Help with the tentative agreement

We've put together a couple of documents to help people review the tentative agreement.  One is a précis which summarizes changes since the last contract and ties them to bargaining objectives. The second is a version of the tentative agreement in which changes since the last agreement are highlighted.  Both are available over on the FA website's page on bargaining.

President Poshard on fighting cuts to financial aid

Most readers will just have received the email I paste below the break (from the President, via the Chancellor), but I thought it worth flagging as an example where faculty and administration are on the same page. Whatever our differences on other issues, I don't think there's any reason to doubt Glenn Poshard's dedication to making college affordable for all students, or his hard work on this issue, which has been a major theme of his entire time in office. I encourage you to visit the student aid alliance site President Poshard lists below, and sign the petition in defense of student aid programs; I have already done so.

FA Thank You Party Saturday

The FA will hold a Thank You Party from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. this Saturday, November 19 at Hangar 9 (511 S Illinois Avenue). All who supported the FA during the last couple of weeks are invited to share a little food and drink and celebrate our joint achievement in reaching the tentative agreement on the Faculty Association contract. Spouses or partners are welcome to come as well.

DRC unanimously recommends tentative agreement

The FA's Departmental Representative Council voted 30-0 this evening to recommend that the members of the FA approve the tentative agreement reached with the administration.  The full agreement is already available on the FA web site, but we should be releasing more information on it, including a summary noting changes since the last contract, by tomorrow (Friday) afternoon.

The Details and the Big Picture

The FA has released the TA on the Contract and the Back to Work agreement.  Predictably, the conversation has turned to the micro-analysis of what we "got" out of striking.  Some are concerned that little headway was made on the primary issues of FE layoffs and furloughs, although that "little" seems to be measured against either unstated Platonic ideals or predetermined conclusions of the FA's perpetual failure.  A few comments, then, after the break about the big and little pictures.

Tentative agreement released

Here's Randy Hughes' email giving the news. 

Dear Colleagues,

The agreements that were reached last week between the Faculty Association and Board bargaining teams, including all prior tentative agreements, have been compiled into one contract document along with an attached "Back to Work Agreement." Representatives of both the Faculty Association and the Board bargaining teams signed off on the compiled documents yesterday, November 14. The documents are still subject to proofreading and editing to conform with the individual tentative agreements reached throughout the bargaining process.

These documents are now available at the Faculty Association web site for your review:

http://siucfa.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/tentative-agreement.pdf
http://siucfa.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/back-to-work-agreement-final.pdf

A summary of the new contract language and an annotated version of the contract document indicating where changes have been made will be available soon.

Now that there is a tentative agreement on the contract, the next step is for the Departmental Representative Council (DRC) to review and vote on the agreement. A meeting of the DRC is being called for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, November 17. The recommendation of the DRC will be communicated to the membership of the Faculty Association and the membership will vote on ratification in balloting which has been scheduled for Wednesday, November 30. Ratification of the agreement is by majority vote of the Faculty Association membership. A General Membership Meeting for the purpose of presenting the terms contained in the tentative agreement and answering questions concerning the agreement is planned for 5:00 p.m., Monday, November 28 (location TBA). More details about each of these meetings and the balloting process are forthcoming.

Sincerely,
Randy Hughes