By TOM BALDWIN • STAFF WRITER • April 13, 2010

NEW BRUNSWICK — The Rutgers University administrative-staffers union, joined by students and faculty, took a swipe at Gov. Chris Christie's proposed budget Tuesday, saying the Republican governor had pledged last December to increase funding for higher education.

"There are these very draconian cuts right now that the governor has proposed," said Lucye Millerand, president of the approximately 2,000-member Union of Rutgers Administrators.

The group said members did not face specific losses but expected layoffs or expanded responsibilities as the university struggles to do more with fewer employees.

Millerand, of Highland Park, and others at a press conference held in the graduate-students lounge said Christie's 15-percent cuts to higher education had already affected operations.

"They don't have the manpower," said union member Kathleen Licinski of Ocean Gate, who is an executive assistant in the Asian Languages Department.

"These are working-class, middle-class people. These are not the rock-star professors," Millerand said of her members, who she said earned from $26,000 a year to "maybe the mid-90s."

"Where are the priorities?" asked junior public-policy major John Aspray of Annapolis, Md.

Christine O'Connell of Plainfield, who teaches low-income people about healthy eating in a Rutgers community-outreach program, said, "We are asking Gov. Christie to reconsider his cuts."

NEW BRUNSWICK -- There’s little left to cut from Rutgers University’s Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, school officials say.

Two faculty members have been let go, leaving eight professors to teach 50 classes. The garbage in the department’s office is cleaned only once a week. And last year, they said, the telephones began disappearing.

"The faculty members don’t have their own phones," said Kathleen Licinski, the department’s administrative assistant. "It’s just a minuscule budget."

This year, it may get even smaller.

Licinski spoke at a press conference at Rutgers’s main campus in New Brunswick today, alongside students and university union officials protesting proposed cuts in state aid to higher education.

University students and faculty joined forces last night to present their views on Gov. Chris Christie’s budget proposal to government officials, hoping the severity of the cuts could be undone.
In a budget forum, sponsored by the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers, professors and students showed their concern for Christie’s proposal in front of legislative directors and assembly representatives at the Graduate Student Lounge on the College Avenue campus.

Read the full story at http://www.dailytargum.com/news/students-faculty-voice-concerns-about-budget-cuts-1.2221771
By Devin Sikorski, Associate News Editor
Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Thanks to efforts by the URA, current staff senators, and supportive faculty and students, seats for staff employees may increase from 10 to 14. This will mean that staff employees will have two representatives on each of the senate’s seven standing committees.

The proposal to increase the staff Senate positions to 14 was adopted by the Senate in March, but it won't take effect unless the Board of Governors approves it. Because the Senate's composition is defined in a university policy/regulation, only the Board of Governors can change that.

See Time For Staff Nominations to University Senate

Now is the time for staff members who are interested in running for the University Senate. The Rutgers University Senate is the only advisory and legislative body that represents the entire community of faculty, students, staff, administrators and alumni to Rutgers’ president and boards.

Senate Summary: http://senate.rutgers.edu/SenateSummaryForNominees.pdf

Senate Staff Representation
Campus	Camden	Newark	New Brunswick
Current	2	3	5
Proposed to BOG*	3	4	7
*If the BOG approves, runner-up candidates in this election will take the new Senate seats. See Greater Voice for Staff in University Senate Proposed.

Dates to Remember
Nominations: open to April 22
Election: May 3 to May 7 at http://uhr.rutgers.edu/vote

Nomination Process

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For those who might tell you that outsourcing is more efficient...

By Bob Considine/The Star-Ledger
April 06, 2010, 2:50PM

A report says that school districts are overpaying food service management firms, suggesting that the charges Sodexo and Chartwells levy on schools for workers compensation and liability insurance exceed the actual cost of obtaining insurance.

Ten New Jersey school districts overpaid more than $320,000 to private food service management companies, according to a study by a consulting firm obtained by The Star-Ledger.

If the 378 New Jersey school districts using these food service management companies were being overcharged for insurance at the same rate, some $12 million could be misappropriated during a time when schools are feeling the crunch of cutbacks, according to the author of the study.

“We found the (food service) companies were using the same tactics they used in other markets,” said Tom MacDermott, who researched and wrote the report for the Clarion Group from last November to March. “They were charging more for certain overhead items than they actually incurred.”

From the URA-AFT contract (www.ura-aft.org/contract)
ARTICLE 18 - JUST CAUSE/DISCIPLINE
No employee shall be discharged, suspended, disciplined or receive a deficiency downgrade except for just cause. The parties to this Agreement affirm the concept of progressive discipline. (see http://www.uraaft.org/contract/18Just.shtml)

A member of URA-AFT is given a written reprimand on February 28, 2008 for job performance issues. On April 7, 2008 this same employee is suspended for five days. On April 17, 2008 the employee is terminated.

Is this a violation of the contract?

An article in the student Rutgers Camden Gleaner newspaper quoted URA-AFT president Lucye Millerand and AAUP/AFT president Adrienne Eaton discussing the need to invest in higher education as an economic driver. Open a scan of the article below.

URA-AFT representatives conferred with UHR vice president Vivian Fernandez last week about implementation of the Paid Leave Bank provision of last December’s Memorandum of Agreement. Fernandez explained that the days will appear in the ARS system beginning in July of 2010. Any URA member who leaves the university prior to July 1 is eligible for one Paid Leave Bank day. Beginning in July, all four PLB days will appear on the ARS record. For the full explanation of the Paid Leave Bank, see http://www.ura-aft.org/contract/120209agreement.pdf.

Colleges and universities have not done enough to recruit, retain and support faculty and staff from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, according to a new AFT report (http://www.aft.org/pdfs/highered/facultydiversity0310.pdf. The report makes recommendations for engaging higher education unions in vigorous efforts to promote faculty diversity.

March 22, 2010
By Marisa López-Rivera

Salaries stayed the same this year for midlevel college administrators, according to a report released this week by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

The University should be able to honor its recently negotiated memorandums, Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teacher President Lucye Millerand said.

Last Monday (March 15), Governor Christie unveiled his budget proposal for the coming year. His vision includes over $1 billion in cuts to education with $200 million in direct cuts to higher education. These cuts are coupled with a tax cut of over $1 billion for New Jerseyans making more than $400,000 per year. Join with other AFT members across the state and let your legislators know that it’s just not right to cut over a billion dollars from education and give the money to millionaires.

If you can take a few minutes to call your legislator, please click here and enter your contact information to be connected to your Assembly member’s office (we’ll provide some talking points for you).

AFT Rutgers, the umbrella organization for all AFT affiliates at Rutgers University, has launched a new site at www.aftrutgers.org to identify and post regular news features through the state budget cycle and while bills impacting health insurance contributions and retirement terms are pending.