In this Update:

• Appreciation of Members’ efforts over the past few days
• Follow-up to Board of Trustees Meeting
• Meeting with Interim President Agwunobi

Appreciation for your efforts

Our sincere thanks to all of the members who wrote to the Board of Trustees, attended the BOT meeting, contacted colleagues to attend the meeting, and perpetuated our message on social media. Your efforts have had an impact on the decisions made by the administration and Board of Trustees. We will be asking for your additional participation and support as we continue to negotiate.

Follow-up to the BOT Meeting

On Wednesday, June 30, 2021, the Board of Trustees “Authorized the administration to enter in agreements necessary to effectuate a (1) on-year extension to the AAUP collective bargaining agreement at no additional cost to the university.” In essence, they authorized the administration to continue to negotiate the extension agreement. Nothing has changed. We provided a proposal with just the bare essentials – contract extension agreement without our ask for specific benefits and without their desired window to the Labor Board. It was rejected by the administration. (Proposals are on the website) The contract has expired without an extension agreement. We have continued to negotiate a contract extension agreement this morning, as allowed by law, and we will bring you any news immediately.

Meeting with Interim President Agwunobi

On Tuesday, June 28th, Mary Ellen Junda, Jeffrey Ogbar and Michael Bailey met with Interim President Agwunobi,  along with Karen Buffkin, Nicole Gelston and Chris DeLello to discuss several faculty concerns and issues.  The topics included the following:

1)    Concern from faculty regarding a non-academic at the helm

2)    Stalled negotiations and the lack of a contract extension agreement

3)    Teaching modality accommodations for faculty with medical needs either personally or within their immediate family

4)    Vaccinations and protocols for the academic year.

5)    Faculty workload concerns

5)    The projected silver-tsunami of retirements in 2022 and related issues

6)    The changing role of faculty

7)    The importance of our part-time faculty to the university

In Solidarity!

UConn-AAUP Negotiating Team