Protest parking fees this Wed. at noon, GEO letter, and other info from the FSU
10/29/2018
Dear Colleague,
We hope you are having a great semester. Please join us on Wednesday to protest the high parking fees the university plans to impose.
► Protest High Parking Fees: This Wednesday, October 31, 12 noon, at the Steelworker Statue on the plaza. Join us to protest the high parking fees the administration plans to impose and their unwillingness to continue multi-park passes. Only YOU, your co-workers and students can prevent a drastic parking fee increase! Come in costume. More information is attached.
►FSU meeting update on parking on Wednesday, November 7, 12 noon, in ISC, 2nd floor, conference room 2003. Pizza will be served.
► Please read this letter and consider offering any support you can to the Graduate Employee Organization. The administration has been claiming that GEO is responsible for the elimination of .25 positions for graduate assistant positions for the coming academic year (2019-20). GEO contends that this narrative misrepresents a much more contentious bargaining scenario. Additionally, the administration has made vague promises to replace these quarter-time positions with "scholarships" that will offer some lump sum funding but will not offer the current benefits (including tuition waivers, health insurance coverage, vision and dental coverage, and travel support. There is, at this time, no clarity on when these scholarship will be funded, or at what level. For further information please contact geo@umb.edu.
►New Travel Registry requirement: Many of you asked about Terra Dotta, the new online travel registry (see the 9/28/18 email from Chris Giuliani, Associate Vice Chancellor of Administration & Finance). We took your questions to the Administration; here are their answers:
- This registry is required for work-related out-of-state and international travel, not in-state or personal travel.
- Members who do not pre-register their work-related travel using this system will not be reimbursed by the University.
- The purpose of this registry is for documentation for reimbursement as well as for safety: the university needs to know whom to evacuate from a country should the need arise while an employee is abroad on university business.
- As an option, you can register any personal travel a few days before or after your business travel (this personal travel will be covered by the insurance), or you can include personal travel internationally should you want the benefits above.
- University policy already requires that you to seek pre-approval for work-related travel (see the Board of Trustees’ policy here; you can see details on this policy and on Terra Dotta at the UMB Controller’s site here). Given that pre-approval already requires members to provide travel information, this registry only represents a change in the modality of pre-approval (online) and not a change in working conditions.
►Read FSU President Marlene Kim’s remarks on the Role of Public Higher Education and UMass Boston here, or here.
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For FSU members in good standing:
The FSU is looking for an NTT faculty member to be an internal organizer for the union during the Spring 2019 semester. The organizer, working closely with FSU leadership, will be heavily involved in activities to support FSU initiatives, including membership campaigns and communication infrastructure. These activities will include campaign planning, talking to members one-on-one, developing messaging and materials, and organizing meetings. The FSU will buy out one course of the faculty member selected, so that the equivalent amount of time/effort (25%) can be devoted to organizing for the FSU. If you are interested, please submit a short statement introducing yourself and any relevant experience to fsu@umb.edu, preferably by November 12th. |
Marlene Kim
FSU President
Professor, Economics
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