to change how RES Funds are utilized.  A written proposal will soon follow.

At present, there are $200,000 in RES funds, of which $50K is dedicated to NTT faculty and $150,000 to TT faculty (see Article 26.6.1(a) of the contract for current RES Funds language).  Of this, less than half is typically used.  Last year, 84 NTT faculty (out of roughly 380 eligible) accessed the money at an average of $123, using only about 20% of the allocated funds; 244 TT faculty accessed the money at an average of $255 each (about $62,000).  This means a lot of money is not used, with the remainder being spent on something agreed upon by Admin and the FSU (typically going to the library, computer replacement, etc.).

Admin is suggesting the following:

  1. The $50K dedicated to NTT faculty would now reimburse NTT faculty for Travel, allowing attendance at conferences for research or professional development.  This would be capped at $500 per faculty per year.  [Note: this money could no longer be used as it was in the past; that is, it could only be used for travel and not for other expenditures for printers, organizational membership costs, etc.]
  2. The $150K currently dedicated to TT faculty would be allotted to several categories (exact amounts are unclear):
  3. The largest amount of money would be to allow all new TT hires, and eventually all pre-tenure faculty, to attend a training with the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (https://www.facultydiversity.org/fsp-bootcamp).
  4. A portion of the money would be set aside for “other faculty training,” including anti-racism training.
  5. A smaller portion of the money would be set aside for “subventions” to help subsidize publication costs.

Any unspent money could be shifted from one pool to the other.  If there is still money remaining,  it would be transferred to IT for computer replacement.

Please share your thoughts about this proposal.  Our next bargaining session in January 6th.

Invite:  As part of the FSU’s commitment to expanded bargaining (see the FSU policy here), we invite you – as members of the FSU bargaining team – to our next bargaining session on January 6th from 10am-12pm.

Please register in advance for this webinar:    (contact FSU or Steve Striffler for information).

Sincerely,

Core Bargaining Team

Caroline Coscia, Senior Lecturer II, Political Science, FSU Vice President

Katie D’Urso, MTA Field Representative

Jessica Holden, Librarian III, Healey Library

Maria Mellone, Non-Reappointed (i.e., laid off) Associate Lecturer, Math

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, FSU President

Tony Vandermeer, Senior Lecturer II, Africana Studies

For information on the FSU, links to our contract and bargaining updates, and a calendar of events, see the FSU webpage

Check out the FSU Blog

Please “like” the FSU Facebook Page

Follow us on Twitter at @FSU_UMB