The minutes of our March 2022 consultation can be found at the link below.
We hold four of these a year with upper-level Administration. Two include President Thrasher.
Consultations are intended to provide a relaxed forum to discuss issues of interest to faculty. All are encouraged to contact UFF if you have something you feel needs to be discussed.
In Spring 2022, 581 faculty members completed the UFF-FSU Faculty Poll.
In the Comments:
Survey Responses With Comments:
https://uff-fsu.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/UFF-FSU-Spring-2022-Faculty-Poll-Results-Post.pdf
Survey Responses Without Comments:
Dear Colleagues,
Bargaining season is upon us, and the BOT and UFF teams met on Wednesday to begin exchanging proposals. The teams presented two articles each.
The first one on the table was UFF-FSU’s expansion of language in Article 5 (Academic Freedom), where we tightened up language that clarifies that academic freedom principles apply to faculty in matters inside their area of scholarly expertise, not just outside it.
The BOT team proposed changes to Article 8 (Appointments), in particular, reducing the 4-year contracts for Specialized Faculty in the top rank to 3 years and providing for annual contract renewal. We note that this group—faculty in the top SF rank—typically have been at FSU for at least 10 years and have been promoted twice. Perhaps this record of solid performance for many years deserves the courtesy of 4-year contracts and a 2-year renewal period! It has worked well for many years. The BOT also proposed some other small changes to this article.
The UFF team was up next and presented a proposal on Article 18 (Inventions and Works). Most of our changes seem non-controversial, in that they simply improve the article’s organizational structure (for example, by putting the definition of “University Support” at the beginning rather than embedded in a subsection). A substantive change involves removing the distinction between the treatment of “works” and “inventions” owned by the University. Thus, whereas in the current contract a faculty member who creates a work receives 50% of the royalties and a faculty member who creates an invention receives 40% (after the first $10,000), under this proposal both would receive 60%. We pointed out that the current distribution system leaves many faculty feeling disincentivized.
The final article was the BOT’s proposal for Article 19 (Conflict of Interest), which covers two substantive areas. The first is reporting outside activities and the meaning of “conflict of interest.” It may be a bit early to report on their proposal, as the words they proposed turned out to not be what they meant. For example, when we balked at the requirement for faculty to reveal their “financial interests,” which “includes anything of value other than that provided directly by the University,” saying that our retirement-account dividends weren’t the University’s business, it turns out that they didn’t mean that at all. Nor does the requirement to report “a description of the item of value and the name of the entity or the individual providing the item of value” really mean that a faculty member who also acts as a counselor must reveal the names of clients. More to come once we gain clarity.
More worrisome at this point is their proposed language defining conflict of interest: “any situation in which regard for a private interest of the faculty member tends to lead to disregard of a public duty or the public interests of the University.” To the BOT’s credit, they removed current language that includes “the State of Florida” in that list, but we are troubled by the blurriness of “tends to,” which seems to bear no relation to any actual action a faculty member engages in.
The second substantive area of the Conflict of Interest article involves consensual sexual relationships with students. The BOT proposes striking most of the language governing these relationships (e.g., the requirement to end any situation involving supervision/evaluation and the requirement to disclose the relationship to a supervisor) and replacing it with a blanket prohibition against “sexual or romantic advances” and “sexual or romantic relationships.”
What is the definition of a romantic relationship? The BOT proposes this: “Intimate associations primarily characterized by the expectation of affectional involvement and/or demonstrates the desire to engage in sexualized relations whether emotional or physical.” Even if you force the sentence to parse by changing “demonstrates” to “the demonstration of,” the problems with the sentence loom large. Most disturbing is the fact that a relationship is made up of two people, but this language is about a relationship, not a person. What if one party (say a student) believes the other is engaged in “affectional involvement” but the other party (say a faculty member) feels nothing of the sort and is not even aware that a possible emotional engagement in the air? Presumably the party who is not exquisitely attuned to the other party’s fantasy life will be disciplined, up to and including termination.
We explained that we are not minimizing the damage caused by sexual harassment; indeed, we find the practice abhorrent and strongly support the provisions in Article 6 (nondiscrimination) that prohibit it and sanction faculty who engage in it. But the relationships described in Article 19 are consensual and could be between people in different departments who have no supervisory or evaluative relationship within FSU.
Despite disagreements, the meeting was cordial. Indeed, an impartial observer might even characterize it as having elements of affectional involvement.
The next bargaining session is scheduled for Wed., March 30, 2:00-5:00.
Bargaining sessions are open to faculty, and we appreciate having you! Meetings are face-to-face at the FSU Training Center (493 Stadium Drive), and we were pleased that faculty showed up at the session. About a dozen faculty attended via Zoom instead and said it worked well. If you would like to attend remotely please respond to this message and we’ll send you the Zoom link.
Regular updates can be found at our webpage: http://uff-fsu.org/
The key to a strong Collective Bargaining Agreement is a strong membership base, so if you are not a member, please join! There has never been a more important time for us to stand together. http://uff-fsu.org/wp/join/
All best,
Irene Padavic and Scott Hannahs, Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU
Dear Colleagues,
The BOT and the UFF bargaining teams concluded negotiations for the 2021-2022 year on Wednesday, September 15. We agreed to change only one article in the CBA: Article 23 – Salaries.The article specifies raises and bonuses as follows, and details can be found here:
This bargaining season was characterized by strong participation from you—faculty members—and your faithful presence at session after session increased the pressure and made the difference between the administration’s initial bonus offer of $1,200 and the final one (the greater of $3,000 or 3%). Your presence was inspiring to us and noticed by the BOT team!
Faculty need to ratify this tentative agreement along with three Memoranda of Understanding—one covering Covid-related issues for Summer, another covering them for Fall, and a third expanding funding for the Tuition Scholarship for Spouses and Dependents. We will send instructions for ratification voting shortly.
Again, thank you for your support! Next spring we face “full book” negotiations, which means all 31 CBA articles are open. To reject bad ideas and to enact good ones (paid family leave, anyone?) we need high membership numbers. If you are not a member, please join.
All best,
Irene Padavic and Scott Hannahs
Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU
Dear Colleagues,
The BOT and the UFF bargaining teams met Wednesday this week to discuss Article 23, Salaries. Faculty showed up in droves—just shy of 60 people. Some sported signs: “Who put FSU in the top 20%? FACULTY! Reward the hard work . . . or lose the workers and the ranking!” “No cost of living increase means faculty salaries are moving BACKWARDS.”
It was great to have so many of you there; indeed, it was inspiring!
Proposals flew back and forth, and caucus meetings burbled with statements of disbelief and discontent from the union member attendees.
Thefirst proposal was the BOT’s, offering a 3% bonus, with a floor of $2,000 and a ceiling of $4,000.
The UFF countered with a 1% across-the-board raise with a $900 floor, plus a 3% bonus with a $3,000 floor and a $4,000 ceiling.
The BOT came back with the same offer as before but with a higher minimum: $2,500 instead of $2,000.
The UFF responded with our same offer, with one difference: the amount for Administrative Discretionary Increases could be 0.8%, which was the amount the BOT had proposed.
The last proposal of the day was the BOT’s, which they presented as the best they could do this bargaining season: No raise, but a bonus of 3% or $3,000, whichever is higher. The lack of a raise is still a cause for concern, but their new version of the bonus strikes us as worth entertaining. The UFF continues to believe that the University received a 3.2% increase in unrestricted funds that could be used towards salary increases, and we have requested details about how those funds have been allocated. We hope this information will be available by next week and can inform our bargaining position.
We will again meet remotely to continue bargaining Salaries next Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 1:00. Faculty presence makes a real difference, so we encourage you to come! Signs optional!
Bargaining Link (Wed, Sept 15 at 1:00): https://fsu.zoom.us/j/99785368112
If you are a member of UFF, you are also welcome to our caucuses, which typically occur once or twice during bargaining and at its conclusion.
Caucus link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83298989140
Regular updates can be found at our webpage: http://uff-fsu.org/
The key to a strong collective bargaining agreement is a strong membership base, so if you are not a member, please join! There has never been a more important time for us to stand together. http://uff-fsu.org/wp/join/
All best,
Irene Padavic and Scott Hannahs
Co-Chief Negotiators, UFF-FSU
