February, 2008

After three and a half years of negotiation, unfair labor practice lawsuit battles and internal struggle, the MTU chapter of the American Association of University Professors voted Thursday to decertify its right to represent the MTU faculty in collective bargaining. The vote was prompted by an Oct. 31, 2007 petition for decertification filed with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission by members of the union.

The university administration and AAUP chapter spent approx. 13 months out of three and a half years in active negotiations. The remainder of the time was spent between the courtrooms of the MERC and antechambers of the Michigan judicial system battling for what the MTU-AAUP claimed was a breach of fair practice. The first summer of contract negotiations in 2005, the administration followed a previously-established practice of giving selective salary bonuses and raises. The issue challenged was the fact that, as of January 2005, the MTU-AAUP was the collective bargaining representative of MTU faculty. The union, therefore, should have been the communication channel through which the administration dealt its raises and bonuses. A legal suit ensued, paralleled by the first decertification petition raised by a set of members represented by the union.

Over the following 17 months the two parties quarreled in Michigan courts over the ULP. A decision was made, finally, in April 2007 which allowed negotiations to reopen. As part of this decision, the 2005 decertification petition was nullified and the membership of the MTU-AAUP was banned from refilling a petition for five months, to allow for progress to be made in contract negotiations.

Now an established discussion series on the MTU campus, the Tech Talks Research series has opened new doors for a number of the university’s researchers. Through personal research introduction and breakout discussions, Tech Talks has brought together faculty previously un-introduced or unaware of each other. Strong support for topics like computing, transportation and advanced materials has even prompted further discussions. The result of these meetings is a strengthening of the university’s research community.

Michigan Tech represents the transportation industry through a number of societies and research opportunities. Two organizations in particular, the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute and the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute, research the various topics included in the transportation field. From shipping lanes to technology transfer to rural transportation infrastructures, a broad range of foci are covered. The US DOT University Transportation Center for Materials in Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure offers research opportunities in areas from aggregates to novel infrastructure materials.

For just under three and a half years, the MTU chapter of the Association of American University Professors has worked to build a union-negotiated contract with the university’s administration. Breaking out of litigation and hold-ups last April, the two negotiating bodies began making headway and maintained nearly seven months of productive bargaining. Since Oct. 31st, 2007, however, the MTU-AAUP has again been locked from negotiations by internal dissent and will vote on the possibility of decertification tomorrow, Feb. 21st.

The MTU-AAUP chartered in Oct. 2004, ratified its constitution Jan. 2005, and negotiated with Michigan Tech from March to July of 2005. The Midsummer of 2005 saw a halt to negotiations when the MTU administration gave individual raises to faculty outside of the developing union’s contract.

For the next 19 months the two bodies argued in the Michigan Employee Relations Commission regarding the legality of the raises. The suit was compounded by a motion to decertify made by a union member in Oct. 2005. However, a decision by Justice Julia Stern on behalf of MTU-AAUP in Mar. 2007 restarted the negotiations. Both parties celebrated the decision shortly after, stating that they were “making progress,” according to Marilyn Cooper, president of MTU-AAUP and that there had been “good give-and-take,” according to Ellen Horsch, VP for Administration.

The Text team focused on:
The Text team included:

The Photography team focused on:
The Photography team included:

The design team included:

The second project in HU3630 involved creating a student-focused marketing brochure.

Steadily approaching is the looming deadline for fiscal year 2007 taxes. While April 15th is still more than two months away, it is important to begin now to avoid return delays and file an accurate 2008-09 FAFSA application. Releases from the IRS indicate an expectation of heavy delays already for early filers. Further, new changes may provide students with opportunities for extra tax credits in their filings.
Deadlines for mailing W-2, 1098 and 1099 forms was January 31st. This means all filing citizens should have received their tax information.

For most, filing taxes will consist of completing a single Federal and single Michigan tax form. These forms will be a 1040EZ, 1040-A or 1040 for the Federal filing and an MI-1040 form for Michigan. Some students, like those whose residence is in a state other than Michigan, will need to file a Federal and either a single form to their home state, or a form to both their home state and Michigan. Wisconsin and Minnesota, for example, require a Form 1 or Form 1A for Wisc. or an M1 form for Minn.

Filing for out-of-state students in Michigan requires one more step. Outside of home state and Michigan standard forms, out-of-state filers need to submit a Schedule NR form, representing Non-Resident, in Michigan. Again, depending on the state the student claims as their home state, a similar form may be needed.

The Tech Talks Research series, started Fall 2007, provides a singular venue for professors and researchers on the Michigan Tech campus to meet other faculty in their interest areas. The series has run a number of successful meetings on topics from transportation to computer science. These sessions not only provide a means to introduce potential research partners to each other, but also as a focus group for an initiative to bring approx. 100 new research faculty members to the Tech campus.

Tech Talks is an initiative of the Provost’s office and the Vice President for Research. Spear-headed by Asst. Provost Donna J Michalek, the series was born from a meeting held Spring 2007 for non-tenured faculty on campus. “We wanted to provide a means for them to meet each other,” Michalek said in an interview Tuesday. “Then we thought, ‘Why not do this for everyone?’”

Good work today everyone, I think we're getting close to a deliverable here.

Color Decisions:

For the four sections (in CMYK):

1. 1: 9.14.27.0
2. 2: 7.31.0.0
3. 3: 21.0.33.0
4. 4: 25.0.10.0

For the intro bar on each section page: