Dear Colleagues,
In a few months, we will mark our first full academic year with the MIT and MIT Graduate Student Union (GSU) Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
We are pleased to report that, thanks to support from MIT’s leaders, a phenomenal on-the-ground team (managing everything from enhanced systems to finance to communications to training to legal and labor relations issues), and all of you, implementation has gone smoothly.
As we said at the start of the process, the CBA has led to significant changes in how we manage our graduate educational and research programs. While it has brought about improvements in many of our systems and processes, it has also created challenges such as less flexibility, grievances, and administrative overhead.
With that in mind, we have been working hard to provide more assistance to our students and all those who work with them, and to ensure that, in the long term, we are providing appropriate central resources for efficiency and clarity.
Soon, you will also note a transition in how we engage with you. The Office of Graduate Education (OGE) will be taking a more formal, lead role relative to the CBA / unionization, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor Headquarters (OVC) will be stepping back (while we anticipate remaining deeply involved in high-level issues and future negotiations).
Here are a few ways we are providing ongoing support to DLCIs:
New, Updated FAQs. An updated FAQ that is focused on general questions about unionization; appointments and compensation; benefits; dues and agency fees; leaves and vacation; grievances; and other key issues that we have heard are on your and our students’ minds.
Hiring a new Director of Graduate Appointments in OGE. As we noted last month, we are pleased that Christine Fecenko Murphy (cfmurphy@mit.edu, 3-107) is now in place at OGE as Director of Graduate Appointments. She is providing leadership, guidance, and coordination related to implementation of the CBA and the business process changes it brings.
Archived education materials, updates, and key info. CBA Updates continues to be a key resource about implementing the CBA’s requirements. In addition, the Graduate Policies and Procedures (GPP) pages on the OGE site should increasingly reflect the latest changes.
Here are some things still to come …
GradCentral. A digital one stop shop for graduate administrators and officers.
Department-level and central-level staffing support. Four new staff will be embedded in Deans Offices to enable administration and oversight of CBA requirements closer to the action. More information on a timeline and what this means will be shared in the coming weeks. We are also continuing to hire staff like Christine (above) to provide central support roles in Labor & Employee Relations, OGE, and EHS.
Ongoing training. Look for expanded support resources and training sessions designed to help faculty and staff understand relevant policies and procedures and the evolving graduate student teaching and research landscape.
Student engagement. While we have done our best to keep all of our graduate students up to speed about what the CBA means for them, we expect to expand our engagement via OGE, especially at key moments like orientation, moves from fellowships to appointments, and more.
In closing, we want to thank all of you once again for your patience and diligence as we adapt to our new reality.
We also ask that you continue to reach out to gradunionquestions@mit.edu and encourage your local faculty to engage with us and other key leaders directly on any questions they may have, especially if contacted by a union rep and/or when potential and formal grievances are involved.
Sincerely,
Ian & Denzil
Ian A. Waitz
Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education and Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Denzil Streete
Senior Associate Dean and Director, Office of Graduate Education
