The New FSU Faculty Collective Bargaining Agreement at a Glance

The following are the principal substantive changes to the collective bargaining agreement between the United Faculty of Florida and the Board of Trustees of the Florida State University, between the 2004-2007 agreement and the 2007-2010 agreement.

• Academic Freedom and Responsibility: Addition to Section 5.3 of new faculty responsibility to "Manifest integrity in their dealings with colleagues, be willing to share responsibilities and contribute equitably to the group tasks they are assigned."
• Appointment:Addition to Section 8.5 of clarification that "The decision about which courses to offer will be based on programmatic needs, student demand, and budget availability."
• Assignment of Responsibilities:
  • Additions to Article 9 to specify more precisely the processing of the annual Assignment of Responsibilities, including in all cases two tiers of administrative review, and the need to revise the forms if there are any changes to the assignment.
  • Addition of Section 9.9 regarding the assigned development and/or use of instructional technology, including distance learning.
• Deadlines: Modification of several deadlines for actions by a faculty member, the administration, or the UFF, to make such deadlines more uniform throughout the contract. For example, several cases of deadlines ranging from seven to 20 days have been changed to a uniform fifteen days.
• Disciplinary Action and Job Abandonment: Addition to Section 16.1 of new text to make it clear that "No provision of this agreement prevents the University from taking disciplinary action for just cause."
• Inventions and Works: Extensive revisions to Article 18, including:
  • Update of list of works to which a faculty member routinely retains ownership, to include databases, poems, musical compositions, and works of art.
  • Clarification of ownership by faculty members of course notes, web pages, and other educational materials they develop without appreciable university support.
  • Clarification of what constitutes appreciable university support.
  • Clarification of works that do not require disclosure.
  • Codification of royalty-splitting policy.
  • Addition of Section 18.6 (Additional Faculty Interests in University Supported Educational Materials), including distance learning materials developed with university support.
• Conflict of Interest/Outside Activities: Addition of text to 19.4 to clarify that: "A faculty member may assume tacit approval unless written disapproval is issued prior to the reported starting date. If it is later determined that the activity represents a conflict of interest, the faculty member must cease the activity, except as provided in 19.5 (b)."
• Sabbatical and Professional Development Leave: Revision of 22.4 to:
  • Remove the minimum word count on the required report.
  • Require that the report be submitted before accrual of time toward another sabbatical will commence.
• Salaries: Several revisions to Article 23, including:
  • A 3% across-the-board salary "retention adjustment" for most continuing faculty members (effective September 5th)
  • An increased cap (now up to 1% of the in-unit faculty salary base; over $1 million) on administrative discretionary salary increases, with more specific eligibility and documentation requirements, including a new category: "Equity adjustments to correct salary inversions and compression relative to rank and history of annual performance evaluations. For tenured or tenure-earning faculty members equity adjustments shall follow the principles set forth in the Market Equity and FSU Faculty Salaries Report of the Joint Study Group, dated January 24, 2007, and, for all faculty members, will be based on written criteria and procedures published by the dean of each college/unit and provided to the UFF Chapter at least 45 days before implementation.
  • Promotion raises of 9% or 12% for those promoted in 2008 (effective August 2008)
  • Several new categories of faculty awards

The complete draft agreement, and scans of the signed tentative agreements on the articles to be changed, are posted at http://www.uff-fsu.org/cbac/.