Hardly a day passes recently without some discouraging word for public higher
education from the Legislature or the Governor. Most of you have probably
already seen or heard about the Governor’s posting of faculty salaries from
throughout the State University System. Although announced with reference to
accountability and transparency, several faculty members have suggested more
sinister motives underly this seemingly sudden interest in transparency on the
part of the Gov. who took the 5th Amendment scores of times when asked about massive Medicaid/Medicare fraud by the company he led.
See: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/19/2461865/motive-for-posting-florida-profs.html
You can find the salary data at via a link to a spreadsheet at this URL:
http://www.floridahasarighttoknow.com/search_state_payroll_info.html
Many of you have also heard of Gov. Scott’s request to President Barron for a
wide range of information on FSU. Governor Scott’s letter of Oct. 13 to
President Barron is available here:
https://uff-fsu.org/art/Scott-Barron20111013.pdf
And of course everyone has heard that Gov. Scott doesn’t seem to like
Anthropology, Psychology … and various other fields that he believes have
little vocational training content or little value to private sector employers
(see above letter and Miami Herald story on related points, and the link just below).
See The Economist‘s response to Gov. Scott’s attacks on anthropology:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/10/education-policy
Closer to home, the news is more encouraging from collective bargaining and
consultations with the FSU Administration/Board of Trustees.
A UFF faculty team met with President Barron and Provost Stokes for almost
two hours on September 30th. Useful conversations were held on salaries,
position classifications, and assorted other issues.
Faculty and Administration bargaining teams have continued regular meetings
throughout the summer and into the fall. Recent discussions have centered on
Administration initiatives to revise the Performance Evaluations article (Art.
10), and the teams feel that they are converging on this issue. The teams are
also planning to discuss or continue discussions on non-tenure track faculty
reclassifications, academic freedom, tenure, the Salary Plan for Professors, and
benefits. Bargaining sessions are normally held on Wednesday afternoons at the
FSU Training Center and are open to all faculty members. The next session is
scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 2nd, at 2pm.