We have remained busy over the last semester. We have continued dialogues with the administration over a number of concerns but a few areas are of particular importance.
Joint Equity Committee: The union representatives (Drs. Carlson, Joslin, Mingus and Pozo) met with the administration and discussed the process by which the inequities documented in the Sibson and Presidential reports could be resolved. The meetings went well, but the administration appears to be attempting to delay the monetary adjustments necessary to resolve this till contract negotiations. We are committed to solving this now. This sore has been allowed to fester for too long. For the good of the University and it’s faculty we need action before the end of the summer sessions.
Medical School: The administration has agreed to private exploratory meetings with the union to see whether we can resolve our dispute in a mutually beneficial way. We are ready to be flexible and supportive, but are committed to the principle of a united faculty, of the unity of the academic and medical school faculty. We have submitted a FOIA request for relevant documents and have been told that the administration needs additional time to determine to what extent non-exempt public records exist which are responsive to our request. We have also met with the President of the Wayne State university and discussed what benefits the union brings to the lives of the medical faculty.
Mental Health Coverage: The administration is in agreement that the spirit of the mental health parity act was not adhered to by Blue Cross Blue Shield. We want mental health visits to be treated as labs rather than discrete doctor visits. The administration has committed itself to continue looking at this.
Petition Drive: We want to thank all our faculty who signed the petition and those of you who helped collect signatures. We are very close to completing our quota of 800 signatures and hope to be able to turn in a 1000 signature. We are collecting additional signatures at the farmers market and several other venues. We need your help. Call the union and volunteer. This is to guarantee our right to be a union and collectively organize.
Feel free to contact the WMU-AAUP at any time. We are here for you and ready to do whatever we can to guarantee due process, academic freedom and the welfare of our faculty and community.
From Michael Bailey, Executive Director of the Michigan AAUP Conference:
The Michigan House approved its $1.39 billion higher education funding bill yesterday that included $36 million in performance-based funding. As part of the performance metrics approved by the House, U of M could lose $4.7 million if it refuses to report data on stem cell research and MSU could lose $6.7 million in additional money if it did not end its policy of requiring students to have health insurance.
Also included in the metrics is a tuition restraint piece that would cap the amount Universities can increase tuition based on last years increase. The legislature is looking to reward those universities that held down the increase last year. Under the formula, each university would subtract this years increase from $1,300 and then subtract that from its fiscal year 2012-13 performance funding, divided by its total 2012-11 undergraduate fiscal year equated students. (Now we know what the legislature spends all their time on.)
The other parts to the metrics are participating in reverse transfer agreements with at least three community colleges in the state and to ensure their dual enrollment policy doesn’t consider use of credits toward high school graduation requirements.
These requirements have been extremely frustrating to university officials and Democratic legislators as these performance measures appear more punitive than progressive.
The Senate passed their version of the higher education budget on Thursday. The bills will be exchanged and then sent to Conference.
Posted in Budget, MI-AAUP
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Last week, members of our Executive Committee had dinner with President Dunn and an informal discussion of a number of issues, including correcting the University’s implementation of mental health parity, threats to our university from the current political environment, the administration’s strategic plan, and our medical school faculty members.
The purpose of the meeting was not to resolve these issues, but to make President Dunn aware of our concerns and for him to bring his concerns to our attention. Nonetheless, it’s clear that we have common ground with President Dunn on number of issues, such as the need for better funding of higher education, and sharp disagreements on others.
Ten days ago, the faculty at CMU ratified their contract after a strike and under pressure from new anti-union legislation.
We’re trying to arrange a meeting between their leadership and ours to learn more about the impact of the new legislation. In the meantime, CMU’s administration has published a few details about the new contract.
With respect to salary increases, it appears that CMU faculty will receive:
2011-2012 – 0%
2012-2013 – 1.25% + $830 (average 2.25%)
2013-2014 – 1.5% + $835 (average 2.5%)
This compares to our contract:
2011-2012 – 0%
2012-2013 – 1.00% (fall semester) + 1.00% (spring semester)
2013-2014 – 1.00% (fall semester) + 1.50% (spring semester)
Among the items on the Agenda for this afternoon’s Association Council:
Status of a Joint Salary Equity Committee
Medical School Update
Recommendations for Secretary, Treasurer and Health Care Advocate
The meeting begins at 1:30 pm in Room 105 of the Bernhard Center.
