Call For Nominations

In accordance with our bylaws, the Nomination Committee calls for nominees for the following offices: 
· President 
· Vice-President 
· Secretary-Treasurer 
· Contract Manager 
· Grievance Officer 
· CSU-AAUP Council Member 

These officers will serve two-year terms, beginning June 1, 2002.  Council Members serve staggered two-year terms.  Council Member Bert Woodcock, who was elected to his term last year, will continue in his position through 2003. 

Brief job descriptions of these positions appear in Article IV of our chapter bylaws, available on our web site (http://vax.wcsu.edu/aaup/bylaws).  For a more comprehensive understanding of what these positions entail, contact current President Katy Wiss (7-8260 or wissk@wcsu.edu). 

You may nominate yourself or any other WCSU – AAUP member.  You may nominate as many people as you like.  Nominations must be received in the AAUP office, White Hall 111, by Tuesday, April 23. v

Nomination for WCSU – AAUP Officer

Name of Nominee: _______________________________________________________

Position:  qPresident                    qVice-President        qSecretary-Treasurer 
    qContract Manager    qGrievance Officer   qCSU-AAUP Council Member

Department of Nominee:  __________________________________________________

Signature of Nominee: (indicating willingness to serve) ___________________________

Name of Person Submitting Nomination:  _____________________________________

CSU-AAUP Ratifies Contract

The 2002 - 2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the AAUP and the BOT was approved by a vote of 354 to 23.  Many thanks to those of you who voted, giving WCSU a high turnout -- particularly for a small campus. The vote breakdown by campus follows: 
 

The BOT is scheduled to vote on the contract at their April 4 meeting.  Pending Board approval, the contract will go to the state legislature for their consideration. v
 

Time for Side Letters

Not all workload assignments can be covered by our general contract.  In the past management and AAUP negotiated the terms of these specialized workload assignments.  The results of those negotiations are called side letters.   Side letters may cover work in areas such as laboratories, clinical practice, and other instructional and non-instructional activities. 

If your department carries out instruction in ways that are not addressed adequately by the contract, consider drafting a side letter proposal.  Submit it to Katy Wiss or Vijay Nair who will negotiate the terms with management.  (If you have questions about whether your department needs a side letter and what it should say, please contact Vijay Nair or Katy Wiss.) 

Side letter negotiations should commence within 90 days of the approval by the General Assembly.  Existing side letters for which changes are not agreed shall continue in force as past practice.   See Article 10.4  of the Collective Bargaining Agreement for complete language.  Existing WCSU-AAUP side letters are on our web site: http://vax.wcsu.edu/aaup/sl.v
 

Contractual Concerns

Q. I am a part-time faculty member.  I have taught here for 5 years.  If I take a semester off, what happens to my seniority?
A. You get to keep it.  You do not accrue any additional seniority during the semester you take off.  This means others may pass you in seniority, but you will not lose any accrued. 

Q. I want to change my TIAA-CREF contributions.  What do I do?
A.  As much as the AAUP would like to help you, that question requires help from Human Resources.  Call them at 837-8662. 

Q. I am a part-time faculty member.  Can I participate in a pension plan?
A.  Yes.  This benefit was negotiated in our very first contract, and is guaranteed in Article 14.2.1. 
In fact, if you select TIAA-CREF as your plan, the state will contribute 8% of your salary if you contribute 5% deducted from your salary.  Call Human Resources at 837-8662 to get the ball rolling or for more information. v
 

Academic Politics

(An excerpt from an essay by Stanley Fish, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago, from the March 22, 2002, Chronicle of Higher Education.  Fish writes a monthly column for The Chronicle’s Career Network, where this article first appeared.) 
All happy departments are alike.  All unhappy departments are unhappy in their own way.  Let me count the ways: [We’ve included two on Fish’s list]. 

You know it’s an unhappy department if it is fissured by quarrels the origins of which no one remembers, in part because the original combatants have long since died.  In departments unhappy in this way, dead people end up having more power (and votes) than the people who claim to be alive. 

You know it’s an unhappy department if its discussions are conducted in code, and procedural questions stand in for the substantive issues that are never allowed to surface.  Once this decorum is established, no one ever gets to say what he or she really thinks; and although the ever smaller battles do get won and lost, the department always loses because its pathologies are never confronted. v