November 2021

Dear faculty,

First, some background: Changes to UVM policies are provided to UA for review and comment as part of our union role; they are also provided to the leadership of the Faculty Senate. Over the past several years we have had to fight to have our feedback considered, and in some cases, the UVM administration has gone ahead and implemented changes without our input.

We recently submitted extensive edits to a proposed revision to UVM’s Campus Speakers Policy. We want to let you know about this, because we continue to see this administration make major changes to our university with little to no meaningful input from faculty, staff, and students. Please see current and draft policies as well as our statement here.

In short, UA is concerned about the administration’s overreach in this policy, and the introduction of a new, explicit threat to employees and students of “disciplinary action, up to and including separation from the University” for violations of the policy.

We believe that these proposed changes should be widely communicated to the UVM community and be the focus of extensive university community discussion before they are approved by the UVM President.

Three other important items:

• Remember, our Bargaining team successfully negotiated for faculty involvement in a complete departmental course equivalency policy review this semester. This is a huge opportunity. Please take part. See details below.

• For months, UA has pushed UVM for a faculty vaccine mandate. One may be coming. Stay tuned.

• We look forward to seeing you at our Fall Members Meeting next Tuesday, Nov. 9, from 3:30 to 5:30PM (on Zoom). Here’s the link to register.

Thanks for staying involved in your union.

In solidarity,

Ellie and Katlyn

Ellie Miller, President | Katlyn Morris, Executive Director

Upcoming events

• Tuesday, Nov. 9, 3:30 PM: FALL MEMBERS MEETING! Register here for the Zoom link. All members, full-time and part-time, are encouraged to attend for updates from UA leaders and committees, a CAC report, a discussion and vote on the budget, and other business of your union.

• January 13, 2022, 10am-12pm: Non-Tenure Track Faculty Caucus, on Zoom. All non-tenure track faculty are invited to attend. Mark your calendar, and stay tuned!

• Late January, 2022: Part-time faculty leaders are preparing to bargain this winter. Shout out to the team, and please plan to come observe and support their bargaining efforts in 2022.

Democratize the BOT

Our campaign to democratize the UVM Board of Trustees gained steam in last week’s well-attended meeting of faculty and staff union members.

We are asking the Vermont legislature to create seats for UVM faculty and staff on the UVM Board of Trustees. Here is more background on the issue of UVM's undemocratic decision making and reckless leadership over the past several years: https://www.unitedacademics.org/democratizebot

Please take one minute to send a message to our Vermont chairs of the House and Senate Education committees. Our state legislators often only hear a rosy picture of UVM from the administration. They need to hear from you!

Our state representatives and senators have made it clear that they need our help getting our issue onto the Education Committee agendas. So we need to convince them to hear faculty and staff testimony on the damaging effects of UVM leadership having no accountability or accessibility to the faculty and staff.  

Please Take Action Now

Feel free to get in touch with our United Academics State and Higher Ed Issues Committee with questions or ideas: info@unitedacademics.org

Course equivalency policies, PDFs

Course equivalency policy revisions. In our new CBA, faculty in all departments have an opportunity to develop reasonable, clear, and fair course equivalency policies for all instructional activities (Article 16, Workload).

See the outdated current course equivalencies to understand why these policies need updating.

The CBA clearly puts faculty in charge of developing course equivalency policies; Article 16.15: “The faculty and the Chair in each department or equivalent unit shall develop course equivalencies for all credit-bearing instructional activities to which faculty may be assigned.”

This is a chance to bring more transparency and fairness to how faculty workload is calculated. Each department should undergo a review of course equivalency policies this semester for all courses and other instructional activities, per the CBA. Please check in with your Delegate or Rep if you have questions.

See changes to Article 16 here
See the full CBA here

Also remember that this year’s Professional Development Funds are $1825 per full-time faculty member. Part-time faculty also have a dedicated pool of Professional Development Funds.

New this Fall: we requested and were approved for faculty to be able to use PDFs to purchase KN95 masks for teaching, if you wish.

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