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October 5, 2009

FSU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING 10/5/09

Members Present: Heike Schotten   Xiaogang Deng   Phil Chassler   Catherine Lynde   John Hess   Kathy Kogan   Erin O’Brien   Elizabeth Mock   Linda Dumas

Others Present: Michelle Gallagher, MTA Consultant   Arthur Goldsmith, FSU Grievance Officer   Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Membership Coordinator   Alex Kulenovic, PHENOM Organizer

Tuition Retention

The Board of Higher Education decided not to forward to the State Legislature a proposed bill that would have allowed state public higher education institutions to retain all tuition monies rather than remit them to the state. The proposal to convert state colleges into universities has not been addressed yet.

FSU Audit

The FSU and MSP are currently undergoing their annual audit. The audit should be completed in the next few weeks (most of the required information has been provided to the auditors already).

University College

It was reported that the Provost is reworking the UC proposal to bring back to the Faculty Council for another vote; (this is at the request of the FC). The Provost also indicated that he would like to meet with UMB lecturers to discuss how the UC might be beneficial for them. Kathy Kogan will contact the Provost to organize this meeting.

Labor/Management Committees

Catherine Lynde has chosen members for the FSU-side of the committees (with the exception of the already formed Salary Anomaly Adjustment Committee, which is a union only committee).  The committees are: Distance Learning, Research Semester, and Phased Retirement. Ex Com members are asked to think about possible senior faculty members who might be willing to serve on the DL team. Also, the Provost has indicated that the management side of the committees will be chosen by the end of the week.

Department Chair Contract Training Session

Catherine Lynde reported that the Administration is organizing a series of contract training sessions for department chairs. The purpose of these sessions is to provide chairs with proper information on the contract and give them the tools to correctly follow the contract’s provisions, particularly in regard to lecturers (priority lists, Senior Lecturer promotions, etc.). The FSU has secured a place at these sessions and Catherine Lynde and Larry Kaye will be present to provide any information on the contract that the sessions might not cover.

FSU Uncollectible Dues

Every year, the FSU Ex Com must vote to approve a list of all uncollectible dues/agency fees for the prior academic year (in this case for the 08-09 academic year). This vote is required for the FSU/MSP auditors. ‘Uncollectible dues’ refers to monies that the FSU can not expect to collect from bargaining unit members for a variety of reasons. Motion: The Executive Committee receive the report regarding 08-09 uncollectible dues and implement the recommended action. All Ex Com members in attendance voted unanimously to approve the motion and approve the uncollectible dues list (NOTE: Linda Dumas was not present at time of vote).

Posting Ex Com Minutes on the FSU Website

The Ex Com was asked to consider a motion to post minutes from Ex Com meetings on the FSU website. It was noted that this would increase the union’s openness to its rank and file and expand efforts for greater transparency. All Ex Com present at the meeting voted unanimously to approve the posting of FSU Ex Com meeting minutes on the website (NOTE: Linda Dumas was not present at time of vote).

PHENOM Presentation

Alex Kulenovic, PHENOM Organizer, spoke to the Ex Com on his hopes for broader faculty participation in PHENOM for the current academic year. His hope is to create a PHENOM campus council comprised of faculty, students, and staff. The council would work to implement PHENOM principles on campus. Ex Com members were asked to come up with possible names of faculty members who might be interested in serving as a liaison to the UMB PHENOM campus council. He also noted that PHENOM will be hosting a higher ed accessibility conference this semester where there will be a need for research and presentations. Faculty in particular can be useful in this regard. Ex Com members who are interested in this issue or who know of colleagues who are, are asked to contact Alex or the FSU office directly. In addition, Alex inquired about the possibility of having credit bearing internships for students to work for PHENOM (such internships have already been put in place at 2 other public higher ed institutions in the state). Ex Com members were asked to come up with possible names of faculty members who might be able to and would be interested in providing such internships, particularly in the Political Science and Public Policy departments. Erin O’Brien agreed to speak with Alex about the possibility for undergrad internships in the Political Science departments. It was noted that it would be useful for the FSU to have a list of UMB students who are active in PHENOM. Alex will provide this list to Lorenzo. Alex concluded with a discussion on possible campaigns for the year, including satirical protests of under funding of public higher ed (the ‘Let’s Be Average’ campaign), as well as his goals for more visibility on campus for PHENOM and for a longer term debate on public funding.

Communications Director

Catherine announced that the FSU has hired Dorothy Nelson, FSU member, for the recently proposed position of Communications Director for the 09-10 academic year.

Updates

Continuing Education Bargaining: John Hess, Ex Com member and CE barg team member, recounted the 10/02 bargaining session. He noted that the admin barg team seemed unprepared and unorganized and did not have the proposal they had mentioned in the prior session on the session pools. However, they indicated that their goal is to have a single priority lists for all pools and, ultimately, to merge the CE bargaining unit with the day unit. The FSU CE barg team presented their proposal for working conditions which the admin will study in the run-up to the next meeting. Mickey Gallagher, lead negotiator for our team, noted that one of our goals is to obtain a contract that can be administered, which would likely mean a simplification/clarification of the contract language.

Grievance Committee: Phil Chassler, Ex Com member and NTT Grievance Officer, noted that there is a strong need to obtain departmental course priority lists, particularly in History where there are ongoing grievance issues. It was noted that admin has made this request to department chairs. The Nursing Department grievance is ongoing. A JCC meeting has been scheduled to deliberate over whether or not to send a Denial of Tenure case to arbitration. Arthur Goldsmith reported that tenure track faculty grievance issues were relatively quiet.

Lecturer Retirement: HR has agreed in principle to provide the FSU with the proper info concerning those lecturers who will be shifted from the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) into the state retirement system (SERS). However, they have yet to assign a staffer to work on this (they indicated that they would need to find release time or hire someone to work specifically on this for upwards of 50 hours). The FSU has offered to help monetarily but HR has not responded to this offer. Jonathan Millman and Nelson Lande have agreed to pressure HR to move forward on this issue.

Lecturer Activist Group: It was reported that space has been booked for the second Hidden Treasures event. There was an article in last week’s Mass Media on the work lives of UMB lecturers.

Other Issues

It was noted that many CLA courses still start at 8AM. Questions were raised over whether or not the 8AM start time was supposed to be a pilot program for 08-09 only and if this policy should change. Catherine Lynde will look into this.

Some future Ex Com meetings may be held on a Thursday to allow some members to attend who are not able to on Mondays or Tuesdays.