Welcome back and important information from the FSU

1/28/2020

Dear Colleague,

I hope you are having a great beginning of your semester.  Here’s some important information and updates.  

►Audio/video recording of faculty has occurred without permission and posted in politically-motivated social media.  To prevent this, know that audio or video recording of class lectures and discussions is against UMB’s Student Code of Conduct, and under Massachusetts state law, it is a crime to secretly record a conversation. (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 99}  Instructors’ lectures are proprietary, and students are entitled to expect that the opinions they express in the classroom are confined to the educational experience of the classroom. Students requiring special accommodation can request permission to record class material, but you can require that formal documentation be provided by the Ross Center. 

► GIC Meeting TOMORROW Re Your Health Insurance Rates:  Please comment at the health insurance listening tour tomorrow, Wednesday January 29, 5-6:30 pm.  McCormack State Office Building, 21^st floor conference rooms, One Ashburton Place, Boston.  They will be setting health care rates soon.  Let them know your needs.  See the attached for other dates in other areas of the state.  If you cannot attend but would like to submit written comments, please submit this to MTA representative Tim Sullivan at tsull10334@aol.com or gicpublicinfo@mass.gov.

► DPC/CPC training is on Tuesday, March 10^th, 2:30-4:30 pm in the Alumni Lounge (2^nd floor, Campus Center). Co-sponsored by the Office for Faculty Development and the FSU, this is designed to inform DPC and CPC chairs or their representatives the responsibilities of the DPC’s and CPC’s in the promotional and personnel processes.  Knowledge of the promotional procedures outlined in the contract and university policies is essential to ensure that the best practices for personnel procedures are utilized and to avoid taking actions for violations of the contract.  Therefore, we strongly encourage all Departments to send DPC and CPC chairs to attend this training.

► Mt. Ida:  If you have not yet done so, please sign and circulate the petition about Mt Ida here.  We hope to present this to some legislators soon.   UMass Amherst is now offering a Business and Analytics master’s program that directly competes with offerings at UMass Boston, and it wants to offer 35 other programs, including a master’s degree in Accounting and one in Computer Science (for a list of course offerings, see the attached), and will offer Geographical Information Science courses. Stop this competition among UMass campuses and let’s have the UMass system operate as a system, not as competing campuses. 

►Policy on Inter-UMass Campus Employment: The FSU and the Administration reached an agreement on a policy for inter-campus employment.  For those working on more than one UMass campus and over 100% time on these campuses, you must now seek permission to do so.  You can see the new policy here.  (This does not affect working on non-UMass campuses or if you work 100% or less time.)

►Health and Safety Committee: The latest reports from John Hess, FSU’s representative on this Committee, are here.

►School for Global Inclusion and Social Development's (SGISD) Move: The FSU and the Administration reached an agreement on the impact of SGISD’s move to the College of Education and Human Development. You can see that agreement here.

For FSU/MTA Members in Good Standing

Sincerely,

Marlene Kim

FSU President

Professor, Economics

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