President's Message

Mitch Silverman

As most of you know the legislature, with the cooperation of the Governor, has decided to completely revamp the organization that governs education in Florida. Many of the ramifications of this restructuring will only become apparent in the future. However, unless there is a dramatic turn of evens there are certain outcomes that have to be dealt with in the time between the present and when the new structure is implemented in 2003. Even though there appears to be a substantial amount of time to plan for the consequences of reorganization, if we do not start developing plans immediately 2003 will be upon us and we will be in a worse crisis than we are at present. Therefore there are a number of tasks that the union can deal with immediately.

First, we must strenghten the membership of the union. One of the main issues that is going to arise is the amount of strength that we have when we enter into collective bargaining with the group who is designated as the new board of trustees. Unless a majority of the faculty in the designated units are union members we are operating from a position of weakness. Since it appears that Governor Bush will be in office when these appointments are made, there is a high probability that the new boards will be party regulars with a decidedly conservative point of view.

We should not expect these individuals to have a pro-collective bargaining point of view. Therefore, we have to operate from a position of strength in numbers.

Second, we must start immediately to train collective bargaining teams so that we will be prepared to negotiate with the new boards as they are appointed. Typically, we negotiate a new contract every three years with certain areas of the contract being subject to review and revision on a yearly basis.

The year 2000 is one of the years in which the whole contract is subject to negotiation. However, since the timetable for dismantling the BOR is two and a half years we don't know what the time limits for the new contract are going to be. One fact stands out is that the new boards will not have the same expertise that the BOR has had in labor negotiations.

We will be subject to the whims and biases of local political appointees who may have little if any knowledge about the mission of a research university. Furthermore, it would be unwise to assume that such indidviduals would have an understanding of the reasons underlying academic freeom and tenure.

Last, faculty must be made aware that the most important reasons for having a contract is not amount of raises that are or are not given out every year. The central purpose of having a contract is to protect basic ideals of due process, job protection from political pressure and coercion, and the free exchange of ideas. Without a contract administrators who often owe their careers to the very political forces impinging on the university will dictate the interpretation of these basic ideals. The recent presidential serarches at USF and Florida and the manner in which they were carried out provide ample evidence how such pressures are brought to bear on university matters.

In closing, if you are in the bargaining unit you will be contacted during the Fall semester about becoming an active particiapant in developing and

protecting the bargaining process. For those of you who have taken the contract for granted don't wait until you no longer have it to protect you and the university. Get active and join now.

Someone ought to do something

by Greg McColm

Many faculty tend to take the contract for granted.

Every three years, a small team of faculty volunteers --- yes, volunteers --- negotiate a new contract with the Board Of Regents (BOR). It happens so invisibly, most faculty don't even notice that the contract was renegotiated. This kind of quiet work touches more than just the BOR/UFF contract, for we rely on volunteers to join the union and run it.

But there are two difficulties for a union that relies on volunteers.

First of all, while blood banks and public television can survive with minority support, the union's negotiating position depends on majority

support from faculty. If only a fraction of the faculty support the union, the union's negotiating position is a fraction of what it could be. And of course, the union can afford to do only a fraction of what it could do if more faculty paid their dues.

Second, lots of jobs need to get done. The union needs stewards to track job-related problems and maintain communication with the faculty. The union needs a bargaining team to negotiate the contract. The union needs grievance officers to enforce the contract. And the union needs other volunteers to do the various chores that the union needs done, from internal paperwork to the treasury to this newsletter.

The problem is: most faculty rely on other faculty to join, and to volunteer. Its the old Tragedy of the Commons problem: we all want SOMEONE to maintain the Commons (the union, a litter-free park, decent schools, honest government) and we all presume that someone ELSE will do the maintaining. If the Commons is not in good repair, SOMEONE (meaning SOMEONE ELSE) ought to do SOMETHING. So if not enough faculty support the union, the union can't do very much, faculty get disheartened, and not enough faculty support the union.

The union fights this vicious circle by arguing like an insurance salesman: You may think that you won't be evaluated for duties that weren't assigned, you may think that you won't be denied promotion without justification, you may think that you won't be penalized for presenting politically unpopular ideas in class, but these things do happen, so to make sure that your rights are protected if it does happen ... . And the union offers free grievance support, free teaching insurance, cheap lunches, and even credit cards. This is a good effort, but it comes down to personal responsibility. The union represents YOU when it negotiates YOUR contract.

And most of all, the union itself is composed of FACULTY WHO ARE TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN CONTRACT.

This is especially important during the next few years. As the Board of Regents slowly winds down, it will be replaced by new negotiators out to show how rough and tough they are --- out to remake

the pecking order. We are in for an immense pecking match, and if we want to make sure that we don't get pecked, we are going to have to stand up for ourselves.

And that is what it is all about. Contrary to what some politicians and administrators may claim, we faculty are not children. We are adults. And adults do not let others stand up for them. Adults stand up for themselves.

Announcing ...

We have moved. Our URL has changed: we are now at http://w3.usf.edu/~uff.

SUS Reorganization workshop. Although the new system replacing the Board of Regents will not be in place until 2003, the time to start planning is now. What will happen, what might happen, and how we should prepare for it. The workshop will be on September 20, time and place TBA (check our webpage).

Tenure and Promotion Workshop. We will be holding another T & P workshop this year. Preparing for tenure and promotion, preparing the T & P packet, and navigating the process. The workshop will be on October 11, T & P TBA.

UFF Senate. The UFF Senate will meet in Tampa this Fall. The USF Chapter will be represented by the Chapter President and the Senators (and some Alternate Senators): see the list of Chapter officers on the website.

Chapter Meetings. This academic year, the chapter meetings will be on each payday Friday, from noon to somewhat after one, in SOC 351. Lunch is sandwiches and soda pop, for a buck. Come and join the movement.