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

Staff: Gallagher, Reardon, Wulkan                

Absent: Ash, Brandt, Danai, Domier, Gubrium, McDermott,

1.         Minutes of September 23 – approved unanimously

2.         Officer Vacancies

            V.P. slot previously occupied by Dan Clawson is still vacant

            Secretary/Clerk position occupied by Stephanie Luce will be vacant in January

            Jen Adams will be on leave next semester but will return to her officer position

            Board members were encouraged to submit suggestions of people to recruit.

3.         PHENOM and MSP Office

            Associate Chancellor Susan Pearson has sent a terse note to MSP saying that it is inappropriate for PHENOM, a separate 501c3 organization, to work out of the MSP office and that this must cease immediately.  Board members speculated about what the administration is concerned about, and mentioned a number of other non-University organizations that use University space.  Randy will meet with Susan next week to discuss this.

4.         Board of Trustees

            Randy’s address to the Board is on the MSP website.  His main points were:

            a) This is the first year that state funding for the campus is less than what the campus gets from student fees and retained tuition.

            b) There are now fewer tenure system faculty on campus than at the start of the 250 Plan.

            c) Faculty work, on average, 66.4 hours and are stretched thin.

            The Trustees seemed surprised, especially by b), and talked about further increasing fees and increasing financial aid.  They talked about not cutting our way out of the crisis.

            Board members mentioned how in numerous areas people have been told to spend funds quickly before they are gone.  Yet, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance Joyce Hatch told randy that the leftover funds from FY 2010 can be rolled over into FY 2011.  Officers will raise this discrepancy with the Chancellor.  Board members see deans using funds to create revenue-generating programs, and are concerned that this may be done at the expense of preserving existing jobs.

            There was agreement that we need to get more clarity on some of the numbers and that the Chancellor must share accurate information with MSP in a timely manner.

5.         Research and Education Support Funds

            The 1-year contract provided $788 per full-time member.  About $200,000 remains unspent.  Vice Chancellor for Research Mike Malone has proposed rolling the money into the faculty research grant program since this program has been cut.  MSP’s proposal was to make funds available to people hired in the year after the initial cutoff date, with any residual funds going to seed a new Research Faculty bridging pool.  The administration rejected both these proposals. 

            Main points in the Board’s discussion included:

·         In the past we have encouraged broad use of professional development funds

·         Research grants are not available to all bargaining unit members (non-tenure system faculty, librarians, senior faculty)

·         The leftover funds could be rolled over into the new contract

·         They could be divided into two parts

·         If any funds are used for research grants, there should be a contractual agreement about the process by which they are awarded

6.         Department Representatives

            Meeting scheduled for October 15

            How to bolster the department rep structure is a challenge for MSP/

7.         Gen Ed Bargaining

            At the Faculty Senate meeting, John Cunningham indicated agreement that 4 credit course have to entail more work for both students and faculty than 3 credit courses, and that there needs to be recognition of this for faculty.  MSP has its first impact bargaining session scheduled for today.  The main danger is that the change would result in fewer faculty.  Various models were discussed and there was a consensus that some adjustment to teaching load is critical.

8.         College Reorganization

            Impact bargaining will be happening soon.  It was mentioned that there are other reorganizations being discussed that we would also need to bargain over – e.g. Legal Studies and