Present: Barker, Brewer, Brigham, Gross, Levine, Luce, McGinty, Misra, Paynter, Phillis, Schmalzer, Smethurst,

Staff: Gallagher, Reardon, Wulkan                

Absent: Adams, Ash, Banach, Brandt, Danai, Domier, Gubrium, McDermott, Phillips,

1.         Minutes of October 7 – approved unanimously

2.         Department Representatives

            a) Last week’s meeting was productive and interesting.  Whereas a number of department reps said they had heard encouragement to spend available funds quickly, the Chancellor says that is absolutely not campus policy, and that he hopes to roll over significant amounts of unspent stimulus funds to FY 2011 (pending what happens with 9C cuts this year).

            b) The Board agreed that more meetings with Department Reps would be helpful to the Reps and to the Board.  All Department Reps will be invited to the November 4 Board meeting; next spring they will be invited to one Board meeting and a separate Department Rep meeting at dates to be determined.

3.         Rumors about Furloughs

            MSP has not been approached.  Non-higher ed state worker unions have a formal meeting with the Governor this week.  Board members noted the many ways MSP members have already done their part: no raise for at least one year, increased health insurance costs, decreased hiring, increased workload.  If the state were to mandate furloughs, the university must engage in impact bargaining with the union, and this could be an opportunity to address a range of issues.

4.         Distance Education (DE) Bargaining; Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) Bargaining

            There is a distinction between the two.  It is a myth that there is a rule that distance education is confined to CPE.  There are already day DE classes in SOM and elsewhere; CHFA is developing a plan; UMB is requiring each department to offer daytime DE classes.

            DE – MSP has been asked to approve a plan for CHFA.  We said no, that this needs to be bargained through the contractually-established union-management DE committee.  MSP is meeting with CHFA faculty today.  Aspects to be bargained could include licensing issues, class size, pay, etc.  MSP will convene the DE committee – Board members suggested names of people who might serve MSP well.

            CPE – Bargaining is underway at UMB since FSU represents all faculty who teach in CPE.  MSP represents only those faculty who are MSP unit members by virtue of teaching in the day program.  However, we have not yet bargained any provisions for the people we represent (e.g. pay, course assignments).  We expect to engage in this bargaining soon.

5.         PHENOM

a) Conference: Expanding  Access to Higher Education, November 7 at Framingham State College.  This is consistent with PHENOM’s mission and will expand the range of constituencies engaged with PHENOM.  Board members were encouraged to publicize.

b) Major multi-year campaign to dramatically increase state appropriations so that Massachusetts attains the national average is being planned.  Intermediate focus will aim to pressure every candidate for state office in 2010 to address the crisis in public higher education.  The goal is to see a paradigm shift starting with the FY 2012 budget.

c) The University’s concern with PHENOM operating out of the MSP office was eased by Randy’s explanation of the existence of a transition plan that will phase out use of the MSP office.

6.         Further College Reorganization

            The administration has been saying that the CHFA-CSBS merger is “a done deal”, but no information has trickled down to departments.  MSP will bargain over the impact if it does come to pass, but the Faculty Senate has primary responsibility in discussing the merits of reorganizations.

7.         Political Outreach Committee

            POC met and discussed how to generally handle random political interests brought forward by members (e.g. Instant Runoff Voting), and more specifically how to support legislation to allow a one-time buyback in to the State retirement System for ORP members.  Board members were invited to attend the next meeting November 18.