September 12, 2023
FSU Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
September 12, 2023, 2:00pm (M-4-603 and Zoom)
Executive Committee Members Present: Caroline Coscia (President); Sana Haroon (Vice President); Chris Barcelos; Lynne Benson; Dana Commesso; Monique Fuguet; Jessica Holden; Linda Liu; Brian White
Others Present: Lorenzo Nencioli (FSU Senior Staff Member); Katie D’Urso (MTA Field Rep); Travis Johnston (FSU member)
Welcome to the first FSU Executive Committee meeting of the year!
- Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve the minutes of the April 25 FSU Annual Meeting and the April 28 and May 9 Executive Committee meetings, as well as the agenda in lieu of formal minutes for the April 11 Executive Committee meeting. Motion seconded. Motion passes.
2.Cherish Act: Discussion of activities surrounding the Cherish Act, including yesterday’s Nuts and Bolts. Caroline attended the MTA presidents’ meeting where they discussed the state budget and the Cherish Act. There will be a multi-union even on campus on Thursday, September 14. Representatives from the different unions will speak about how Cherish would benefit UMB, and the event will be attended by legislators and aids. There will also be an event at the State House on Monday, September 18, including an hour on the Cherish Act. Discussion of drafting testimony that can be sent to our members. Testimony topics will include our students’ housing and food insecurity issues, the high cost of technology for students, and faculty and staff recruitment and retention.
3.TT Special Election: Travis has agreed to run the TT election. Sana has been recruiting and has identified three potential candidates. Discussion and agreement to announce and run the election immediately in order to fill three vacant TT positions.
4.Labor Management Meeting Update: This meeting occurs the first Wednesday of each month. The University Dining Hall is reopening to faculty, staff, and graduate students, although food will not be served. We do not yet have concrete information on the Healey Café. Discussion of faculty applying from Senior Lecturer II to Senior Lecturer III regarding courseload and service. We received confirmation that the SL3 courseload is 3/3, and SL2s at 100% is 4/3 or 3/4. FSU has filed a policy grievance regarding SL3s and CLRs: the administration is arguing that those faculty need a full-time continuing appointment in order to qualify for a CLR, but we assert that they simply need full-time workloads regardless of their continuing appointment status. Discussion of process and expectations for SL2 and SL3 service.
5.Membership: Discussion of tabling in order to recruit new FSU members. We can table in the reopened University Dining Club. We will send out a schedule to the Executive Committee to sign up for tabling time slots.
6.FSU Committees: Motion to appoint Jessica as clerk of the FSU. Motion seconded. Motion passes. Motion to approve Lynne, Dana, and Travis to Elections Committee effective immediately. Motion seconded. Motion passes. There is a JCC vacancy. Caroline will check on the frequency of JCC meetings. Motion to approve Travis and Brian as FSU reps on the Academic Technology Committee. Motion seconded. Motion passes.
7.Communications: Nuts and Bolts will be sent out every Monday. The Point will be once a month, at either the middle or end of the month, and the first issue will discuss the University Dining Club. As issues arise, we’ll publish The Point on those topics. The October issue will focus on NTT workloads. We still need topics for November and December. The Point subcommittee: Linda, Lynne, and Jared. The Point will still go out on Mondays. Monday, September 25 will be this semester’s first issue of The Point.
8.Announcements: Martha Patrick is the new ombudsperson. She will join us at our next meeting. An email regarding Africana Studies went out to the FSU membership on Friday.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
MEETING ADJOURNS