November 12, 2024

FSU Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

November 12, 2024 3:30pm (Zoom)

Executive Committee Members Present: Caroline Coscia (President); Sana Haroon (Vice President); Suha Ballout; Lynne Benson; Jorge Capetillo; Andrew Elder; Monique Fuguet; Karen Grayson; Patricia Krueger-Henney; Jared Poole; Alejandro Reuss; Rania Said; Wei Zhang

Others Present: Lorenzo Nencioli (FSU Senior Staff Member); Maria Hegbloom (MTA Field Rep); Michael Johnson (Special Assistant to the Chancelor for Black Life)

EXECUTIVE SESSION

1. Uncollectable dues (Monique): Vote on uncollectable dues
   
   1. Monique (Treasurer) shares information about dues that may be uncollectable.
   2. Executive Committee votes on dues deemed uncollectable. Unanimously approved recommendations.

OPEN SESSION

1. Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve the minutes of the October 22 Executive Committee meeting. Motion seconded. Motion passes.
2. Expanding the FSU Executive Committee (Monique): Call for volunteers to compose a proposal.
3. Aimed at fostering more participation from members, better organizing and acknowledging the work/contributions of ExCom members, and improving member satisfaction with the union.
4. Lynne, Monique, Caroline, and Alejandro volunteer to investigate the issue further.
5. Visit from Michael Johnson, Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Black Life (SACBL):
   
   1. Michael expresses interest in learning from FSU about the campus needs he can meet in the role of SACBL.
   2. Shares information about the origin and nature of the role and his goals.
      
      1. He notes that the SACBL is not necessarily a permanent position/role. It came about in response to a specific historical moment as part of Chancellor’s strategy when he first came to campus.
      2. Organize events such as BLM Day. Michael is open to feedback/suggestions for future themes.
      3. Organize activities such as collaborate to study and address issue of retention of Black faculty; support recruitment/retention of Black students; support outreach to Black alumni.
         
         1. ExCom members note that our lack of retention of faculty of color is a concern of FSU’s that we have pressured administration on for some time.
      4. Tasked with leading institutions/bodies such as the Restorative Justice Commission. He notes that refining the purpose of RJC is an important next step.
6. BHE Dental Plan (Rania): Update on examination of benefits as some members have struggled to understand and use them.
   
   1. Caroline supplied screenshots of website through which we use our benefits.
   2. Dental is supported through the Health and Welfare Trust. For a long time we have been dissatisfied with the trust. It is possible that the board has been somewhat negligent of the trust, but we cannot make a change unilaterally because we do not hold enough seats on the board. MTA has an effort underway to improve the trust in a couple ways; importantly, they were able to pass a vote commissioning a study to determine what it would take to transfer us over to a different, larger trust of public sector workers.
7. Technology Policy (Sana): Discussion.
   
   1. We discussed at a previous meeting that members noticed that a new technology policy was rolled out in the last few years that seems to have far reaching implications.
   2. Now, members are receiving notices of a mandatory security training, at the end of which they must accept/sign to indicate their agreement to this new policy.
   3. Although we may have been able to demand that we bargain over this new policy, that might not be possible at this point, because the policy is now quite old.
   4. It is suggested that if legal avenues are closed, we may want to at least issue a statement of concern/objection.
   5. It is suggested that to organize around this issue we might:
      
      1. Gather questions about the policy amongst ourselves.
      2. Pool questions; write to members to gather more questions if useful.
      3. Publicly submit questions to administration.
   6. ExCom agrees to follow this course of action.

MEETING ADJOURNS