4/22/22 Chapter Meeting, 4 pm (Zoom)
Present: Carlo Annelli, Marc Becker, Heidi Cook, Nancy Daley-Moore, Anton Daughters, Jack Davis, Yuna Ferguson, Christine Harker, Mark Hatala, Jennifer Jesse, Erin Joyce, Andrew Kaufmann, Amy Norgard, Joshua Nudell, Brian Snyder, John Quinn, Stephanie Russell, Elizabeth Wiles
- The minutes from our March 25th meeting were approved.
- Nominations for new AAUP executive members starting fall 2022: Heidi Cook, Jack Davis, Elizabeth Wiles (fall semester), Stephanie Russell (spring semester). All accepted their nominations. Nominees will provide a brief paragraph expressing their interest and voting will likely happen in May.
- Updates from the PPC
- The committee proposed paid leaves for parents, supplemental medical leave, catastrophic medical leave, supplemental caregiving leave, supplemental catastrophic leave. The committee asked for 16 weeks of leave for both faculty and staff, but President Thomas countered and offered 7 weeks. She also rejected many other proposals put forward by the committee. Having reasonable paid leave policies is important for the lives of vulnerable faculty and staff, along with preventing disruptions to students’ educational experiences. The rationale given by administration is that the counterproposal is in line with other MO institutions.
- AAUP members agreed to continue to advocate for the original proposal by the PPC and continue to emphasize the cost analysis showing that the length of leaves is not significantly costlier, 16 weeks vs. 7 weeks.
- The committee’s proposal to clarify language on reappointment notification for term faculty is still in progress. Administration are currently evaluating the proposals.
- Full update by Laura Bigger: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bHM6V4kL1h3OQJoy_CHjkFHY-p8GT51lO_eF8nfu6QQ/edit
- Faculty mental health: How to proceed?
- Faculty are often told to address their own mental health through personal activities or personal counseling (EAP). However, these likely do not address the sources of stress and burnout, which are organizational or job-related factors such as long work hours or lack of support from our employers.
- How do we advocate for administration to support faculty mental health beyond things like tips on mental health or EAP?
- The Wellness Committee may address “occupational well-being” but perhaps we need an alternative committee not operating under the supervision of administration, so that the committee can make recommendations to the administration.
- The Wellness Committee is also planning to send out a faculty-focused survey.
- Salary increases in the context of inflation
- How can we advocate for salary increases? How to mobilize action?
- We need to get a sense of how faculty feel about unionizing. This might be our best option to move forward on all of the multiple issues for which we are trying to advocate.
- We need to know how popular the possibility of unionizing is among faculty. We could conduct another “state of the faculty” survey to get data on this.
- Next meeting (fall?): Continue to discuss these items.