Nuts & Bolts: Upcoming events, Anti Racism Grant Application due date, Know your contract parental leave, DRIVE Act and MTA Benefits
11/17/2025
FSU Calendar Nov 17th to 21st
Monday, November 17th UDC Pizza and Cookies 11:30AM to 1:00PM
Stop by UDC for some pizza, relax, chat with colleagues and meet new colleagues. Pick up some FSU swag – stickers, buttons and t-shirts.
Friday, November 21st FSU Executive Committee Meeting 3:00PM to 4:30PM
Executive Committee meetings are open to all members in good standing. The meetings tend to be a mix of routine, keep-the-trains-running, agenda items along with more substantive discussion about the larger issues facing faculty and librarians.
Upcoming Events:
NTT Promotion Workshop, December 2nd at 2PM in Zoom
NTT members of your Executive Committee will be hosting a zoom workshop to provide information on the promotion process and materials to be submitted. Submittal date is January 26, 2026.
Dear Faculty and Librarians,
November 17th to 21st is National Education Week that celebrates education support professionals who help students succeed. Although focused on K-12 support professionals, we too have support professionals who assist in student success. Take a moment this week to thank all the college advisors who assist in making sure our students are ready to register and who answer questions beyond what we can do.
Anti-Racism Grant Program
Grant Applications: Due Wednesday, December 3rd at 4PM EST
The FSU is accepting grant applications that support anti-racism initiatives that seek to collectively transform UMB’s campus culture. This academic year’s funding pool is $50,000.
Proposal Guidelines: We encourage faculty and librarians to think about anti-racism initiatives in broad and innovative ways. The goal of anti-racism is to actively challenge and change policies, behaviors, and beliefs that perpetuate racism.
Funds awarded should primarily support the implementation of on-campus (physical or digital) activities to provide anti-racist teaching and learning opportunities for UMB community members. Engagement with larger Boston-area communities is welcome but should be secondary. Funded projects often have as a major component an event, product, workshop, activity, lecture, or research analysis report that could potentially benefit the UMB community.
All monies awarded must be spent by June 30th, 2026.
Application Process: materials
- Maximum 2-page double-space proposal that includes a budget.
- A CV for each applicant.
- Submit as attachments to fsu@umb.edu by December 3, 2025, at 4PM EST.
Grant Program Committee: Seeking Committee Volunteers
We are seeking for volunteers to serve on the Anti-Racism Grant Program Committee. Committee members’ responsibilities include reviewing all applications, selecting which applications to be awarded the grant with the caveat that the total funding pool of $50,000 is to be split among the awardees. Please note that service on this committee can be counted as university service.
Please submit your interest to fsu@umb.edu by November 18th. The Executive Committee will vote on the committee membership on November 21st.
FSU Communications Team: Seeking Volunteers
The FSU is looking for members interested in joining our communications team! Working with our Ex-Comm rep Mérédith Laferté-Coutu, you would be helping to build our social media presence and strategizing about how to get the word out there on what the union is up to! Please reach out if interested (mm.lafertecoutu@umb.edu). This would be a low effort, fun commitment with no regular obligations, and a wonderful way to engage in union work.
Know Your Contract: Parental Leave
Article 27.3.5 (b) Eligibility and (c) Timing of Application for Use of Parental Leave has been amended. The change is in bold ink.
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Prior Contract |
2024-2027 Contract |
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All non-tenure-track faculty members who are not funded by grants, contracts, or gifts; who have three years of full-time service; Parental leave shall be taken during the semester in which the child’s birth or adoption occurs or an immediately adjacent semester. A bargaining-unit member wishing to take parental leave must apply at least one semester prior to the proposed start of the leave, when the faculty member or librarian has knowledge of the impending birth or adoption, whichever is later, or when the faculty member or librarian has been granted an appointment that makes it possible to fulfill the return obligation described below, whichever of the three occurs latest. If an otherwise eligible individual misses the application deadline, the parties will negotiate to determine whether to waive the deadline. |
All non-tenure-track faculty members who are not funded by grants, contracts, or gifts; who have three years of full-time service; or who have continuing appointments,
Parental leave shall be taken during the semester in which the child’s birth or adoption occurs or an immediately adjacent semester. In the event the birth or adoption occurs in the period between the Fall and Spring semesters or the period between the Spring and Fall semesters, the member will decide which semester the birth or adoption will be considered to have occurred in for purposes of determining the semester in which the leave will occur. A bargaining-unit member wishing to take parental leave must apply at least one semester prior to the proposed start of the leave, when the faculty member or librarian has knowledge of the impending birth or adoption, whichever is later, or when the faculty member or librarian has been granted an appointment that makes it possible to fulfill the return obligation described below, whichever of the three occurs latest. If an otherwise eligible individual misses the application deadline, the parties will negotiate to determine whether to waive the deadline. |
DRIVE ACT: Legislation to cover federal funding cuts.
Governor Healey proposed the DRIVE Act which appropriates $400 million in funds ($200 million to come from the Fair Share Amendment funds) to cover federal cuts to programs at public higher education colleges and universities. MTA is actively supporting the legislation with requests that the funding go beyond research to cover other programs (i.e. TRIO) facing cuts.
Click here for details and how you can contact your legislator.
MTA Benefits: Member Owned Retail Stores
MTA members received discounts at member owned shops. Click here for more details.
Sincerely,
Caroline Coscia
FSU President
Senior Lecturer II
Political Science Department