Welcome Back Breakfast

Welcome back to my colleagues and friends, both faculty and staff.   I say hello to you for another academic year:  Ohla, Chow, Strava, and An Nyung Ha Syyoo.   I say hello to my colleagues within my department from Bolivia, Italy, Bulgaria and South Korea.  The rich diversity of our faculty is a great asset as we help prepare our students to compete in the global environment of today.  In many ways we, all of us, by our actions to our students and to each other prepare our students for the world that awaits them.  We all need to adhere to principles of Integrity and honesty, treating each other with respect and dignity that all humans deserve. 

Speaking of faculty there are some of you who may not be aware the Faculty union is in the midst of negotiations with the administration.  I wish that I could report that all is progressing well.   But that’s not the case.  There are several issues that the Faculty union is addressing to make our great institution better.

One is Faculty salaries. Our students deserve to have a faculty that is treated as a high priority.  We need to revisit just what is the priority of the faculty given that the average faculty salary well below the 50 percentile ranking of the challenge peer institutions.

Another concern is that our students need a faculty body that is treated fairly whether tenure track, yearly lecturers or adjunct.  The non tenured faculty needs to be free to teach and engage our students and work on departmental issues without fear of retribution or nonrenewal by the administration.

Especially if they are doing a good job teaching and the position will exist in the following year.

The United Faculty of Eastern also believes that every student, every staff member, and every faculty member deserves a workplace that is free of bullying and harassment. We deserve a new policy that is developed by representatives from each of these groups to ensure that we all have a safe working environment.

 The United Faculty of Eastern is attempting to address all of these issues during its negotiations.   I invite the faculty to attend the informational meetings in the coming weeks to hear more details surrounding these issues and to know where the UFE is in the negotiation.

It is the hope of the United Faculty of Eastern that the administration will help us conclude these negotiations in a timely matter so that the university community can concentrate all its energy on serving our students.

Once again welcome back and I look forward to another year with opportunities to “start something big”.