Faculty Senate Report on University Welfare

Report on University Welfare for Faculty Senate, September 19^th, 2012

By Professor Jack Fiorito, Senator and UFF-FSU President

Good afternoon!  In view of the late hour and that we have already had a report on collective bargaining from President Barron, I will try to be brief.

Collective Bargaining

As President Barron suggested, budget cuts and the political environment have made for a difficult bargaining environment.  Since last spring we have held consultations with President Barron and Provost Stokes twice and held weekly meetings with the Administration/Board of Trustees bargaining team. 

In fact, I just came from a bargaining session that is still in progress, so I found President Barron’s comments particularly interesting.  There seems to be some contradiction between President Barron’s remarks and what I just heard from the Admin/BOT team.  Last year we talked at length about President Barron’s desire to build a culture of merit, but the Admin/BOT team just told our UFF faculty team that they would not consider our proposal for merit raises.  We will need to work on improving communications. 

There are numerous and complex issues under discussion.  These include academic freedom, performance evaluation, promotion, tenure, the salary plan for professors, benefits, and specialized faculty (NTTF) reclassification.  The working document on specialized faculty alone runs 44 pages and involves numerous changes to our contract.  The faculty team has continued to push for changes recommended by the Faculty Senate, including improved employment security for specialized faculty.  Discussions of the salary article include promotion raises.  As previously stated, the UFF faculty team has offered to sign off on the Admin/BOT proposal on promotion raises, but the Admin/BOT team has insisted on tying that proposal to Administrative Discretionary Increases.  The only new condition in the faculty team’s counterproposal on promotion raises is retroactivity to the promotion date.

McRorie Luncheon on September 26th

We are pleased to feature Vice President Sally McRorie as our special guest at next Wednesday’s UFF-FSU luncheon.  All Senators are welcome.  Lunch is free for UFF members and their guests, and $12 for others.  The luncheon is at 12:30pm on Wednesday, September 26^th in the Florida Room at the Oglesby Union.

Questions?   Thank you for your time.