Reminder to contact your legislators to raise $43 million for UMB every year, plus impact bargaining on intra-campus employment

6/24/2019

Dear Colleague,

We hope you are having a great summer.  Some important news is below. 

►The Administration has requested that the FSU negotiate a policy for intra-campus employment (a policy for FSU members who are also employed at another UMass campus). Let us know if you are interested in serving on this bargaining team or are currently employed on more than one UMass campus and are willing to advise us and provide information regarding your experiences and concerns.  Contact the FSU office for more information.

► If you have not yet done so, contact your legislators (find your legislators here).  Urge them to contact the chairs of the Joint Committee for Higher Education (Senator Anne Gobi and Representative Jeffrey Roy) for a favorable report-out for the Cherish Act and Senator Patricia Jehlen’s bill, S 749.  They will be voting soon, so please contact them ASAP.  More on these is below:

• The Cherish Act will fund an additional $43 million per year for UMass Boston and an additional $500 million for higher education.   For more information on the Cherish Act, see here. 
• Senator Patricia Jehlen's Bill, S 749, “Resolve to establish a special commission to evaluate the original infrastructure debt at the University of Massachusetts Boston,” asks for a commission to study the original construction of UMB and to make recommendations, possibly for debt relief for our campus.  Below is an excerpt of her bill:

Resolved, there shall be a special joint legislative commission to evaluate the original infrastructure debt associated with all repair and maintenance and capital construction-improvement projects completed at UMass Boston.

Data collected, studies, and reports prepared by or for UMass Boston, the University of Massachusetts President’s Office, UMass Building Authority, UMass Board of Trustees, and other related offices will be reviewed to assess the impact of the original infrastructure debt on the day-to-day operations of the UMass Boston campus. Upon completion of its review and evaluation, the commission will issue a report of its findings and recommendations, including but not limited to amounts of the debt that should either be reimbursed, paid off, and/or assumed by the Commonwealth instead of UMass Boston per a recommended schedule.

The full text is here: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S749.  Please contact your legislators soon. 

Sincerely,

Marlene Kim

FSU President

Professor, Economics

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