NEIUPI

The administration brought a list of 18 questions to negotiations today. A few questions addressed a specific aspect of the UPI proposal that needed clarification. The majority of the questions were open-ended and appeared to be “retreads” of issues discussed during our IBB years. For example, two of the questions were:

1. What professional responsibility do Teaching Professionals and Resource Professionals have to engage in some/any research and service whether it is on a workload assignment or not?

2. How can unassigned obligations/responsibilities of professionals to a university (such as attending meetings, attending graduation, participating is admissions decisions, attending University Day, assessing student work and outcomes) be articulated without listing these specific obligations on an annual workload assignment?

Your UPI team caucused for a little more than an hour to develop responses to the administration’s questions. Negotiations reconvened and our responses delivered to the administration along with a clear statement that we expected the administration to deliver counter proposals rather than revert to discussions covered during the IBB process.

The most interesting development of day came at the end of the session. The administration’s lead negotiator, Attorney Kyle Johansen, reported that today was his last session. Andrea Waintroob of Franczek and Radelet (same firm) would take on the responsibilities of lead negotiator but she requires more time to become familiar with the history of our negotiations. As a result, negotiations scheduled for next week is canceled but our last date in August (23rd) will stand.