Faculty Staff Union, Inc.

University of Massachusetts Boston
 

Faculty Staff Union Executive Committee Comments on the

 “Proposal to Establish ‘University College’,” dated April 29, 2009

August 13, 2009

The FSU will not directly comment on the issues of governance, academic quality, structure, pedagogy and most of the financial budgeting associated with the University College proposal.  Nor will we comment on whether the proposal is in line with Board of Trustee documents.  We leave these issues to the faculty as constituted in the Faculty Council and other informal committees.  We will focus, instead, on the issues affecting our membership directly because of the policies which are already established in our collective bargaining agreement with the University. 

Having said that, we would like to echo the remarks by the Budget and Long-Range Planning Committee and the Academic Affairs Committee of the Faculty Council and the CLA Chairs and Program Directors ad hoc committee, in appreciating the wide distribution of the proposal by the Provost and the opportunity for a thorough dialogue within the University.  Also before presenting our remarks, we want to state that the FSU is supportive of any efforts which enhance the financial situation and the working conditions (including those in the classrooms) of our members.

The development of a new college at UMB, in the place of CCDE, which is of equal stature with the already-existing colleges, removes any rationale for treating faculty in the University College in any way differently than faculty in other colleges.  This means several things.  First, it means paying those non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty teaching in the new college at the same scale as those teaching in the other colleges.  Second, it means working conditions should be the same in all colleges; in particular, we argue that the seniority rules for NTT faculty in the bargaining agreement should also apply to similar faculty in the University College.  Finally, we also argue that teaching in University College (unlike teaching in CCDE) should contribute toward NTT faculty’s seniority and benefits.

The existing collective bargaining agreement establishes the use of seniority rules in the assignment of CCDE courses to faculty now.  This agreement would hold in the event of any change in the structure of the unit.

The University College plan greatly underestimates faculty salaries, both by ignoring various provisions in the FSU contract, and through faulty assumptions about hiring.  In the main unit, while NTT faculty start at about $3700 per section, those who teach 2 courses or more per term move fairly quickly into benefited status and higher salaries. The administration used an average cost of $8400 per NTT section last year in the calculation of cost of replacement sections, roughly twice what the plan appears to budget.  Even if faculty members begin in the CCDE unit, they will sooner or later move into the main unit and thus into benefits and much higher salaries. This can be avoided only if most UC faculty teach no more than a single course each term.  However, the overwhelming majority of NTT faculty at UMB are seeking as much employment as possible.  Assuming most UC faculty will likewise want to teach as many courses as possible, contractual seniority rights will then apply and the university will be unable to prevent them from reaching higher salaried/benefited status.

The administration apparently wants to adopt this plan solely because of the supposed projected increase in university revenues that it will bring, based substantially on low compensation rates for the UC faculty.  The FSU has carried on a long struggle against the salary exploitation of NTT faculty.  Having made substantial progress in that area, we reject  any effort to return to a program of seeking to maintain large number of low salaried, non-benefited faculty members.

Almost all NTT faculty who teach CCDE courses are members of the “day” unit FSU.  Their rights and responsibilities are enshrined in that bargaining agreement.  The particular issue is having the new college offer courses at “non-CCDE” times.  This has been established as courses offered at UMB on Friday evening or Saturday, and courses offered anytime off-campus.  If the new unit offers courses at any time other than those considered CCDE times, the salary schedule established in the bargaining agreement would prevail.

There are two statements in this proposal that imply an increased workload for our members.  The first is that the one-year contract faculty would have their performance “regularly evaluated by program directors and by faculty committees with representation from University College and one or more of the other colleges.”  The second is: “Candidates for core faculty and part-time faculty positions would be referred for evaluation to the appropriate disciplinary specialists in the other colleges . . . .”  Given the ambitious plans for expansion of the University College, department and program personnel committees would find they have a significant increase in their duties.  As our Agreement specifies that the average workload practices of the recent past shall remain in effect, such an increase would be a violation of that Agreement.

The AY 20010-2012 bargaining agreement commits the university and the FSU to negotiating the terms and conditions of distance education on this campus.  These policies, once agreed upon, will apply to all colleges, including CCDE and the University College.  The agreement will cover intellectual property rights and development funds, among other things.

Adoption of this plan would also have additional negative effects on our present members.  First, the hiring of additional faculty will drain already overtaxed educational and faculty support resources. Second, any in-person teaching will compete for space with our already full schedule. And third, should the plan  not result in increased revenues, UC will instead constitute a drain on the university budget, which will result in the degradation of working conditions for our present members.