Post Tenure Cease and Desist Letter

UFF-UCF Post Tenure Review Cease and Desist Letter

We want to remind everyone that we (UFF-UCF) delivered a Cease and Desist letter to UCF concerning Post Tenure Review. Cease and Desist Letter PTR-1

We put UCF on notice that they cannot implement Post Tenure Review until it is successfully bargained. As such we expect UCF to comply with this notice. If a supervisor communicates with you that you need to prepare for Post Tenure Review, we are asking that you document this by email, send us a copy of that email to president@uffucf.org and we will follow up with UCF. Remember the only way we have this legal option is because we have a Contract (Collective Bargaining Agreement). As long as we are a certified union and recognized as the bargaining agent of faculty and other employees at UCF then we have this option concerning Post Tenure Review. Without a certified union our Cease and Desist Letter has no authority. If you want to do something about this, then join us and help keep our union.

AAUP Report on Florida

The AAUP released their Preliminary Report of the Special Committee on Academic Freedom and Florida. The full report is coming in the fall. The report notes that, “The Florida legislature has passed a series of bills that, taken collectively, constitute a systematic effort to dictate and enforce conformity with a narrow and reactionary political and ideological agenda throughout the state’s higher education system. These efforts grievously undermine basic and long-standing principles of academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance.”

Another conclusion of this report found that, “Academic administrators throughout Florida’s public university and college systems, from the highest to the lowest levels not only have failed to contest these attacks but have too frequently been complicit in and, in some cases, explicitly supported them. While some individuals are leaving as a matter of conscience, those who remain face the prospect of serving as pawns in DeSantis’s corrupt patronage system.”

Read the full report: AAUP Florida Report

JOIN the UNION

Decertification?

We have been getting questions about how we can avoid decertification and save our union. The easiest way is to be part of the 60% of concerned faculty. To help us and save our contract you need to get involved. You can join by clicking on the “Join UFF UCF” button on the right side of the home webpage.

UFF Fellows Program and Stewards Town Hall

UFF Fellows Program and Stewards Town Hall

Dear Members, I have two important announcements. If you are interested in one or both please follow up. We can only be a stronger union if we have members who are engaged and active in initiatives like these.

UFF Organizing Fellows Program

UFF is continuing their Organizing Fellows Program to help reach out to potential new members. Fellows will work from June 1-August 31 for 10 hours a week. Fellows will be paid $20 an hour for this work throughout the summer.

To apply to the program please go to the Fellows Application Link: https://forms.gle/4hF1dSvij6mJeaLP9

For any questions, please email Lauren Byers (lauren.byers@floridaea.org) and get your application in today!

Stewards Program Initiative 

Your leadership team will launch a Stewards Program in the fall. We will be looking for members to volunteer to be a local liaison or point person for the union in each unit/division across campus. What this means is that we will have a designated person in each department, school, and division that can answer questions, communicate with you locally, and assist in keeping members engaged and informed throughout the year.

To provide more information and answer questions about the Stewards Program we will be hosting a Stewards Virtual Town Hall on June 17, 2021 at 1:00 PM Eastern Time.

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://floridaea.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkdO2oqDgqH9cbi9lCCfjcJB9f-xgC1NaQ

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Robert Cassanello
UFF-UCF, President

Faculty Vaccinations

Faculty Vaccinations

I want to send this brief email out to all bargaining unit members to alert you that the Orlando Sentinel is reporting that staff at the Valencia College West FEMA site are vaccinating UCF faculty.

According to the article, “The federal COVID-19 vaccination site at the Valencia College West Campus in Orlando appears to have given vaccines to university professors if they showed their faculty ID card, according to a faculty member who received one.”

I don’t know if and how much of this is official but I thought this information is valuable to us as college and university faculty were left off the recent decision by the Governor and other state leaders to vaccinate us along with K-12 faculty.

I cannot confirm how long this will last but the article ends with this cautionary statement, “Regarding that site, FEMA spokesman Marty Bahamonde said the agency is looking into the claims, adding that the site and others should be following state and federal guidelines.”

According to the article and union members who have personally confirmed in email and texts to me that they have been successfully vaccinating at this site with only a UCF ID.

Valencia College, West Campus
1800 S Kirkman Rd, Orlando, FL 32811

Directions to Valencia West Campus are here.

In Solidarity,

Robert Cassanello
UFF-UCF President