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Budget and non-reappointments, Blackboard

Dear Colleague,

We have been following two issues that we would like to update you on:

NTT Layoffs:  At the “Open Meeting to Strengthen the Budget Process” on May 12, the Administration stated the following:

● Notices of non-reappointments will be sent to all NTTs who are Associate Lecturers and to Lecturers with semester by semester appointments.  Some may be re-hired this summer, but this will obviously difficult to NTTs to plan their lives. 

● The University will raise the student/faculty ratio.

The FSU is disturbed by these developments and will ensure that layoff notices are administered according to the procedures outlined in the contract.  The university must negotiate with us for changes in our workloads, so we are notifying the administration that this is the process they must undertake. 

● The FSU along with the other unions on campus are discussing the UMB budget issues and will be discussing ways we can organize our members to respond.  The next meeting is today, Monday, May 16 at 12:30 pm in the Labor Resource Center, 4th floor of Wheatley, room 151 off the CPCS plaza.    Let us know if you want to be involved in this effort if you cannot make this meeting.

Blackboard Mandatory?

The Provost’s May 11 email dictated that “every faculty member, full-time and part-time, will be required to populate a BlackBoard shell for every course that he or she teaches with sufficient content to support instructional continuity during campus closures.”     

We have advised the Provost’s Office that this unilateral decision needs to be negotiated with the FSU.  This requirement will be raised at Faculty Council as well. Until it is negotiated and agreed upon by the FSU, you need not abide by this requirement. 

Marlene Kim

Faculty Staff Union President, and

Professor

Department of Economics