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February 17, 2021

FSU Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

February 17, 2021 (via Zoom)

Executive Committee Members Present: Steve Striffler; Caroline Coscia; Tracy Brown; Monique Fuguet; Jessica Holden; Travis Johnston; Meghan Kallman; Linda Liu; José Martínez-Reyes; Jeff Melnick; Joe Ramsey; Tim Sieber

Others Present: Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Membership Coordinator; Katie D’Urso, MTA Field Rep; Joel Fish; Sana Haroon; Nurit Haspel; Amy Todd

  1. Approval of the agenda and the minutes of the February 5 Executive Committee meeting: Motion to approve the agenda and minutes. Motion seconded. Motion passes unanimously.

     
  2. Parking Bargaining: Lot D closing March 1; Bayside will close later. Impact bargaining will be done in coalition with our sister unions. Caroline Coscia and Joe Brown are joining the coalition team on behalf of the FSU. Discussion regarding expanded bargaining.

     
  3. Election: Update on Spring election. Nomination period was extended until Tuesday, February 16. There is now a full slate of candidates, which will be distributed to the FSU membership on February 18. Campaigning period runs from February 18 – March 5. There will be a candidates’ forum via Zoom on March 3. Voting runs from March 5 – 12.

     
  4. NTT Survey: Survey is ready for review and testing by Executive Committee. Will be run through Qualtrics. Focuses on unseen and uncompensated work by NTT.

     
  5. Branding Survey: Discussion of university email regarding UMass Boston branding survey.

     
  6. Alternative Work Schemes: Faculty sometimes receive prorated pay for under-enrolled courses and independent studies. Discussion of how the FSU can address this compensation issue.

     
  7. FSU Annual Meeting: Discussion of how to run upcoming annual meeting. Budget and any by-laws changes must be approved at annual meeting.

     
  8. MTA Annual Meeting: Virtual meeting will be on April 30 and May 1. There is no MTA President or Vice President election this year. By-laws will be voted on at this meeting. We need FSU delegates for the meeting.

     
  9. Salesforce: Salesforce is a software company whose platforms are used by UMass Boston faculty. It has been rebranded in various ways by the university administration. It has a contract with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  A faculty-led committee will present a report on Salesforce.

     
  10. Faculty Council Subcommittee on Course Evaluations: The subcommittee will be meeting with Provost Joe Berger to discuss systemic bias in course evaluations.

     
  11. Forums: Forum on job creep at the end of February. Upcoming forum on academic freedom to be co-sponsored by Faculty Council; discussion of speakers at that forum.

     
  12. March 3 Executive Committee meeting: Candidates’ forum scheduled for 3:00 on March 3, so the Executive Committee meeting will run from 2:00-3:00 (30 minutes shorter than our usual time).

MEETING ADJOURNS