Memo From the FSU Executive Committee On The Possible CLA- MGS Reorganization

5/12/2023

The FSU Executive Committee is aware that the provost’s decision regarding an anticipated reorganization of the College of Liberal Arts and the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies will most likely not be known before this semester ends. Under Massachusetts’ labor law (150E), management has the authority to make programmatic changes of this sort. However, 150E requires that the impact on work conditions of any such decisions must be bargained with the union.

The FSU intends to assert our right to impact bargain for any department/program to clarify issues relating to personnel impacted by the academic reorganization that are governed by the contract. For tenure stream faculty this includes (but is not limited to) tenure, promotion and annual review procedures, the constitution of personnel committees, award of CLRs and teaching load, compensation for administrative responsibilities, salary anomaly review, and department, and college and university level service expectations. For NTT faculty it will include the availability of continuing contracts, service and promotion expectations, the availability of courses, advocating for higher Summer per course rates proposed by MGS, and normalizing this for all our members.

Impact bargaining is carried out by representatives of the impacted department/program(s) along with representatives of the FSU and the FSU’s MTA representative. Impact bargaining leads to a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that will govern personnel procedures during the transition phase of MGS’s incorporation into CLA. FSU is aware that the reorganization affects the interests of members of PSU and DCU and graduate students and we also stand by them.

The FSU Executive Committee is concerned that the merger of MGS into CLA is scheduled to take place during our period of non-responsibility, making it impossible for us to carry out impact bargaining. The FSU recommends that no member ever carry out uncompensated work during the summer period of non-responsibility. Faculty summer service to support the reorganization will additionally have the potential to seriously undermine work conditions across MGS and CLA where FSU is not in session to carry out impact bargaining.

From the FSU Executive Committee