by Nick Shrubsole | Dec 14, 2021 | Bargaining
Bargaining Session Dec. 15 @ 1:30pm
We will have another bargaining session on December 15, 2021 at 1:30pm. You can access the virtual meeting link here: https://events.ucf.edu/event/2279554/faculty-collective-bargaining/
This Bargaining Session is important, we encourage everyone to attend. Bargaining meetings at UCF are public, and more participation sends a message of our concern about our future contract. We have been trying to negotiate a raise for our bargaining unit in an environment of a higher cost of living and inflation that is eating away at our base salary. The administration has not budged beyond their original 2.5% offer. We submitted our salary proposal in February 2021 while continuing to bargain other articles, leaving the rest of the contract for later in the year, but UCF administrators said no: there would be no compensation until the entire contract is negotiated. Then, late in this bargaining sequence, the administration proposed article revisions that are unacceptable: they would change the nature of our work as we know it. Many of you are concerned about lawmakers in Tallahassee abolishing or changing the nature of tenure. So far, that threat is not at the capital but it is local; the administration’s proposed changes to the Disciplinary Article (16) with the right for UCF to have “discipline start with suspension or termination.” Our Bargaining Team will work hard to keep the rights we already enjoy and get the best compensation package we can during these full-book negotiations.
So, to protect our working conditions, we continue to fight. In the meantime, we have not gotten a raise since 2019 while other workers and administrators at UCF have received raises: the UCF Police received a well-deserved 3% raise in 2020, and President Cartwright received a $197,000 bonus last month. Like you, we would like to see raises sooner than later. So we need your support in making it clear to our administration that we care and are concerned.
Please come out to Bargaining on December 15 at 1:30pm and support our Bargaining Team.
You can access the virtual meeting link here: https://events.ucf.edu/event/2279554/faculty-collective-bargaining/
In Solidarity,
Robert Cassanello,
UFF-UCF, President
by Nick Shrubsole | Dec 8, 2021 | Leadership
New UCF Draft Travel Policies
There are 5 new draft policies that have been introduced. There are two on travel one to conform to FLA Legislation and the other about use of Concur services to book travel. Please look them over if you travel for work or research and then decide if you wish to provide a comment.
https://policies.ucf.edu/rfc.asp The place to comment is on the right hand part of this page the links below are the draft travel policies.
2-903.3, International Travel
https://policies.ucf.edu/rfc/2-903.3%20DRAFT%20International%20Travel.pdf
And
3-205.3 DRAFT Reimbursement for Travel Expenses
https://policies.ucf.edu/rfc/3-205.3%20DRAFT%20Reimbursement%20for%20Travel%20Expenses.pdf
If you wish to comment you have until December 16.
UF and Academic Freedom
Some of you have been emailing me about the scandal at the University of Florida concerning the pressure and influence the administration has taken in the freedom of professor to serve as expert witnesses and other state related research. The UF Faculty Senate is engaging in some research there to uncover the extent of these policies. https://www.highereddive.com/news/u-of-florida-stokes-climate-stifling-academic-freedom-faculty-senate-says/611095/
Also a group of professors from UF have organized into the Coalition for Academic Freedom to protest the measures taken against an education professor who used the words “critical” and “race” in their syllabus. You can read about it here.
https://www.alligator.org/article/2021/12/faculty-coalition-speaks-out?fbclid=IwAR3chZZEvlRsAgA8ENJ200Kwko8YTXvEUzLRN220ipZX_18C4BX-Df3nL58
You should know academic freedom is a right contained in the UCF Collective Bargaining Agreement and if you recall at the November 4th UCF Faculty Senate Meeting Senate Chair Joe Harrington confirmed that both Interim Provost Michael Johnson and VP of Compliance and Risk both confirmed that UCF has never stood in the way of stopping professors to act as expert witnesses even if it is against the state. You can see that here https://youtu.be/_S3jDdaR6zE?t=5661
FLA Legislative Updates
As I have reported the Georgia Legislature is considering a bill to reform tenure and now the South Carolina Legislature has introduced a bill to abolish tenure at public colleges in the state and replace that with a 5 year contract that can be renewed. https://www.highereddive.com/news/south-carolina-lawmakers-propose-ending-tenure-at-states-public-colleges/610483/
There still is no Tenure Draft Bill in the Florida Legislature with the intent to abolish or reform the conditions of tenure. At this point in the legislative calendar it is more unlikely to happen, however it is still possible for a lawmaker to introduce a new draft bill after the 2022 Legislative Session begins. I will keep you posted on this. If you want to hear about about the threat to tenure you can listen to the chapter podcast about it here titled “Episode 8 The Threat to Tenure or It’s Already a Five Alarm Fire People.” It covers the recent history of the threats to tenure since 1998. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Dawq-PlLE
The draft bills we have been following for you have not moved since I last reported on them. They have been filed so all or some can be taken up by the Legislature when they start meeting again in January of 2022. They are SB 666, HB 6077, SJR 192, SB 520, and SB 242/HB 57.
In Solidarity,
Robert Cassanello,
UFF-UCF, President
by Nick Shrubsole | Dec 8, 2021 | Bargaining
Bargaining Session Dec. 15 @ 1:30pm
Below is the UFF-UCF Bargaining Update. We will have another bargaining session on December 15, 2021 at 1:30pm. You can access the virtual meeting link here: https://events.ucf.edu/event/2279554/faculty-collective-bargaining/
The December 1 Bargaining Session
The December 1 Bargaining Session was eventful in that UCF is continuing to push many changes the BOT want to see in the contract all at one time. The nature of these changes, the number of changes and the tangible rights preserved in the contract UCF wishes to abolish makes us certain we will be bargaining this contract well into the spring. Unfortunately UCF has stated they will not agree to raises until the full contract is negotiated, otherwise we could deliver raises and one time payments while we negotiate the rest of the contract. Our (UFF’s) position is to negotiate the best working conditions possible, including salary. If you could not attend you can listen to the recording of the session here: https://www.collectivebargaining.ucf.edu/minutes/2021-2024FB/Audio/2021.12.01.wav
Article 23 Salaries
UCF responded to our previous proposal of a 3% raise with again a 2.5% counter. https://www.uffucf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/23BOT03120121.pdf Our bargaining team submitted a new proposal of a 3.5% raise paid for by reducing Administrative Discretionary Increases (ADIs) to a cost of 0.
https://www.uffucf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/23UFF04120121.pdf
We will hear their response at the December 15th session.
Article 17 Leaves
Also UCF wants to end the sick leave payout to employees hired the academic year following adoption of the contract (presumably fall 2022). What UCF wants to reduce in the Leave Article is a reduction of paid parental leave for 12-month employees from 16 weeks to 6 weeks. You can read their draft proposal for yourselves here. https://www.uffucf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/17BOT03111021.pdf
Article 16 Letters of Counsel Disciplinary Action, and Job Abandonment
UCF wants to reduce the time one can appeal a disciplinary action from 14 days to just 7 days. UCF also wants the following: “Employees who exhibit repeated examples of different types of misconduct may receive more severe discipline. Progressive discipline does not have to initiate with a written reprimand; if circumstances warrant, discipline may start with suspension or termination.“ This could be the end of progressive discipline if it can start with a suspension or termination, not letter of instruction or counsel preceding. You can read their proposal here. https://www.uffucf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/16BOT01120121.pdf
Article 22 Sabbaticals and Professional Development Programs
UCF wants to reduce the number of possible semesters available for Sabbaticals for Non Tenure Earning Faculty from the option of one semester or two semesters at three-fourths page to only one semester. Only 4 faculty members took Professional Development Leave yet UCF wants these changes because of only 4 people. https://www.uffucf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/22BOT04102721.pdf
Article 13 Layoff and Recall
UCF wants to change Layoff Considerations by moving tenure track employees into the category of non-tenured employees. Currently tenure track employees are categorized with tenured employees during layoff considerations. Please look over the UCF proposal here: https://www.uffucf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/13BOT02120121.pdf
Article 12 Non-Reappointment
UCF wants to introduce a secondary date for non-reappointment for non-tenured faculty. Currently non-reappointed faculty have to be notified by September 30, but UCF wants to add a secondary date of January 31 which could render September 30 irrelevant since both notices would result in the same termination date. https://www.uffucf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/12BOT03120121.pdf
Keep Yourself Informed
Our Bargaining Team is working hard to maintain the rights already in our contract. These articles represent the greatest challenge to us in these current full book negotiations. Please look them over and read over the language so you know how all this impacts you. Please reach out to us if you have any comments or concerns.
In solidarity,
Robert Cassanello
UFF-UCF, President
by Nick Shrubsole | Dec 2, 2021 | Leadership
I am here to communicate that there is a great deal of dissatisfaction among faculty and employees at UCF. I know at the last BOT meeting you spoke to and received data about the impact of the Great Resignation at UCF. I know we are expected to act and feel that the pandemic is over, but for many of us it doesn’t feel like it is over and for those that might not feel that way can’t ignore the scars from the last two years.
I am here because we have concerns about how UCF is spending funds. UCF has only spent 31.8% of HEERF (Higher Ed Emergency Relief Funding from the Federal Government); they are sitting on $112,364,913.77 of unspent funding.
Some of that funding is set aside to provide relief for employees during the pandemic. What we are seeing is UCF sitting on funds. This financial behavior has a long history of going back at least a decade. In years past the legislature punished UCF for stockpiling money for a raining day while hurricane force winds were blowing around us and they later stepped in to force UCF to spend down those funds.
More recently we saw UCF squirrel away funding and used said funding to build Trevor Colbourn Hall, an act which produced a financial scandal and brought down a president at UCF.
Sherry Andrews, Associate General Counsel at UCF, told us in a June bargaining meeting that UCF had a bad habit…a policy of making internal loans that weren’t really loans. She said this created a problem or a mess with their budget they had still not resolved.
Instead of using these federal COVID funds in improving instruction, or provide the means for faculty and employees to get through the pandemic, UCF is instead sitting on this funding.
What UCF employees need is direct relief as we are exiting the second year of the pandemic. The President and Provost of UCF have showered UCF Faculty and employees with praise and we have heard how proud they are of us, but talk is cheap. This funding can be used to support and help sustain faculty and employees, this was the intent of the funding and we expect UCF to use some of this federal funding directly on employees.
Many of us including my own household have taken deferring our student loans during the pandemic and that ends in January, let’s not forget the rising costs of goods and services, housing, home ownership all have gone up during the past year.
You rewarded the president for his hard work over the past year with a $197.000 bonus, I am sure that went a long way to make his household whole since the pandemic. None of us in this room and no one in the union wants President Cartwright to be visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past this coming holiday.
Higher Ed Emergency Relief Funding can be spent on direct aid to faculty and employees at UCF and we expect UCF to do so.
by Nick Shrubsole | Nov 17, 2021 | Bargaining, News
Article 23 Salaries Update
We want to thank all of you who joined us for the bargaining session on November 10. Over 130 people attended on Zoom. We responded with a 3% across the board raise and the Interim Provost said no to this at the end of the session. We have been told time and again by the President, Interim Provost and various Vice Presidents how much our work and efforts during the past two years of the pandemic are appreciated. We have heard your responses to UCF salary negotiations and we plan to respond at the next bargaining session on December 1 at 1:30pm. In order to transform UCF into a premier metropolitan university we think UCF needs to invest in the human capital already on campus, it is a matter of priorities. Due to the rise in prices including the cost of housing, food, energy and transportation the US Labor Department has confirmed that inflation is 5.4% higher than last year.
Since we have not gotten a raise since September of 2019 many of you have pointed out that the figures mentioned in our negotiations represent a salary decrease in real numbers and your lived experience. We hear you and we will work to get the best salary package we can. We will have a response to Article 23 Salaries at the December 1 bargaining session, I will share the link when UCF posts it on the Events Calendar in the coming week.
Legislative Update
SB 666: State University Student Fee Waivers-this is a draft bill that will waive fees for graduate students with full time appointments. It is currently with the following committees: Education; Appropriations Subcommittee on Education; Appropriations.
HB 6077: Postsecondary Intellectual Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity-this is a draft bill to repeal HB-233 legislation that is the “intellectual diversity” survey and initiative. It is with the Post-Secondary Education & Lifelong Learning Subcommittee.
SJR 192: Commissioner of Education: This is a draft bill to create an amendment to make the Commissioner of Education an elected position and cabinet member. It is with the Senate Ethics and Elections; Education; Rules.
SB 520: Public Records and Public Meetings: This draft bill would allow Presidential Searches to not be subject to sunshine state public records requests. It is in the Senate – Referred to Education; Governmental Oversight and Accountability; Rules.
There has been no movement on SB 242/HB 57 Racial and Sexual Discrimination or HB 6007: Licenses to Carry Concealed Weapons or Firearms since my last update.
Also there is no news on a draft bill to abolish or revise tenure with the Florida Legislature at this time. This is not to say it will not happen, but at the moment there is no draft bill circulating or anyone publicly seeking support for one. Right now only the Provosts at USF and UF are interested in revising tenure at their universities and distributing drafts of such a proposal on their campuses and other campuses.
Our Social Media Pages
Don’t forget to find us and join us on social media for more information and updates. We have a Twitter account. We have a public Facebook page and if you are member please join our private Facebook Group: to qualify you can go here.
In Solidarity,
Robert Cassanello,
President, UFF-UCF
