Dear Editor,

We’d like to thank the Torch for its cov­er­age of the Ferris Nontenure-Track Faculty Organization’s 14-month-long con­tract nego­ti­a­tion with the uni­ver­sity. We feel that the process of estab­lish­ing our first con­tract with the uni­ver­sity be as trans­par­ent as pos­si­ble, and the Torch has been help­ful in that endeavor. Having said that, we feel the head­line “Drawn Out Ratification” is mis­lead­ing. The head­line implies that there has been an inex­plic­a­ble delay in either pre­sent­ing the con­tract to our mem­bers or get­ting con­sen­sus regard­ing the con­tract from our mem­bers, both of which are inac­cu­rate. Preparing a new con­tract for rat­i­fi­ca­tion is time-consuming, with all par­ties involved check­ing the ten­ta­tive agree­ment for incon­sis­ten­cies both tex­tual and gram­mat­i­cal. Then a copy of the ten­ta­tive agree­ment is sent out to the gen­eral mem­ber­ship for review. Finally, a gen­eral mem­ber­ship meet­ing is held to dis­cuss issues and vote on the con­tract. The FNTFO gen­eral mem­ber­ship meet­ing is sched­uled for Wednesday, April 25, which is less than 4 weeks after the ten­ta­tive agree­ment was reached. This rel­a­tively short con­tract prepa­ra­tion time is because we’re proud of the rights we’ve secured for our nontenure-track mem­bers, who until now have had no rep­re­sen­ta­tion on cam­pus. We look for­ward to hear­ing our mem­bers’ voices regard­ing the ten­ta­tive agree­ment and con­tin­u­ing to bar­gain on their behalf in the future.

Sincerely,

Beth Reynolds

FNTFO Bargaining Team

Nontenure-Track Faculty

Department of Languages and Literature

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