Union News View this newsletter online Vol. 7, Issue 3 | November 2016 CSU-AAUP/BOR Contract Negotiations Resume: The CSU-AAUP negotiations team met with the BOR’s team Oct. 24 at CCSU. Agreement was reached on various elements in Appendix F, which will be renamed “Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and Sexual Misconduct Complaint Procedure Elements.” Some progress was made on a few other minor issues. The BOR team also agreed to provide members for two small groups to negotiate on two matters: 1) Article 8 on Library Faculty; and 2) Article 10.15 and Appendix E, which deal with distance learning and intellectual property, respectively. The small groups will meet at different times outside and in addition to the normal full table negotiation sessions. Anything agreed to in small groups will later be brought to the full table. It’s of note that CSU-AAUP had requested to have small groups last spring, but it took the BOR team until November to find “informed” participants. The full team negotiated again on Nov. 28. I hope to schedule more negotiation dates. We are still discussing non-economic issues, but do bear in mind that by the nature of our work in higher education, our collective bargaining agreement includes articles on peer evaluation, shared governance, academic freedom, curriculum, and working conditions, which are essentially teaching and learning conditions. Thus, there is plenty to negotiate that is non-economic and still of great importance in a university collective bargaining agreement. We will still be negotiating in the spring 2017 semester, and at that time, we will know more about an economic package. The members of our negotiating team MaryAnn Mahony, Kevin Kean (CCSU); Patty O’Neill, Jay Brower (WCSU); John Kavanagh, Aaron Clark, Sue Clerc (SCSU), and Luis Cordón (ECSU) are not receiving any released time to serve on the negotiating team. They continue to drive long distances and to devote much thought and consideration to proposals and counterproposals on your behalf. I do hope you’ll let them know that you appreciate their diligence. May the force be with us, Elena Tapia CSU-AAUP, President and Chief Negotiator Call for presentations, student activist art: The AAUP invites proposals for presentations for their 2017 Annual Conference on June 14–18 in Washington, D.C. Topics of interest to a diverse, multidisciplinary higher education audience that raise questions, engage conference participants in discussion, and foster dialogue are welcome. Proposals accepted through December 13, 2016. For complete submission details, click here. Have student activists on your campus created posters, puppets, or other compelling protest art? Please send a description or photos along with contact information to [email protected]. CSU-AAUP members have been making headlines recently. And for all the right reasons! Two CSU-AAUP members have had letters to the editor published in the Hartford Courant. Click here to read CCSU’s Modern Languages Professor Gustavo Mejia’s letter on the true value of higher education. Click here to read SCSU’s Tony Rosso on the dangers trigger warnings can pose to academic freedom. Another member, SCSU’s Dr. Vincent Breslin, had his research on microbeads featured on WNPR. Click here to listen to WNPR’s interview on the water with Dr. Breslin. CSU-AAUP continues work to support ongoing contract negotiations by promoting a wide variety of faculty re- search endeavors, publications, innovative courses, and community projects via our CSU CONNects blog and Facebook page. Our most recent campaign in the Hartford Courant’s Guide to Education is ongoing. Featuring content from CSUConnects, our stories can be found now through January 31, 2017. Click here to see CSU-AAUP in the Hartford Courant’s Guide to Education. As part of the same campaign, ads such as the one at right will appear throughout the Hartford Courant’s website as pop-up ads and are linked to our blog CSUConnects. Congratulations to WCSU’s Patricia O’Neill who was elected as CSU-AAUP Vice President in a special election. Polls were open from Monday, Nov. 7 at 6 a.m. and closed at noon on Nov. 21. Pursuant to the CSU-AAUP Constitution, on June 1, Elena Tapia, English/ Linguistics, ECSU, former CSU-AAUP vice president, assumed the office of president after the resignation of Vijay Nair on May 31, 2016. This left a vacancy in the office of vice president. President Tapia appointed Patricia O’Neill, Psychology, WCSU, as interim vice president. However, since the length of the unexpired term of vice president was more than six months, the CSU-AAUP Constitution required a special election be held. CSU-AAUP members were notified and had until Oct. 17, 2016,to nominate themselves or any other member for vice president. CSU-AAUP Special Election Results: CSU-AAUP in the News: Above, an advertisement that appears on the Hartford Courant’s website promoting the work of CSU-AAUP members. SAVE THE DATE! Public Higher Education Day of Action January 26, 2017: Facing a potential 10 percent across-the-board funding cut in 2017, students and faculty in Connecticut are caught between the long-term national trend of education defunding and a short-term political assault of irresponsible and unjust spending cuts. That’s why CSU-AAUP has joined forces with the 4Cs and UConn- AAUP for a Day of Action. Please plan your syllabus with this day in mind and join us Jan. 26, 2017, as we take to the Capitol to defend public higher education. Free buses will take you and your students to Hartford. The event is from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., but you are welcome to come and go as you are able. Events are planned throughout the day, including a special screening of Starving the Beast. This is a new documentary that examines the systematic defunding of public higher education happening across our country. The film’s director, Steve Mims, will give a talk after the screening and participate in a panel discussion on public higher education. Click here to see a trailer of Starving the Beast by Steve Mims. The Faculty Advisory Committee to the Board of Regents for Higher Education invites proposals and welcomes participation at the Third Annual Conference on Student Success and Shared Governance: Building a Better Connecticut in an Era of Fiscal Uncertainty, at Central Connecticut State University, April 7, 2017. This conference celebrates student success as the realization of our mission. All submissions relevant to the theme are welcome, but of particular interest are programs or strategies that promote student engagement, improve pedagogy and curriculum, foster shared governance, and document research regarding student success. To present at the conference, complete the 2017 FAC conference submission form. The deadline for submissions is noon on Thursday, January 26, 2017. An announcement opening registration for the conference will be sent early in the spring semester. For more information, contact Conference Program Chair, Meg Leake, [email protected], Chair of Faculty Advisory Committee, Stephen Adair, [email protected], or Vice-Chair of the FAC, Barbara Richards, [email protected]. FAC Conference on Student Success and Shared Governance Call for Papers: Contact CSU-AAUP at (860) 832-3790 or email us at [email protected] By conference attendee Brendan M. Cunningham, Assistant Professor of Economics at ECSU Faculty and staff from institutions across the state, including the four Connecticut State Universities, joined together at the Connecticut Students for a Dream Educators Conference on Nov. 4. The conference aimed to show how educators can better support and advocate for undocumented students and was held at Wesleyan University, CSU-AAUP covered the cost of attendance for 9 of its members. The conference started with informative, interactive and impassioned presentations from current and former undocumented college students. A theme of this session was inaccessibility. Children in undocumented families often do not learn of their status until late in their high school careers, at which point they are confronted with significant barriers to pursuing a college education. These barriers include government policies by some states that charge them higher tuition than their peers. These events, along with the regular fear of deportation for themselves or family members, creates a backdrop of anxiety, which can challenge mental health. Lack of access to medical care can prevent adequate treatment. Breakout sessions included insight from immigration attorneys describing the lack of options for achieving a more formal immigration status. Finally, we gathered with other CSU stakeholders to discuss actions our institutions could take to create a safe and productive educational environment for undocumented students. Connecticut Students for a Dream is a youth-led statewide network fighting for the rights of undocumented youth and their families. For more information, visit www.ct4adream.org. Report on Dreamers Conference: Above, Conneccut Students For A Dream rally on the North Steps of the Capitol in Harord.