Health Care Provider Selections:

As part of the collective bargaining agreement, the faculty and the administration agreed to form a health care advisory committee, with multiple constituencies, to consider new insurance and health benefits carriers.  The Akron-AAUP reserved the right to bargain over changes in vendors or substantial changes in coverage.  This joint committee met regularly, and ultimately it came up with a recommended list of carriers for the new health care coverage to be implemented in January.  Some changes in coverage were also recommended.  The Akron-AAUP agreed with all of the proposed vendors except for one, which constituted a negative change in our view.  In that instance, the joint committee ultimately decided to go with the original vendor.  Thus, at this point, the carriers have been chosen, and faculty were notified of this in the UA Email Digest dated October 18, 2007. 

This Digest can be retrieved at http://www.uakron.edu/edigest/index.php?id=1209.


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Reminder: Open Enrollment 2008 Benefits Starts Today:

The Director of Benefits Administration has announced open enrollment for benefits starting today. Faculty may complete benefits choices online via zipline or contact the Office of Human Resources for assistance. All faculty should have received a paper copy of the announcement. Deadline for completion is Monday, November 29th.

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Contingent Faculty at UA Now at 60.4%:

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The Market Salary Adjustment Process Documents on the Chapter Website:

Akron-AAUP previously noted that a number of departments are making market based salary adjustments as called for in the collective bargaining agreement. The links below are to three PDF documents which faculty in those departments may find useful:1) An Overview of The 2006-07 Market Salary Adjustment Process,  2) Instructions for Market Compression Adjustments Effective 2006, and 3) Contract Article 16, Section 9 "Market Adjustment".  These documents are also posted on the front page of the chapter website at http://www.akronaaup.org. Administrators with questions should contact Chand Midha at cmidha@uakron.edu. Bargaining unit faculty with questions should contact Mike Cheung at cheung@uakron.edu.

While some departments have successfully navigated the market adjustment process and have seen the results reflected in their paychecks, others have not. It is paramount that any delays not be the fault of faculty failing to initiate the process by not forming their departmental committee as detailed in the contract. Those departments that have been successful so far are those that elected BUFS to the committee and then began lobbying their chairs/deans to move forward.  It is in faculty interests to move first, then apply pressure by calling for the committee to begin doing its work.

Faculty are reminded that before this year's merit raises can be calculated, the market raise distribution has to be completed. If anyone has concerns, they should start by contacting their departmental liaison. Liaisons and departmental faculty should feel free to contact anyone on the Akron-AAUP Executive Committee for advice on how to proceed.

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New Members of the Akron-AAUP Executive Committee - Election Results:

Congratulations to Stacy Willett and Karen Lahey on their election to the Akron-AAUP Executive Committee. On Oct 10, 2007 at the Fall 2007 meeting of the Departmental Liaison Council, liaisons elected Stacy and Karen as members-at-large to the Executive Committee. Karen's extensive service to the union continues from her membership on the negotiating team.  Stacy has been active as well as a member of the grievance committee.  She attended AAUP's summer institute in June.  Both will serve the faculty well during their 2007-08 tenure as executive committee members.  Your colleagues appreciate your willingness to serve.  John Hebert has been elected to finish the current term as Treasurer of Akron-AAUP.  Both John and Tom Andes are committed members of the Chapter and the membership was certain to be well-served by either of these candidates.  Congratulations to John, and our thanks to both John and Tom for their willingness to serve the best interests of The University of Akron and the UA faculty. 
 

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Interim Chairs:

Interim chairs provide an invaluable service to their departments, colleges, and the university. They provide continuity in departmental administration and bridge the gap to the hiring of a full-time chair. Faculty who volunteer to do such work are to be commended, and their service should not go unnoticed, nor should their subsequent return to the faculty cause them problems. However, faculty should be aware that there indeed have been problems for interim chairs, so anyone considering undertaking this laudable service should be mindful of a few considerations.
With a contract now in place, there are necessarily dates involved in a faculty member’s eligibility for various features of the contract (such as some of the salary provisions, like merit or market). It is entirely possible that an interim chair may assume an interim position, or return to the faculty, on dates that would exclude her or him from some faculty benefit. Therefore, faculty should consult the contract to be sure that their service will not cause them such problems.

Faculty members might consider asking for appropriate compensation before accepting the interim position, taking note of the fact that chair stipends do not go to one’s base, as some contractual provisions do. It is in the Administration’s interest to ensure that faculty, volunteering for this temporary administrative service, should not be inadvertently penalized for such service.
 

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The Administrative Role in RTP Guidelines Revision (repeat):

When the administration and the Akron-AAUP finally agreed on the collective bargaining contract, the general procedures for Retention, Tenure and Promotion were legally set out in Article 13.  The Provost's office, under Provost Hickey, had asked for and received revisions of RTP guidelines from departments around campus prior to contract ratification.  To complete contract implementation on this issue, each department must review the RTP guidelines they now have in place, and make any modifications necessary to comply with the contract.  Faculty need to ensure that the guidelines do not contradict the language in the contract.  This is a fairly straightforward and simple matter that will likely not entail substantial changes to existing guidelines.

Nonetheless, there have been concerns raised from faculty across the campus that the administration at different levels has been mandating substantive changes in departmental RTP guidelines as a condition of post-contract approval.  If so, it is the position of Akron-AAUP that faculty should resist this and contact the Akron-AAUP Executive Committee to share the particulars.   Akron-AAUP would remind faculty that the contract is specific on this matter, and states that writing RTP guidelines, and making revisions to them, is a faculty-driven process (see Article 13, Sections 3 D-G).

While the administration may make suggestions to faculty about what it believes would be improvements in the guidelines, faculty are under no obligation to accept those suggestions.  The administration and the faculty have a right to expect sensible changes to RTP guidelines to bring them in line with contract language - period. Substantive requirements for RTP are a matter for the faculty in each discipline to decide according to the contract.

If anyone other than departmental faculty, at any administrative level, attempts to mandate substantive changes in guidelines as a condition for approval of your RTP revisions, the Akron-AAUP believes that they are violating the contract and overstepping their bounds. Administrators may make suggestions - even substantial ones, but they cannot mandate them.  Further, we ask you to notify your departmental liaison of any such mandated changes, if you receive them in your department.  Liaisons should then contact any Chapter officer with details.
 

So What has the AAUP been doing with with membership dues all these years?

Read this article from 1935.
 

"Faculty interests are Akron-AAUP interests, so Ask Us Anything"

 

Akron-AAUP
Communications Committee

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See the new and improved National AAUP website at http://www.aaup.org.
 

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