Petition Drive to Change Governance

by Nancy Jane Tyson

In January, 2001, U.S. Senator Bob Graham spearheaded an Education Excellence for Florida (EEF) initiative to replace the current chaotic system of university governance with a new structure constitutionally protected from political interference. The United Faculty of Florida has endorsed and supports the EEF initiative because the UFF believes it to be even better than the previous BOR system.

These are what UFF considers the EEF initiative's principal advantages from a faculty perspective:

A central Board of Governors will oversee the State University System. Currently the Florida Board of Education (FBOE) governs all of education from kindergarten through post-doctoral studies, with no intermediary board between the FBOE and the local Boards of Trustees (BOT).

An elected voting faculty representative (Senate President) will sit on the Board of Governors and each Board of Trustees, a position Florida faculty have never previously held.

Members of the state Board of Governors and the local Boards of Trustees will serve staggered seven- and five-year terms, for greatly improved stability. As it now stands, the absence of constitutional protection, along with the Governor's ability to dismiss Trustees for unspecified “cause,” would permit restaffing the BOTs each time a new Governor takes office.

The petition is available at the EEF web site at <http://www.edexflorida.org/> in .pdf format. The EEF initiative is halfway to its goal of 488,722 signatures required to get onto the November ballot. Interested Florida voters may download the petition and sign (or make copies and get colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors to sign). The return address is on the form.

The deadline for signatures is June 1.

The recent challenge to the faculty's academic freedom and due process rights at USF has dramatized the dangers of the Florida reorganization and the repressive mercantile and political impulses behind it. It has also increased support for the amendment campaign among academics and other educated people. But the UFF is confident that the general public will approve it as well. Last summer, three marketing surveys were conducted to perfect the petition wording. With three separate test groups, the results rose from 80% not favoring in the first poll to more than two-thirds favoring in the third. The more it was discussed, the more they favored it.

This suggests that if the EEF initiative gets on the ballot, it will pass.

However, in anticipation of vigorous resistance from the monied opposition, the campaign needs your support. The address for contributions is: Education Excellence for Florida, P.O. Box 13472, Tallahassee, FL 32317. For further information, contact Nancy Jane Tyson, USF EEF Coordinator, Dept. of English, CPR 107, 974-9532, or email <njtyson@tampabay.rr.com>.

Tracking the Al-Arian Controversy

The United Faculty of Florida is helping defend Professor Al-Arian's academic freedom and due process rights. A violation of any professor's tenure rights is a threat to tenure itself.

The UFF is maintaining a website,

<http://w3.usf.edu/~uff/AlArian/>,

for anyone who wants to follow events. Comments are appreciated!

Its Election Time!

With Spring comes the annual elections for USF Chapter officers of the UFF. The elected officers are: the President, the Vice President, the Treasurer, the Secretary, and the seven additional Senators (who go to the biannual UFF Senate meeting). The three Senators who get the most votes will also be appointed Delegates to the Florida Education Association (and go to that annual meeting).

All and only UFF members may make nominations, vote and serve. Nominations must be received by the Election Chair, Surendra Singh, EDU 162, by 12:30 pm March 8. Candidates should also submit a ½-page candidacy statement.

Ballots, for contested offices, will then be sent out by mail, and must be received (in order to be counted) by March 25.

Bargaining Update

The ultimate purpose of a union is to negotiate and enforce a contract. Every three years, UFF would negotiate a new contract with the Board of Regents, and then during the other years, the outstanding contract would be updated in mini-bargaining.

The current contract was only negotiated for two years (the BOR was disappearing), and is scheduled to run out some time next year. Meanwhile, the mini-negotiations last Fall got nowhere. The BOR was gone, and the Board of Education negotiators offered no raises (not even for promotions), except for those at their discretion. They also offered some bonuses (which would not change base pay).

UFF asked for cost of living increases, departmental merit increases, the usual promotion raises, and some money for special problems like counteroffers, increased duties, market equity ... .

When the BOE said take it or leave it, UFF declared `impasse.' (UFF also declared impasse when the BOE refused to add sexual orientation to the list of prohibited discriminations.)

Impasse means that an outside and presumably impartial Special Master hears both sides and then proposes a compromise. Then both sides can either accept the compromise, or settle it themselves, or ... go to the Legislature.

The Special Master has proposed:

Salary. A cost of living increase of 1.5 %, performance bonuses (averaging to 1 % of pay), and the standard promotion pay raises.

Non-discrimination. The Special Master found no "broad compelling public interest" for adding sexual orientation to the list of forbidden discrimininations listed in Article 6.

And now both sides are thinking about their next moves.

This is not reasoned debate. This is a chess game. And faculty get what UFF can win.

Consultation

Periodically, officers of the UFF meet with USF adminstrators in a consultation to discuss important issues and concerns. Lots of things are happening, and in a forthcoming consultation, possible topics include the employee assistance program, the art education program, and summer school. Any additional topics are welcome, and all UFF members interested in participating are invited to contact President Roy Weatherford (<roy@chuma.cas.usf.edu>).