Present: Adams, Banach, Barker, Brandt, Brewer, Brigham, Domier, Gross, Gubrium, Levine,  Luce, McDermott, McGinty, Misra, Paynter, Phillips, Phillis, Schmalzer, Smethurst

Staff: Gallagher, Reardon, Wulkan               

Absent: Ash, Danai

1.         Lincoln and Sunset Ave Closure

            Lots of members are upset about the (at least) temporarily more difficult access to campus and resulting public safety issues.  Members are encouraged to contact political leaders in town to express their opinions.

2.         Proposed change in credits for Gen. Ed. courses

            There was a consensus that this can be a win-win if there is an assurance of enhanced quality for students and respect for faculty effort, but there is the danger of an approach that would not meet these criteria.  MSP will engage in impact bargaining; this could be an opening to negotiate broader workload issues.  The Faculty Senate Rules Committee approved the proposal over the summer.  The Academic Matters Committee will be discussing it further – there may be openings on this committee.  Rationales for the change include: classroom shortages, common practice at AAU universities, and the possibility of having fewer faculty.  Members are encouraged to attend the 9/17 Faculty Senate Meeting where this change will be discussed.

Review of MSP Retreat (see handouts)

3.         Review of Other MSP Retreat Discussions

            a) Workload

            There are some shared issues and some particular to different constituencies (librarians, contract faculty, tenure system faculty).  Proposed that MSP set up 3 groups with clear integration among them.  Approved unanimously.  A sign-up sheet was passed around.

            b) Political Outreach Committee

            Proposed that an ongoing committee be established that would be on top of legislation and make recommendations about endorsements and other political matters.  Approved unanimously.  The committee would coordinate with PHENOM, but be quite separate.  First meeting is 9/16.

4.         Newsletter

            The goal is to have 2 per semester.  The Board discussed possible articles for a 9/25 deadline, and Board members signed up to write some of them:

            Work-life issues

            Campus strategic plan

            Political Outreach Committee

            History of MSP and some of its big wins

            Contract funding

            Other unions’ and SGA’s plans

            Library issues

5.         MSP Blog

            The Board discussed how to have an effective blog, hosted on the MSP website,  that increases dialogue among MSP members.  Only MSP members would be able to post or comment; the public at large would be able to read the blog.  Several Board members offered to post regularly on various topics:

            Faculty Senate

            Linking to interesting articles

            What goes on in different buildings

            Work-life issues

            Union philosophy

6.         New Faculty/Librarian Reception

            September 15, 4-6 PM.  Board members are encouraged to come and bring new hires from their department.

7.         Reorganization Impact Bargaining

            Now that the semester has started, this will take place soon.  It was mentioned that it would be interesting to do a time analysis and collect data about how much effort is involved in doing such reorganizations.