New Mexico Highlands University Faculty And Staff Association

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NMHUFASA Professor Publishes Albuquerque Gay Pride Book

Congratulations and Great Work PJ!

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1st Place In Local Growth Awards

Great work NMHUFASA! #AFTstrong #1u

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Don't Get Maxed Out!

Join The Union! Download Membership Form Here!

The Power of Respect

NMHU is in turbulent times. The distrust between NMHU employees (faculty and staff) and the NMHU administration is at an all-time high. The number of legal issues we are experiencing with our administration is at an all-time high. The administration, under our President and Board of Regents, is attacking the rights of tenure and academic freedom, governance, and due process of its faculty and staff. And, if that isn’t bad enough, they are now using the” Trumpian” ploy of attacking our basic rights of free speech. With respect to ancient Greek mythology and Hercules, it feels like we are now batting the Hydra of Lerna. If you remember, while battling the monster, every time that Hercules cut off one of its heads, two more grew back in its place. What a perfect metaphor for NMHU and our current administration. Every time we work hard to solve serious issues and violations of our due process and CBA, new anti-union issues, sentiment, and attacks by the administration and Regents occur. We all were present when President Minner attacked us for being unionized during his State of the University address in August. It did not go unnoticed. The administration is now telling faculty that they will be reprimanded if we talk about union issues during our office hours or help colleagues in distress. Solving issues, apparently, is union work, not professionalism, decency, and caring. We are working on this free speech issue with our NEA and AFT unions and attorneys. We will not let it stand.

The faculty and staff at NMHU are not asking for much, but we are asking for the rights that are basic to citizens in the US, faculty across the country, and negotiated in our CBA. We are asking for respect to do our jobs with dignity. We are asking to be valued. We are asking for the Power of Respect.

Yet Another Assualt on Tenure by the NMHU Administration

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By Dr. Kathy Jenkins, President of the NMHU Facutly & Staff Association

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Tension with the NMHU administration has increased over the past several months and the university now is questioning our right to use the NMHU website, emails, and other resources to share union activities and contact members. Although we are fighting the university’s narrow definition of the Anti-Donations clause in NM law, we took this opportunity to create our own website. It will be a place where we can share information, talk freely, archive our newsletters and other documents, without control from the NMHU administration. It will also be a website where we can share all of the

Randi Weingarten at a Massachusetts high school

Summer is upon us, and parents, children and teachers are winding down from what has been an exhausting and fully operational school year—the first since the devastating pandemic. The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 has affected our students’ and families’ well-being and ignited the politics surrounding public schools. All signs point to the coming school year unfolding with the same sound and fury, and if extremist culture warriors have their way, being even more divisive and stressful.

In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

In defense of public education

Randi Weingarten and NYC teacher Tamara Simpson

Attacks on public education in America by extremists and culture-war peddling politicians have reached new heights (“lows” may be more apt), but they are not new. The difference today is that the attacks are intended not just to undermine public education but to destroy it.

Great News! Faculty Bargaining Update -- 7/27/17

The NMHU Faculty Association’s bargaining team reached agreement on the two articles we bargained this year. If successfully ratified by both the faculty and the Regents, we will have contracts ready for our signature at the start of Professional Development days! The two articles we agreed to bargain this year were salary (we bargain salary every year) and a small change in Article 14 Sabbaticals. If you remember, we signed an MOU with the administration that we would bargain a part of this article, to help ensure the fair and equitable treatment of all faculty on sabbatical. We will be sending the new language out in these two sections to our union members for ratification. Here is an overview:

· All bargaining unit members will receive a 1% increase in salary (this is the first raise we have received in a few years. Also, because the Legislature didn’t mandate a pay raise for this year, the administration wasn’t under any obligation to give us any adjustment.

· A paragraph was added clarifying what can and cannot be done during sabbatical. This language was drafted directly from the results of the faculty’s sabbatical survey last spring.

We will be sending the new language out for ratification to our members. Bargaining Team Members: Donna Woodford-Gormley (Chief), Ian Williamson, and Kathy Jenkins

July 2017 Letter To Faculty

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Hello everybody,

I apologize for this email being in an attached document. But, apparently only the administration can sent long emails. I wanted to communicate with you regarding all of the happenings at NMHU. I apologize for it being so long, but it is important that you all are aware of what is happening right now, as it has been a busy summer. First, let’s start with some good ones:

1. As you probably saw from the payroll email this morning, our benefits are changing. We discussed this last spring and realized that the changes were going to be made in our state insurance premiums. However