Bargaining Update and Ratification Voting

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UFF faculty and Administration/BOT teams concluded negotiations for fiscal 2012-13 in late Ocotober, including an agreement on Specialized (NTT) Faculty Reclassifications. Ratification voting for faculty is tentatively scheduled for December 4-5th. Revisions to the current contract are fairly extensive, and we encourage faculty members to begin their review of the tentatively agreed changes as soon as possible. A summary of the changes is available at the following link:

http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/BargainingUpdateNov2012.pdf

The summary includes links to the tentatively agreed revisions. More information on ratification dates, time, and places, and on voting procedures will be forthcoming soon.

Bargaining Update

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UFF faculty and Administration/BOT teams reached tentative agreement
recently on salaries, promotion, and tenure for the 2012-13 contract year.  A
brief summary of changes follows.  Details on the tentative agreements are
available via links further below.  The teams will resume negotiations Wednesday morning at 9am, with benefits and the specialized faculty (NTTF) reclassification
project as main agenda items.

Changes in promotion and tenure include the following: Continue reading →

Bargaining Update and Higher Ed Policies

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Bargaining Update: Recently the Administration/BOT and UFF faculty teams reached tentative agreement on new language for Article 10 on Performance Evaluation and on Winter Break. Key changes in Article 10 include a more detailed five-point performance rating scale sought by the Admin/BOT and a ban on forced distributions sought by the faculty team. Some of these provisions will require significant bylaws revisions — sorry. Continue reading →

Faculty Senate Report on University Welfare

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Report on University Welfare for Faculty Senate, September 19th, 2012

By Professor Jack Fiorito, Senator and UFF-FSU President

Good afternoon!  In view of the late hour and that we have already had a report on collective bargaining from President Barron, I will try to be brief.

Collective Bargaining

As President Barron suggested, budget cuts and the political environment have made for a difficult bargaining environment.  Since last spring we have held consultations with President Barron and Provost Stokes twice and held weekly meetings with the Administration/Board of Trustees bargaining team.  Continue reading →

Bargaining Update – Promotion Increases Delayed?

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Today, your UFF-FSU bargaining team offered to immediately sign off on promotion increases of 12% for promotion to Associate and 15% for promotion to Full. Unfortunately, negotiations stalled because of the Administration’s insistence on linking promotion increases (the amounts of which are not in dispute) to Administrative Discretionary Increases (ADIs). We have been informed that promotion increases will be delayed. The UFF-FSU bargaining team believes that promotion increases should stand on their own as recognition for faculty who have earned them. The increases should not be contingent on negotiations about an unrelated issue.

Illustrating our good faith, we have agreed to 15 ADIs totaling $173,000 in the last ten days. The administration already has discretion for raises according to section 23.9(a)(6) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

We see the need to put through promotion raises immediately.

Taking a non-emergency item (ADI) off the table when so many important ones are pending would be detrimental to the bargaining team’s ability to get the best agreement possible for faculty. Several significant issues remain unresolved, such as a new performance evaluation system and job security issues for specialized faculty (NTTF).

While this delay is regrettable, the administration is fully able to implement promotion increases retroactively.

Your bargaining team remains committed to bargaining a fair and equitable agreement, and we look forward to returning to the table.

Faculty Shared Governance

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“’Shared governance’ is much revered by faculty, but it adds vastly to administrative costs and stifles innovation and change.  Shared governance is a byproduct of academic tenure, where faculty members with lifetime appointments face little consequence from trying, often successfully, to obstruct changes that
might reduce their power or influence or increase their teaching  load.“

– Vedder and Denhart, Ten Principles of Higher Education Reform (2011, p. 16)

This background reading was circulated to meeting participants prior to last
week’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Higher Education meeting in St. Petersburg. Continue reading →

UFF/FSU Presidents Consultation

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DRAFT minutes from July 10th’s consultation with President Barron, Provost
Stokes, and other administration representatives are now posted at the UFF-FSU web site (www.uff-fsu.org). The URL is:

http://www.uff-fsu.org/art/Mins2012July10Consult-UFFdraft.pdf

Charts from the UFF May faculty poll comparing Specialized Faculty (NTTF) and Continue reading →

First Friday and Other Upcoming Events

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First Friday will be held from 5-7pm on July 6th at Momo’s Brew Pub, 1410 Market Street. As usual, our UFF-FSU Chapter will provide snacks (pizza!). Refreshing beverages will be available, and faculty members from throughout FSU will provide interesting conversation. Please come out and relax with your colleagues and get informal updates on bargaining and other matters. New members are especially welcome!

Also Coming Up: Continue reading →