By Professor Jennifer Proffitt, UFF-FSU President
Implementation of CBA and Faculty Poll
In bargaining news, you may have noticed that seven different types of raises and bonuses from the latest contract have been implemented with an eighth one still to come, which is the $600 merit bonus for 35% in June.
Please be on the lookout for the UFF-FSU faculty poll in April. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of responses to our poll, for your responses help us represent all of you in bargaining and beyond.
Consultation
At our consultation with President Barron, Provost Stokes, Vice President McRorie and other administration representatives last week, we discussed such topics as faculty salary compression and market equity, Administrative Discretionary Increases, parking, and the budget. I’ve posted the minutes from our December consultation on our website, uff-fsu.org.
Legislative News
In legislative news, the Senate Community Affairs Committee voted 5-4 yesterday to introduce the FRS reform bill SPB 7046, which would close the traditional pension plan to all new employees except law enforcement and emergency personnel. Those hired after July 1, 2015, would be required to choose between an investment plan and a “cash balance” plan. The House plan to reform the FRS has not been announced yet. Though many of us are in the ORP rather than the pension plan, this does not mean we are immune to “reform,” especially considering that, whether we are in the pension plan or ORP plan, we have lost roughly half of our previous state contribution to our retirement plans. We are also continuing to follow the implementation of HB7029, which is the bill I’ve discussed previously that deals with MOOCS and other corporate vendors offering online courses, as well as the implementation and implications of the performance funding model approved by the Board of Governors in January.