Report on University Welfare for Faculty Senate, April 18th, 2012

By Professor Jack Fiorito, Senator and UFF-FSU President

“Welcome” to new, continuing, and returning Senators. This is a good time to review the roles of the Senate and of the United Faculty of Florida (UFF). The Faculty Senate is the voice of the faculty on academic matters, and can express its opinion on “any subject of interest to the University.” (And I will come back to that in a minute.) The UFF is the exclusive bargaining agent for salaries and other terms and conditions of employment. These roles sometimes overlap, but I am pleased to say that we generally have collegial and professional working relations between the UFF and Senate.
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Discretionary Raises (ADI)

The UFF continues to hear reports from faculty that a few Deans and other administrators claim that the UFF is preventing them from giving raises to individual faculty members. Any such claim is a misstatement. As Vice President Ingram stated in a memo to Deans and Academic Directors on February 9th, “pay increases may be given [to UFF-represented faculty] at the discretion of the administration so long as they are in compliance” with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Section 23.9 of the Salaries article (Article 23) provides for the Administration to give “Administrative Discretionary Increases” (ADI), if funds are available, to individual faculty for the following reasons:
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UFF-FSU Chapter Election Results, 2012

All listed candidates were easily elected, along with a few write-ins. Our new (and not so new) UFF-FSU elected leadership, effective immediately is as follows:

Officers:  Jack Fiorito, President and Senator; Nancy Kellett, Vice President and Senator; Jennifer Profffitt, Vice President and Senator; Joseph Hellweg, Secretary and Senator; Susan C. Losh, Treasurer

Senators:  Neil Abell, Margaret Ashmore, Luis Balicas, Ralph Brower, Michael Buchler, Jeanette Castillo, Chris Coutts, Vlad Dobraslavljevic, Michael Fair, Alisha Gaines, Alejandro Gallard, Robin Goodman, Scott Hannahs, Kristine Harper, RaMonda Horton, Annette Jones, Randolph Langley, Ian McDonald, Joshua Newman, Irene Padavic, Kate Petersen, James Rhoades, Robert Schwartz, Lee Stepina, Jennifer Wells Read More →