Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the new academic year! We especially want to welcome to campus our new faculty and librarians – we hope you find UMass Boston to be a professionally and personally rewarding place to work. Congratulations as well to all our faculty and librarians who were recently promoted. Those are effective on September 1 and include a salary increase as part of our collective bargaining agreement.
We have a new leadership team in place. Jason Rodriquez, Professor of Sociology, is the new President, having most recently served as the Vice President. Jessica Holden, Associate University Archivist for Research Services in Healey Library is the new Vice President, having most recently served on the previous bargaining team. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to our past FSU President, Caroline Coscia, who served admirably in that role for the previous four years. Thank you, Caroline, for all you have done to improve campus life for faculty and librarians. We also have some new members on our Executive Committee and a committed group of volunteer-activists who do important work that strengthens our union. We are thrilled to be working with you and for you.
The FSU Executive Committee meets every two weeks over the semester. In these meetings we conduct routine business to keep the organization running as well as engage in broader discussions about building union power and improving the working conditions for employees on campus. Dues-paying members are welcome to join. The meetings will take place on Sep 15, Sep 29, Oct 13, Oct 27, Nov 10, Nov 24, and Dec 8 from 2-3:30.
This is going to be a big year for the FSU – we will begin bargaining for our 2027-2030 successor contract. Be on the lookout this fall because we will put out a call for bargaining team members and soon afterwards release a survey to faculty and librarians to determine what our priorities will be during negotiations with the administration. Stay tuned, too, for information about various social events that we are planning for this semester. Our union is here to support you, so please reach out to us anytime at fsu@umb.edu. No issue is too small!
Once again, welcome to the new year. We look forward to working together with you to make FSU and UMB all that it can be.
In Solidarity,
Jason & Jessica