Author: ufffsu

COVID-19 Resources

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Dear UFF-FSU Member,

Faculty have worked hard to ensure that the unplanned transition to online teaching and remote counseling, research and service this semester has been as smooth as possible. Almost all of us have felt the stress of this new situation and many faculty have additional caregiving duties for spouses, parents, and/or children. Amid changing work environments and attending to students’ new problems, your own needs as faculty may seem to be overlooked. UFF-FSU wants to provide information to help you. We are in this together

We are offering information on the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), the Family First Coronavirus Response Act (which expands leave options during this crisis) and expanded resources for free trauma counseling and remote teaching.

The CARES Act has multiple provisions that may impact you and our parent union, the National Education Association (NEA). The NEA offers fact sheets on one-time payments, unemployment compensation, and student loans. The Family First Coronavirus Response Act can assist you in accessing additional leave benefits, including if you are ill from the virus yourself or caring for a sick family member or a dependent who is not in school due to closures. The NEA offers more information here.

Many of us are struggling with new stresses and anxieties. Our other parent union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), offers a new member benefit for UFF members: free trauma counseling sessions with highly trained therapists. For information about how to access these services, click here. Contact UFF’s main office to get your member number if you don’t have it.

We also want to share three sources of information to assist with teaching:

1) The Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching Newsletter features a weekly roundup about teaching and learning.

2) The Facebook Group “Higher Ed and the Coronavirus”: In this group you can ask reporters questions, tell stories about how your college or university is reacting to the virus, and share practical tips with members.

3) Suggestions on how to proceed after moving course content online from an article in NEA Today.

The UFF-FSU tagline “FSU works because we do!” is apropos to the current pandemic. UFF-FSU is here for you. We’re listening. To contact us, email [email protected] or you can reach us through our website: uff-fsu.org.

In solidarity,

Your colleagues in UFF-FSU

Bargaining Update 7/8/17

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The BOT and UFF bargaining teams met on July 5 after a BOT-imposed three-week break in negotiations. The discussion was solely about the Salaries article. As has been the case for several weeks, the unresolved categories are Performance Increases, Departmental Merit Increases, Deans’ Merit Increases, Market Equity Increases, Administrative Discretionary Increases, and the UFF’s proposed Administrative Commensurate Compensation Increases. As has been the case all along, neither team is proposing changes to Promotion Increases or to Sustained Performance Increases.

The session began with a UFF presentation contesting the claims of a BOT PowerPoint presentation at the last session purporting to show that funding for faculty salaries is limited by legislatively-imposed criteria and that FSU faculty are already well-compensated compared to other public institutions.

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UFF-FSU response to the Administration’s claim that funding for faculty salary increases is limited and that FSU salaries are competitive

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The UFF-FSU bargaining team has considered the PowerPoint presentation from June 14’s bargaining session and has concluded that it does not justify the Administration’s claim that faculty salaries need little upward adjusting. The presentation centered on two sets of data, one seeking to show that FSU’s 2017-2018 increase funds are restricted to categories that largely exclude faculty increases and the other seeking to show that FSU faculty are well compensated. We address each in turn.

Regarding the source of funding, on the one hand the UFF does not want to itemize the various pots of money it believes are available for raises, since the UFF role in bargaining entails negotiating the amount—not the source—of raises. But on the other hand, because the PowerPoint presentation sought to bolster the claim that funding for increases was quite limited, we briefly respond with some suggestions about funding sources.

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Bargaining Update 6/23/17

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The BOT and UFF bargaining teams met on June 14 to continue negotiation of the Salaries article. The unresolved categories are Performance Increases, Departmental Merit Increases, Deans’ Merit Increases, Market Equity Increases, Administrative Discretionary Increases, and the UFF’s proposed Administrative Commensurate Compensation Increases. (The teams are not proposing changes to Promotion Increases or to Sustained Performance Increases.)

The session began with a BOT presentation purportedly showing that funding for faculty salaries is limited by legislatively-imposed criteria and that FSU faculty are already well-compensated compared to other public institutions. As a result of these restrictions and comparisons, the BOT team explained that their goals and priorities are not faculty compensation but instead are hiring, student retention and graduation, student support, and graduate student funding. The BOT concluded that FSU salaries were “competitive” and that they were “comfortable with faculty salaries.”

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