This week’s edition was written by Joseph G. Ramsey, a faculty member in English, American Studies, and the Honors College.  As always, The Point represents the views of the authors and is not the official position of the FSU.

At times like these, when global dangers threaten to overwhelm us and ‘Politics’ often appears as the province of oligarchs beyond our reach, maybe there is something to be said for anchoring in the shared concrete: what’s happening in our own campus backyard, or, more precisely…in our parking garage and lots. Like the much-derided MBTA, parking at UMB bring us together—even as it sometimes drives us to distraction.

What IS happening with parking these days?

Here are 4 short takes (before you run to go teach):

1. UMB Admin is pushing to raise our daily parking rates, yet again, to $18 per day.
2. Our campus unions are pushing back. In coalition, (FSU, PSU, CSU, DCU, and GEO), we’re resisting this proposal at the bargaining table.  (Undergrads are organizing as well.)
3. Admin is also still rejecting our Coalition demand for a flexible 30-use parking pass that could make discounted parking practical for more students and workers, most of whom don’t come to campus 5 days per week.
4. Admin has finally admitted that giving UMB workers and students some sort of meaningful MBTA subsidy is a good idea. (About time!) However, their proposal for a 25% MBTA discount still falls well short of the 50% our coalition demands.  Our unions are pushing for an MBTA subsidy that moves UMB towards genuine sustainability, one that makes it cheaper to take the T than to drive.

Here is the bottom line: We need FSU members—and UMB students—to raise our voices together in April to make sure we prevail at the table.  So, if you have not already done so, please SIGN AND SHARE our UMB Union and Community Parking and Transit Petition. We plan a mass delivery of this petition on April 30. (Over 1000 have already signed!)

And if you think you can make it to a Standout and Rally for Parking & Transit Equity and Affordability on Wednesday, April 15 (“Tax Day”), 1:45-2:30pm in the ISC, please sign up here,  (and bring your friends!). Let’s tell UMB Admin that the “parking tax” to work here is already too high!

We’re also looking for FSU members and students to share testimony at the bargaining table on 4/15. How does unaffordable parking and transit at UMB affect you? How about your students and community partners?

Finally, if you’re interested in having a small UMB Coalition Transit Organizing team come visit your class(es) sometime in April, to talk with students about the coalition campaign and how to get involved, please email FSU or me directly at joseph.ramsey@umb.edu.  (A visit can be as short as 5 minutes!) We have a great cohort of students, staff, and faculty ready to talk with students about why this matters to our UMB community.

Whatever our job at UMB, we all share the need to travel to this campus—a fact we share with the vast majority of our students, too (residence halls notwithstanding).  This makes parking and transit an opportunity to organize our community, since this affects so many.  If we push together against $18 parking fees (and for better MBTA subsidies), we might just discover some untapped collective power.  And as banal as it might seem, transit justice is a ‘small’ issue that concretizes ‘Big” ones.  By defending affordability at the toll booth, we defend the public mission of UMB, founded, let’s never forget, to make world-class education available to all—not just those with cash on hand to feed the machine.

That’s the short of it.

And now, since this is The Point, for the not so short piece. Below is an edited version of the testimony I gave to UMB Admin at the bargaining table two weeks ago, alongside our all-union Coalition Bargaining Team.  I share it in hopes it may inspire some of YOU to speak at our rally or bargaining session on 4/15, or—even better—to talk with your students about the shared concrete beneath our feet.

Remarks delivered at the UMB Parking & Transit Union Coalition Bargaining Session

3/24/26

Good morning.  My name is Joe Ramsey, and for twelve years I’ve taught here full-time at UMass Boston, in the English and American Studies Departments, as well as in the Honors College.  Among the many classes I teach is a first-year course about “Experiencing Boston,” where students explore the history, literature, and cultures of our city, as an intellectual hub and a center of social change.  When the weather allows, we travel across Boston—often via the MBTA—to help bring the city to life.

Of course, this semester, in a first-year class it has been challenging to pursue our academic learning plan at all.  Since close to HALF of the first-year students I’ve taught had their lives upended as a result of the East Residence Hall flooding and closure, and the resulting mass displacement—whether to the Mt. Ida campus, to local hotels, or, in many cases, back home to family who reside (more or less) in the area: students compelled to commute.  This dorm crisis and the resulting mass transience hit our first-year students HARD.  They’ve been struggling with unexpected costs (for food, housing, travel, and replacement necessities), torn from their newly forged routines and social networks, and have often felt abandoned or disrespected by campus administration’s response.  Many students have confessed that they’ve had their hopes for what the first year of college would be dashed, and many more are reeling with a feeling of abandonment at the hands of those they trusted to care for them. Many first year students are now wondering about how they ended up feeling… left to the wind…

Whether or not that is a fair verdict on their part I submit to you that it is an established emotional fact that requires the utmost attention.  I’ve heard even some of my most outstanding students—campus leaders in their first year—speaking aloud about something they never expected to be considering at this point in their college careers: transferring out of UMB.

How does this relate to the issue of Parking costs and Public Transit?   Here’s the point:  UMB should be doing EVERYTHING it can right now to send the message to students, especially but not only first-year students, that UMB is in fact trying to become a welcoming and accessible place that cares about them, as human beings, both on and off-campus.   Further raising the costs of parking that is ALREADY too expensive in the eyes of most—while doing far too little to reduce the cost of public transit—sends EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE MESSAGE, “adding insult to the injury.”‘ If we want to keep students here and not send record numbers of the first-year cohort packing, we should be working to make campus MORE affordable and transportation options MORE accessible and flexible, not less so.

And what goes for students goes for faculty as well, especially for our lower paid NTT faculty, for whom parking on this campus has become a burdensome and regressive tax just to get to work.  Some of our lowest paid Associate Lecturer faculty are now paying 5% or even 10% of their teaching income JUST TO PARK on this campus!  Such punitive fees further harm our students and campus culture by discouraging faculty from coming to UMB on days when they don’t absolutely have to.  How many faculty members would be meeting with students more often, or attending more campus events, if not for the punitive tax of paying an additional $15 per visit?

Join me for a moment in imagining a counter-factual:

How great would it be if students and employees, upon gaining admittance (or hire), were quickly sent a (free!) MBTA pass before their first day at UMB.  Consider the message THAT would send: “UMB is your gateway to exploring not only our campus but the whole city of Boston.  Your UMB ID unlocks all of Boston for you!  The city is your university!” And also: “Here at UMB we take climate science and reducing carbon emissions seriously!”

As mentioned, I often take students on field trips and site visits for “Experiencing Boston,” and for many students the logistics and expense of travelling across the city via MBTA are already a major hurdle.  Sometimes low-income students miss these field trips because they cannot afford the extra money for MBTA tickets on top of the parking they’re already paying for. I have covered student Charlie tickets out of hand many a time and have watched students scrambling among themselves to cover one another.

We faculty also know very well how increasing backdoor travel costs impact our students, at all levels and across majors: how it puts pressure on students to cut back their days on campus, stacking T/TH or M/W courses to the point of exhaustion (or moving classes online simply to save money on the commute). At the same time, I witness students confessing that despite their interests in a topic, they are unable to attend events on campus—even when those campus events might open fantastic opportunities.  Since, on the days they are here, their classes are so packed that there is no space for attending an event…and on the alternate non-class days, they can’t afford to come to campus (and often are working for wages to pay the rising costs of attendance).  And then we are surprised when so many excellent events on this campus fail to draw a crowd or fill a room?

Whatever class I’m teaching, I never fail to take a moment at some point in the semester to “quiz” my students: How much would they guess it cost to attend UMB full-time when we opened back in 1965?   The Answer:  $100 PER SEMESTER.  Which is to say, only a fraction of what it now costs just to PARK on this campus. Even adjusted for inflation, commuter students these days can easily spend as much to park at UMB as the full cost of tuition back in the day.  What does this say about the retreat of the “public” mission of our campus?

What sort of message are we sending our students (and our workers!) when we fail to heed their protest that things are ALREADY TOO EXPENSIVE and instead further ADD to their daily and weekly expenses?  Are we serious about increasing graduation rates, and first to second year retention rates, and reducing transfers?  Are we serious about faculty retention?  Are we serious about making ours a campus open and accessible to the Boston community?  If so….raising parking fees further (while inadequately funding T-subsidies) is exactly the WRONG action to take.

To be sure, there are many systemic obstacles to university access that are difficult to address: poverty, austerity, racial inequity, histories of oppression.  But transit and parking costs should be an easy one.  I urge UMB Administration to provide more transit support and more affordable parking, for students and employees alike, and let UMB reap the reward of increased student, faculty, and community engagement.

The committee for this year’s The Point currently includes Jessica Holden, Healey Library; Nick Juravich, History; Jeff Melnick, American Studies; and Steve Striffler, Labor Studies. If you want to write an edition of The Point, or if you just have an idea, please write us at fsu@umb.edu

 

 

April 6th to April 10th

Thursday, April 9th FSU Executive Committee Meeting 11:00AM to 12:15PM

Upcoming Events

Thursday, April 16th, 11AM-1PM FSU Annual Meeting

Final meeting agenda coming April 9th

Dear Faculty and Librarians,

National Public Health Week is April 6th to 12th, which recognizes the importance of public health and its role in the country’s well-being. This is a chance to honor public health workers – nurses, social workers, health educators, epidemiologists, and environmental health officers, all there every day working to make our lives and society better.

Agenda: FSU Annual Meeting, April 16th 11AM to 1PM NOTE: This is open to FSU members in good standing only

The final annual meeting agenda with the proposed budget will be emailed Thursday afternoon.  Items include an update of the past year’s activities, introducing your new Executive Committee members, upcoming MTA activities, adopting our annual budget, and providing us with input on next year’s activities.

Know Your Contract: Longevity Bonus for Retiring Members

Retiring bargaining unit members (TT, NTT, and Librarians) are entitled to 1.5 days of pay for every year of service (see Article 27.8). Retiring members, especially NTT members, should contact Human Resources to verify your years of service.  Payment is made at the conclusion of the academic year.

Commencement Program: Retiring Senior Lecturer IIs and Senior Lecturer IIIs

The names of retiring Senior Lecturer IIs and Senior Lecturer IIIs will appear in the commencement program.  This is new and effective this year.  Many in these ranks have been teaching our students and doing service for over twenty years with some upwards of forty years.

Election: Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (PRIM)

As members of the Massachusetts State Employee Retirement System (MSERS), we elect PRIM board members.  PRIM manages our pensions funds.  The MTA PRIM Task Force is recommending we elect Lenore Palladino, an economist at UMass Amherst.

Saturday, today, or Tuesday—you should receive your mailed ballot. Please don’t miss it—it’s not junk mail.

MTA Benefits: MTA Disability Insurance Open Enrollment Underway
Open enrollment for MTA disability insurance has begun and is now available to all members for a limited time this spring. This important benefit helps protect your income if you become ill or injured. Coverage is guaranteed to be issued, and all members working 18.5 or more hours per week are eligible. Members may enroll in one of three ways: online through self-enrollment, by speaking with a benefits counselor in the call center, or by meeting with a counselor on-site if available in your district. Open enrollment ends May 22. Members are encouraged to schedule a meeting with the call center or enroll online at their convenience.

Sincerely,

Caroline Coscia

FSU President

Senior Lecturer II

Political Science Department

 

The week’s edition was written by The Point committee.  As always, The Point represents the views of the authors and is not the official position of the FSU.

Many of you have no doubt seen the FSU petition demanding that Provost Berger reverse the decision to terminate Professor Keith Jones and reinstate him immediately.  The petition has received an astounding 1600+ signatures so far and Keith’s case is making its way through the relevant state agencies—MCAD (Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination) and DLR (Department of Labor Relations).

We are not writing today to revisit the “why” and “how” of Professor Jones’s termination—the current issue of our student newspaper (see below) does a more than adequate job of laying out the basic contours of the case.  We would like to emphasize that it is really strange that (a) no other faculty member has been denied continuing appointment in the past five years and (b) the one who is getting terminated happens to be an outspoken member/defender of both the FSU and the Africana Studies Department.

It doesn’t take much to connect the dots, a fact made evident by the Administration’s flimsy explanation for termination.  The recent Mass Media article looks at this history more in depth and does an especially good job of underlining that Keith’s activism very much dovetails with the national Black Lives Matter protests that emerged in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and others.  More locally, we will just note that Keith’s sometimes provocative activism also forms an almost perfect Venn Diagram with the tenure of Provost Joseph Berger who, coincidentally, is undergoing his own fifth-year review (FSU members have recently received email in connection with this review from Faculty Council).

We are also not going to take up any time or space today recounting Keith Jones’s impressive record of service to UMass Boston.  There is no need.  Our own Administration uplifted this when they bestowed upon him the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service at commencement in 2022.  The toxic irony of this one-two punch—bestowing the university’s highest honor and then pulling the plug on Keith Jones’ career here—would be comical if it did not have such devastating real-world effects.  The consequences for Keith Jones’ students, his colleagues, and his own Boston-residing family will be profound.

We write today because as colleagues, educators and union members, we find it deeply troubling that a public university that purports to value students is so callously terminating one of the most compelling and effective teachers at UMass Boston.   Those of us from disciplines related to Africana Studies have known about Keith’s exceptional teaching for years – we hear from students who consistently (and without provocation) eagerly recount the positive, life-changing impact he has had not only on their education, but on their lives.

We were reminded of this recently by a series of letters from Keith’s students that appeared in the Mass Media, students who noted how his teaching “was truly a transformative experience.”  “Professor Jones reshaped the way I think, question, and understand the world.”  His “influence changed the trajectory of my life.”  “I cannot think of another professor who better embodies the mission of UMass Boston.” “Not only did Professor Jones teach…he fostered within in me a deeper sense of what it means to be a member of our community.”  And so on (see many other letters here).

Keith is a teacher and colleague that UMass Boston cannot afford to lose, and the fact that we are close to doing so reflects what is now a long history of poor decisions by the current “antiracist and health-promoting” administration – this time at the expense of both a faculty member, whose job and passion are being taken from him, and the students whose education will be inevitably diminished.

The FSU will deliver the petition and meet with the Provost.  The Faculty Council is also taking up this urgent matter.  We encourage you, by signing the petition or otherwise contacting upper administration, to urge the Provost to reverse this monumentally unconscionable decision.  And, if our collective efforts do not succeed in the short term, please be prepared (and stay tuned) for upcoming campus actions to demand Professor Jones’s reinstatement.   This injustice needs to be reversed.

The committee for this year’s The Point currently includes Jessica Holden, Healey Library; Nick Juravich, History; Jeff Melnick, American Studies; and Steve Striffler, Labor Studies. If you want to write an edition of The Point, or if you just have an idea, please write us at fsu@umb.edu

 

 

 

Dear FSU member,

Voting for the President, Librarian, Non-Tenure Track, and Tenured Representative elections closed this morning at 9AM, and the election results are in.

Congratulations to your newly elected FSU Executive Committee members:

President:                                               Jason Rodriquez, Professor, Sociology

Librarian Representative:                  E.K Lee, Librarian IV, Healey Library

NTT Representatives:                         Monique Fuguet, Senior Lecturer, Mathematics, Karen Grayson, Senior Lecturer II, English

Tenured Representatives:                  Andrés Fabián Henao Castro, Associate Professor, Political Science, Helen Poynton, Professor, School For The Environment

(please contact the FSU Elections Committee if you would like details on the final vote tallies).

Thank you to all the candidates for running for office and to all who voted.

When the current FSU Vice President, Jason Rodriquez, takes office as President at the end of the Spring 26 semester, the office of FSU Vice President will be vacated. The FSU Executive Committee has approved a special election for Vice President. Information on the special election, inclusive of the call for nominations and election timelines, is attached . A nomination form is also attached (please note that the winner of the special election for Vice President will take office at the end of the Spring 26 semester and will serve the remainder of the current 2 year term for Vice President, which concludes at the end of the Spring 27 semester).

FSU Elections Committee:

Lynne Byall Benson, Senior Lecturer, Women’s Gender And Sexuality Studies

Andrew Elder, Librarian V, Healey Library

Travis Johnston, Associate Professor, Political Science

Rania Said, Assistant Professor, Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

March 30th to April 3rd

Wednesday, April 1st UDC Pizza and Cookies 11:30AM to 12:30PM

Stop by the University Dining Club for some pizza (bring your own beverage) and relax, chat with colleagues and meet new colleagues. Pick up some FSU swag – stickers, buttons and t-shirts.

Upcoming Events

Thursday, April 16th, 11AM-1PM FSU Annual Meeting

Stay tuned for more information

Dear Faculty and Librarians,

April begins Wednesday and with it hopes for some warmer weather.  The daffodils are starting to appear. Soon we will be able to sit outside on the quad and enjoy some sun and daffodils.

FSU Annual Meeting, April 16th 11AM to 1PM (NOTE: open to FSU dues paying members in good standing only)

The annual meeting agenda will be sent no later than April 2nd.  Items include an update of the past year’s activities, introducing your new Executive Committee members, upcoming MTA activities, adopting our annual budget and providing us with input on next year’s activities.

Parking and Transportation: Bargaining Session Update

This is a brief update on the March 24th bargaining sessions. The parking coalition will provide you with more details shortly.

The Coalition (CSU, DCU, FSU and PSU) presented a counter proposal pushing back on:

• Daily Rate: UMB increased to $18.  We said no increase
• 30 Use Pass: UMB said no.  We pushed back. This is essential for faculty, librarians, and staff
• MBTA subsidy: UMB agreed to a 20% subsidy. We said it needs to be 50%.
•  HP Parking: We proposed a reduced rate.
•  Evening Rate: We proposed it begins at 3:30PM.
• Accelerator Cap: We pushed back on what is included in the Parking and Transportation department’s expenses. Specifically, the debt assigned to the West Garage. We believe the debt amount needs to be capped at $2,500,000.  The assigned debt is in the $4,500,000 range.

Please take a moment to sign the parking petition.  Tell UMB administration parking needs to be affordable and flexible to accommodate schedules.

Promotion to Professor

April 21st is the deadline to submit written notification to your chairperson of your intent to submit for promotion to Professor in AY 26-27 (see the Master Academic Calendar).

Know Your Contract: NTT and Librarian Professional Development Funds

Article 26.6.1(a).1 of the contract provides NTT and Librarians who are 50% or greater with Professional Development Funds.  Reimbursement must be submitted by June 20, 2026.

Check your email for your specific award amount. The email was sent to those eligible on November 6, 2025, from Jeanmarie Spinetti with a subject line of professional development funds

This week:  Anti-Racism Grant Recipient Activities (information supplied by recipient)

An Anti-Racism Reading Resistance, Friday, April 3rd at 4:30PM in ISC 3 -3300

Our last meeting before Spring Break featured a lively and illuminating discussion on Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project. It was a fantastic session, and we’d love to keep that momentum going for our next gathering.

Our Next Selection: We will be diving into Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye—a powerhouse of a novel that has long been at the center of national conversations regarding its content and impact.

Join the Discussion

• Sign Up: Register Here or scan the QR code on the attached flyer.
• Perks: The first 30 people to sign up will receive a free copy of the novel!
• Bonus: Refreshments will be provided at the meeting.

Massachusetts State Employee Retirement System (MSERS)

Our pension system contains $120 billion in reserves, and this reserve is overseen by the Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (PRIM).  Concerns have been raised about PRIM’s investments (paying high fees up to $500 million) and our inability to obtain information on operations.  MTA formed a task force to investigate member concerns. Task force members are recommending that we vote for Lenore Palladino, an economist at UMass Amherst.

A ballot has been mailed to your address. Please vote. You may do so with the paper ballot or online (details on mailed ballot).

MTA Benefits: Boston by Foot

Warmer weather is a great time to get outdoors and explore Boston. Boston by Foot has a variety of walking tours that meet your interests.  Log into your MTA Benefits account and select Giveaways and Tickets.

Sincerely,

Caroline Coscia

FSU President

Senior Lecturer II

Political Science Department

 

 

This week’s Point is written by Gonzalo Bacigalupe, Professor of Counseling Psychology.  As always, The Point represents the views of the author and is not the official position of the FSU.

This year marks my thirtieth year as a faculty member at the university. Over that time, I have seen many ideas travel into academic life from other sectors. Some illuminate our work. Others arrive wrapped in appealing language but fit less comfortably once they encounter the realities of teaching, advising, and shared governance.

Over the past two decades, many of these imported ideas have been tied to a broader shift in how universities are encouraged to understand their relationship to students. Increasingly, the language of higher education has borrowed from the vocabulary of markets—students as customers, education as a service, institutions competing through “experience” and “satisfaction.” It is within that broader shift that ideas like “hospitality” and “customer experience” begin to feel natural, even inevitable.

Recently, during a discussion in my college about Will Guidara’s book Unreasonable Hospitality, I found myself thinking about how ideas developed in the restaurant industry are increasingly traveling into university life.

Guidara draws a useful distinction between service and hospitality. Service, he suggests, is technical: the task is completed correctly. Hospitality adds what he calls “color.” It is the dimension of experience in which the person receiving the service feels recognized, respected, and genuinely considered. It is an appealing idea. Few of us would argue that the work of a university should be reduced to efficient transactions. Students, colleagues, and staff benefit when interactions feel human rather than mechanical.

Yet there is another part of Guidara’s story that deserves equal attention. The transformation of Eleven Madison Park into one of the most celebrated restaurants in the world did not come from asking employees simply to “try harder.” It came from redesigning systems. Staffing levels, training, authority, and organizational culture were deliberately structured to support the kind of care the restaurant wanted to deliver. In other words, excellence was not only inspirational — it was infrastructural.

That point becomes especially relevant when ideas like “unreasonable hospitality” migrate into academic settings like our own. Because the question quickly becomes not only what we aspire to provide, but what conditions make that aspiration possible. During our discussion, I found myself returning to a concept that rarely appears in inspirational leadership narratives but is central to institutional life: margin.

By margin I mean the institutional slack that allows people time, flexibility, and emotional capacity beyond mere survival of their workload. Margin is what allows a faculty member to spend an extra fifteen minutes helping a struggling student without feeling that something else is about to collapse. It is what allows an advisor to listen carefully rather than rush through a queue. It is what allows care to be genuine rather than performative. Without margin, the aspiration to provide extraordinary care risks becoming something else entirely: an additional expectation layered onto already stretched work.

There is also a broader question about how ideas travel. Corporate and service-sector language can be seductive when it enters academic conversations. Concepts like “customer experience,” “hospitality,” or “exceeding expectations” promise simple solutions to complex institutional problems. But the analogy has limits. Students are not clients in a restaurant, and a university is not a service counter. Students are protagonists in their own intellectual development, not consumers whose satisfaction defines the success of the encounter. The work of teaching and advising requires collaboration, challenge, and sometimes friction. Translating that relationship too easily into a service model risks misunderstanding what education is meant to accomplish.

This also raises another question that universities cannot afford to ignore. Even when care is offered generously, it is not always distributed evenly. Research across higher education has long shown that relational and emotional labor—mentoring students, supporting struggling colleagues, serving on diversity committees, and responding to institutional crises—tends to fall disproportionately on women faculty and on faculty and staff of color. Amado Padilla described this dynamic decades ago as “cultural taxation,” the additional service burden placed on faculty of color because of institutional diversity needs. These forms of labor are essential to the functioning of a university community. Yet they are often undervalued in evaluation systems and unevenly shared across departments.

In this context, calls for greater attentiveness, responsiveness, and care must be accompanied by a difficult but necessary question: who is already doing this work, and who is not?

My own experiences in institutions where I have felt most “seen” did not involve dramatic gestures. They involved something quieter: systems that worked. Communication was clear. Expectations were transparent. The person helping me did not appear depleted. There was margin in the system.

Universities today face a stark contradiction and ours is not an exception. At the same time that faculty and staff are being asked to provide more care, more responsiveness, and more emotional presence, we confront a shrinking public investment, growing legislative scrutiny of curriculum and academic freedom, and increasing pressure to treat education primarily through the language of markets and customers.

In that environment, asking for ever greater “hospitality” without addressing workload, staffing, and institutional design risks placing the burden of institutional aspiration on individual goodwill. When that happens, the outcomes are familiar: exhaustion, quiet disengagement, or colleagues deciding that the only sustainable strategy is simply to do less.

If universities truly want cultures of extraordinary care, the question cannot simply be what individuals should do differently. It must also be what the institution is willing to invest, redistribute, or redesign to make that aspiration viable.

Because hospitality — in a university as in a restaurant — cannot be sustained by goodwill alone. It requires reasonable conditions. And above all, it requires margin.

The committee for this year’s The Point currently includes Jessica Holden, Healey Library; Nick Juravich, History; Jeff Melnick, American Studies; and Steve Striffler, Labor Studies. If you want to write an edition of The Point, or if you just have an idea, please write us at fsu@umb.edu

 

 

March 23rd to 27th

FSU Elections: Voting opens 9AM March 23rd

Voting for your President and members of the Executive Committee opens at 9AM today and concludes on March 30th.  See March 20th email for details.

Thursday, March 26th FSU Executive Committee Meeting 11:00AM to 12:15PM

Upcoming events  

Wednesday, April 1st UDC Pizza and Cookies 11:30PM to 12:30PM

Stop by the University Dining Club for some pizza (bring your own beverage) and relax, chat with colleagues and meet new colleagues. Pick up some FSU swag – stickers, buttons and t-shirts.

Dear Faculty and Librarians,

We hope that you all enjoyed a restful and restorative break. This week the FSU is holding elections and participating in parking bargaining. Details below.

FSU Elections: Voting March 23rd to 30th  (this is open to FSU members in good standing only; if you are not a union member and wish to join, contact the FSU)

Your ballot, while sent by Qualtrics, will have the FSU Election Committee in the sender line and the subject line will read “FSU Ballot 2026”. If you experience any technical issues, please reach out to the FSU Elections Committee: FSU.Elections@umb.edu

The FSU Elections Committee wishes to thank the candidates and members who attended the Candidate Forum on March 11th.  The forum was recorded.  Email the FSU for access.

New Business Item deadline for FSU Annual Meeting is March 26th (this is open to FSU members in good standing only; if you are not a union member and wish to join, contact the FSU)

Our policies (see below) require submittal of new business items be received no later than 21 days prior to the April 16th meeting.  The deadline is March 26th at 5PM EDT via email to fsu@umb.edu.

Policy: The notification shall call for new business agenda items which must be submitted no less than 21 days prior to the meeting.   1. All new business items are to be submitted in the form of a motion. 2. All new business items are to be submitted to the President and FSU Executive Committee via the FSU email account.

Parking and Transportation Bargaining: Update

Our next bargaining session is March 24th. The coalition of the CSU, DCU, FSU and PSU will be meeting with UMB Labor Relations and Parking and transportation personnel. This is our first bargaining session since last fall.  We will provide an update on what happened later this week.

The coalition will continue to fight against increases in the daily parking rate, and to demand multi-use passes and an increased transit subsidy.  And we will continue to push back on the accelerator language.

In the meantime, please sign the petition and tell administration the impact of their proposed cost increase on your ability to come to campus.

Anti-Racism Grant Recipient Activities (information submitted by grant recipients)

‘Closing the Care Loop’ A gathering to honor our collective grief 

On Thursday, March 26, 2026, from 5pm to 8pm in the Campus Center, 2nd Floor, the Alumni Lounge, we are gathering with Dr. Chinasa Elue who is a grief researcher and grief coach. Dr. Elue will lead us through a two-hour workshop (5 – 7 PM) to honor our grief and develop personal and collective strategies to support resourcing our well-being. The workshop will be followed by a dinner and dialogue (7 – 8 PM).  Mental health practitioners will be on site for support. This event is open to all UMB staff and faculty. Please register here and share this event with your colleagues.

Why should you attend?

• Recognize how grief manifests within academic workplaces and institutional contexts.
• Reflect on our personal and collective experiences of loss, strain, and change.
• Practice witnessing and care-centered conversations with colleagues.
• Explore possibilities for closing the care loop within our communities.
• Identify personal and collective strategies to support well-being

Join us to develop skills to honor grief in its many forms. There is no hierarchy of loss. Every story, every silence matters. All grief is welcome.

MTA Annual Meeting on May 8th and 9th: FSU Delegates (this is open to FSU members in good standing only; if you are not a union member and wish to join, contact the FSU)

The FSU has been allotted to thirteen delegates.  We have not yet reached our allotment. If you are interested in attending the MTA annual meeting, please contact us.

For details, please go to https://www.massteacher.org/about-mta/governance-policies/annual-meeting-delegates.   The election for MTA president and vice president along with adopting a budget takes place on Saturday.

MTA Benefits: Federal Student Loan Repayment and Borrowing

Changes are coming to repayment of federal student loans including those with Parent PLUS loans.  MTA Benefits has partnered with Cambridge Credit Counseling to host a webinar on March 25th at 7PM.  To learn more and to register, go to  https://www.mtabenefits.com/articles/student-loan-update-critical-changes-happening-now

Enjoy the week.

Sincerely,

Caroline Coscia

FSU President

Senior Lecturer II

Political Science Department

 

 

 

 

3/20/2026

Dear FSU Member,

Voting for the FSU elections will begin at 9am Monday (3/23) and will conclude 9am Monday (3/30). This Monday morning you will receive an email with an individualized link to your ballot. You will use this link to cast your ballot for both President and your respective faculty or librarian rank, if applicable. We want to remind you that there is no election for a Pre Tenure Representative.

The email, while sent by Qualtrics, will have the FSU Election Committee in the sender line. If you cannot find your ballot, please search all email folders (spam, junk, alternative mailboxes). The subject line will read “FSU Ballot 2026”. If you experience any technical issues, please reach out to the FSU Elections Committee: FSU.Elections@umb.edu

FSU Elections Committee:

Lynne Byall Benson, Senior Lecturer, Women’s Gender And Sexuality Studies

Andrew Elder, Librarian V, Healey Library

Travis Johnston, Associate Professor, Political Science

Rania Said, Assistant Professor, Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

email: FSU.Elections@umb.edu

3/12/2026

The week’s edition of The Point is written by Arthur MacEwan, Professor Emeritus of Economics and past President of FSU.  As always, The Point represents the views of the author and is not the official position of the FSU. 

Please note that only FSU/MTA members in good standing will be eligible to vote in the election referenced by Arthur MacEwan. Not a member yet? Contact the FSU office for information on how to join the union.

Dear UMass Boston Friends and Colleagues,

I am writing to alert you to an upcoming election that I believe is important to assure the well-being of our pensions. Let me explain.

For the past year, I have chaired the Pension Task Force of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA). The Task Force has given a lot of attention to the way the funds in the Massachusetts public pension systems—the systems’ reserves— are managed, and we see several problems.

The current reserves of the Massachusetts public sector pension systems are about $120 billion. These reserves, important for the long-run viability of the pension systems, are managed by the Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (PRIM).

The MTA has endorsed two candidates for election to the PRIM Board, in the hope that new members will be able to obtain more information about PRIM’s operations and push the management of our pension funds in a positive direction.

I’ll give you more information shortly about the election—in which you will all be able to vote. First, however, let me explain the problems our Task Force sees in PRIM’s operations

The Problems

Problem #1 – A substantial portion of PRIM’s holdings, perhaps as much as $30 billion, are in so-called “alternative investments,” which are lightly regulated. Investments in private equity firms make up a large segment of these “alternatives.” Because of the light regulation, private equity firms are able to undertake activities that are relatively risky, and, what’s more, they can shift much of the risk onto creditors and outside investors (e.g., PRIM). Thus, investments in private equity are, by their very nature, relatively risky for a pension fund.

Problem #2 – Returns. In the last few years, financial markets have risen a great deal, and PRIM appears to have gone along with the market—but not as well as several commercial funds. If, for example, over the past decade PRIM had done as well as a balanced Vanguard index fund (60% equities, 40% bonds), there would be about $9 billion more in the reserves, without incurring more risk.

Problem #3 – Fees. Moreover, last year PRIM paid out $500 million dollars in fees associated with its investments, while Vanguard fees would have amounted to less than 10% of that. It appears that PRIM was paying more for getting less.

Problem #4 – Social Damage. Associated with its considerable investment in private equity, some of PRIM’s investments may be socially damaging. A private equity firm was behind the debacle of the Steward hospitals in Massachusetts, and there are numerous further examples around the country where private equity firms have done severe damage. PRIM does not appear to have been invested in the private equity firm associated with the Steward hospitals. PRIM, however, has invested in private equity firms that have generated social damage, but we do not know that PRIM was connected to the damaging projects of those firms. Yet, the basic nature of private equity and PRIM’s extensive involvement with private equity raise concerns.

Problem #5 – Climate Change. Simply from the perspective of investing to obtain maximum long-run returns, it is necessary for PRIM to have a strategy to deal with climate change. Yet, in response to formal record requests for information about its climate change strategy, PRIM is not forthcoming.  And, of course, returns aside, abetting climate change would count as a most severe sort of social damage

Problem # 6 – Lack of Transparency. Perhaps there are things about PRIM that those of us concerned with its operations do not know or understand, things that would address some of these problems. But PRIM has refused to provide information—either through informal discussions or in response to formal public record requests—that would respond to the problems that appear to exist.

The Election and the MTA Endorsed Candidate

So what’s to do? PRIM’s operations are overseen by the nine-member PRIM Board, and two of the positions on this board are elected by the members of the pension systems—people who are currently working and pay into the pension fund and those of us who are retired and receiving pensions. The election will take place this spring.

One person is elected by members of the Massachusetts State Employees Retirement System (MSERS). This includes those of us working in or retired from UMass Boston. The candidate we can vote for and who is endorsed by the MTA is Lenore Palladino, a professor of economics and public policy at UMass Amherst. She has studied and written about the pension and financial issues at the basis of PRIM’s operations.

The other person endorsed by the MTA will be voted for by members of the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System (MTRS), the pension system for people working in the Massachusetts public schools. Those of us connected to higher education don’t vote for this position. The MTA endorsed candidate is Matthew Scheffler, a Framingham high school teacher, who is thoroughly knowledgeable of PRIM’s operations and its shortcomings.

Ballots will be mailed about March 27 to all members, both actively employed and retired, of the two public pension systems. Votes by regular mail or online must be in by late May. Please watch your mail your ballot, and please vote for the MTA-endorsed candidate.

If we get these two on the PRIM Board, we should be able to get the information we need and might positively affect the management of our pension systems.

If you would like more information, please contact me.

My best,

Arthur MacEwan

Professor Emeritus of Economics

University of Massachusetts Boston

Chair, MTA Pension Task Force

Email: arthur.macewan@umb.edu

The committee for this year’s The Point currently includes Jessica Holden, Healey Library; Nick Juravich, History; Jeff Melnick, American Studies; and Steve Striffler, Labor Studies. If you want to write an edition of The Point, or if you just have an idea, please write us at fsu@umb.edu

3/9/2026

March 9th to 13th

Wednesday, March 11th FSU Executive Committee elections candidate forum, 3-4

Watch for an email from the Elections Committee

Thursday, March 12th UDC Pizza and Cookies 12:00PM to 1:00PM

Stop by the University Dining Club for some pizza (bring your own beverage) and relax, chat with colleagues and meet new colleagues. Pick up some FSU swag – stickers, buttons and t-shirts.

Upcoming Events

Thursday, April 16th, 11AM-1PM FSU Annual Meeting

Stay tuned for more information (NOTE: this is open to FSU members in good standing only)

Dear Faculty and Librarians,

Melting snow can make you want to get outside. As part of Women’s History Month, the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail provides a series of trails to explore.

Parking and Transportation: Please sign the Petition

On February 18th, we sent an email providing an update on the parking and transportation bargaining We informed you of the administration’s proposal to raise the daily rate to $18 for all who park on and not allow for use passes (only monthly and semester). We do not accept this.

Please assist us in telling administration the impact of how a daily rate increase affects you.

Sign the petition to let the Chancellor and Administration and Finance know that balancing budgets on the backs of your employees and students is not right.

We will be back at the bargaining table on March 24th.

MTA Annual Meeting on May 8th and 9th at the Hynes Convention Center: Call for FSU Delegates (NOTE: this is open to FSU/MTA members in good standing only)

Each year local unions send delegates gather at an annual meeting to vote on how dues money is allotted, bylaw changes, and every two years vote for a president and vice president.

This year’s annual meeting includes voting for a new president and vice president. There are three candidates for each office, with each slate laying out their vision for our statewide union. Only delegates vote for our leadership.

The FSU is allotted thirteen (13) delegates to represent you at the 2026 Annual Meeting of Delegates on Friday afternoon, May 8th and Saturday, May 9th at the Hynes Convention Center, Boston.  A virtual option is available.  To see the latest schedule and meeting information click here

What do I need to know to be a delegate?  A commitment to our union and wearing comfortable clothes.  You will sit with other UMass union members in the meeting room. Click here for official delegate duties

Once registered as a delegate, prior to the annual meeting you will receive the proposed budget, bylaw changes and any new business items.  MTA even holds a pre-annual meeting zoom session to review the materials.

If you would like to be one of our delegates, please email us by March 13th.  If you have any questions, please contact me.

Know Your Contract: Course Enrollment Cap

Departments and faculty, not the Administration, set enrollment caps for all courses (see the language in Article 15.4 of the contract).

This week:  Anti-Racism Grant Recipient Activities

Contending with Whiteness, An Anti-Racism Reading Group Committed to Racial Justice

“Contending with Whiteness: An Anti-Racism Reading Group Committed to Racial Justice” at UMB. Together we will read and discuss Anshuman Mondal’s book “Racism and ‘Free Speech'” (2025) on the following six Tuesdays: 3/10, 3/24, 4/7, 4/21, 5/5, 5/12.  All reading group meetings will take place 11 AM – 1 PM in room 041 on the 5th floor in the Wheatley-Peters building.   Please sign up by clicking on this link to fill out a short form.

BANNED An Anti-Racism Reading Resistance, March 13th th at 4:30PM

Join on March 13th at 4:30PM in ISC 3-3300.  This month’s book is the 1619 Project.  Register at https://www.canva.com/design/DAG_o7UgwXI/qqbbvC65zQyJIRD2DEajbg/view?utm_content=DAG_o7UgwXI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h71f2420bdb.

NEA Benefits: Discount Tickets

FSU membership also includes membership in MTA and NEA. NEA also has member discounts. Check out their discount ticket program.

Enjoy Spring Break.  Nuts & Bolts will be back March 23rd.

Sincerely,

Caroline Coscia

FSU President

Senior Lecturer II

Political Science Department