Dear AAUP-BHSNJ Faculty,

We wanted to update you in several areas.

Merit Base Pay Increases this Friday, October 29th

This Friday, faculty members hired on or before December 1, 2019 and who are currently within our negotiations unit, will receive a merit increase. The merit increase will apply to base salary and vary from 1.5% of base pay to 6%. This increase has an effective date of July 30, 2021. Any adjustment therefore should have a retroactive component to July 30, 2021. Note that this increase is based on the annual evaluation ending June 30, 2020 and not the evaluation you just completed. Due to COVID-19, Rutgers unions had agreed to delay the payment of the 2020 raises to this year. As such, the 2021 raise will be paid before the end of the contract period in 2022.     We have asked for a list of faculty evaluation scores and the related increases. We expect many of the same design flaws which occurred in 2017 (the last time a merit raise was paid) to occur again. The major flaw is that increases often do not strongly correlate with given evaluation scores. We presented Rutgers with a statistical analysis in 2018 which illustrated this problem. They were unwilling to make any corrections in their proposal and unfortunately we were unable to insist on our solutions in the final contract ratified last year. We aim to do better in the next contract negotiation.

EPIC Rollout at RWJMS

      We are aware of the significant number of issues caused by the roll out of the new EPIC system at RWJMS. We will be contacting the university to insist on a relaxation of productivity standards given that the roll out went so poorly.

Pay Equity Increase Requests

         As of July 1, 2021, you are eligible to put in for a salary increase based on pay equity considerations. Our membership coordinator Amy Hale is maintaining a list of those interested in submitting applications. Please contact her at membership@aaupbhsnj.org for more information. Our internal pay equity committee will be reviewing the first batch of requests in early November. Our website also contains information on how to draft these requests.  https://aaupbhsnj.org/pay-equity/

Rutgers Athletics Spent $12,400 on Power Nap Machine

         While claiming poverty last year, Rutgers had money for all sorts of goodies for Rutgers Athletics, which is already hundreds of millions in debt.  https://nj1015.com/rutgers-athletics-spent-12400-on-power-nap-machine/

As a reminder:

Our annual meetings will take place on Zoom this year. We will send out the Zoom invites in a separate communication. Information is below:

Newark Chapter Meeting (NJMS, RSDM, SHP, SON)

Tuesday, December 7, 2021 @ 6pm     

New Brunswick/Piscataway Chapter Meeting (RWJMS/SPH)     

Thursday, December 2, 2021 @ 6pmSincerely,AAUP-BHSNJ