Memo

TO: Board of Regents

FROM: Sue Hill, Director, Labor Relations and Personnel

RE: Approval of Tentative Agreement with MSU-Billings Faculty Association

DATE: September 19-20, 2002

Attached is a summary of the tentative agreement with MSU-Billings Faculty Association. The entire contract is available for review on line at https://www.mus.edu/hr/cba/collbarg.html.

The tentative agreement provides for a 4 percent increase in salaries for the 2002-2003 academic year, effective November 1, 2002. This increase will not be implemented until after spring enrollment numbers are finalized and is conditioned on an enrollment of at least 3,450 FTE.

Several changes to the contract language governing student assessments are included in the tentative agreement. We clarified that Department Chairs retain the numerical summaries and typed student comments and established a process for sharing student assessment data between departments. Student confidentiality was insured by having a non-student, non-faculty employee type all written comments before giving them to the faculty member. A separate evaluation instrument for on-line courses was authorized.

Responsibilities of faculty members during the summer session were clarified to include all of the same duties as during the academic year. Language was also added to formalize the process for informing the Academic Vice Chancellor of the results of post tenure reviews.

I recommend approval of the tentative agreement with MSU-Billings Faculty Association. The faculty will have voted to ratify the tentative agreement before the September Regents' meeting or this item will be withdrawn.