Welcome Back

Dear <<FIRSTNAME>>,

As we begin the new academic year, I would like to extend to you a warm welcome on behalf of our chapter of the United Faculty of Florida. In this, the first of our 2012/13 newsletters, you will find a number of things I think will be of interest to you. UFF's state-wide president, Tom Auxter, shares a new report on the effect the dramatic reduction in state support combined with increasing tuition is having on students, their families, and the economic health of the state. In future issues, we will keep you informed of what we may expect from a legislature not notably friendly to higher education and what UFF is doing to respond to the threats that face us. In this issue you will also find news about the negotiations for a successor contract to the current one that expires next spring, as well as information on how to join UFF if you are not already a member and how to get more involved if you are.
 
I hope you will have a productive and enjoyable year.  I would be pleased to hear from you if you have any questions or comments about what UFF-UF is doing to protect your rights and improve our working conditions.
 
John Biro
President, UFF-UF and Professor of Philosophy
president@uff-uf.org

Bargaining Update

Submitted by John Leavey, Chief Negotiator and Professor of English

UFF-UF's bargaining team has been meeting regularly with the Board of Trustees (BOT) negotiators towards agreement on a successor contract to the one expiring in 2013. We believe that we are making good progress towards agreement on a strong contract that protects faculty rights and provides improved benefits, and the shared hope of the two parties is to complete negotiations by as early as the end of this year. Meanwhile, tentative agreement has been reached on allowing this year's Salary Performance Program (SPP) and discretionary raises to go forward immediately upon ratification of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Continue Reading >

Grow Our Membership

Submitted by Leah Rosenberg, Chair, Membership Committee and Associate Professor of English
 
If you already are a member, please consider joining our membership effort. By speaking to just a few of your colleagues you can strengthen UFF at UF by helping us achieve majority membership. Contact Leah Rosenberg at membership@uff-uf.org or complete our online form.

UFF member benefits include:

• professional representation in the grievance and arbitration process
• $1,000,000 of professional liability coverage
• representation at the BOT and the Florida Legislature
• state and national organization membership benefits

Learn more about Member Rights and Benefits on our website.

Cuts to Higher Education Threaten Florida’s Economic Growth

Submitted by Tom Auxter, UFF Statewide President

In just three years Florida’s higher education funding per student decreased by 40 percent, according to a new report by national public policy center Demos and the Florida-based Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy (RISEP). As a direct result, Floridian families now spend 25% of median income on the cost of a single year of attendance at a public four-year college. The situation is only looking grimmer, with the recent $300 million cut to public four-year universities. This new report, “Florida’s Great Cost Shift,” provides new data, warning that extreme cuts to higher education will both cripple Florida’s middle class and hamstring Florida’s ability to meet the demands of tomorrow’s workforce and rising senior population. In coming decades, Floridians will increasingly be shut out from the middle class as higher education degrees become increasingly required but farther out of reach. Today nearly two-thirds of Floridians do not have a bachelor’s or associate’s degree and only 43 percent are projected to hold a higher education degree by 2025 This is unsustainable for Florida, where the fastest growing industries are requiring a higher education degree. Continue Reading >

Potential Closing of Microfabritech

We want to focus your attention on two recent items in the Gainesville Sun about the significant budget cuts to, and potential closing of, UF’s successful Microfabritech research facility in the College of Engineering. According to Mark Davidson, Research Assistant Scientist at Microfabritech, it is the only regional facility that provides rapid, all-in-one approach to production of early stage proof-of-concept prototypes such as those required for technical business startups or for many federal research contracts involving more advanced technologies. The group not only helps put together that rough-and-tumble demo, they teach people how to rapidly do so, … Continue Reading >

Current Research in Higher Education

Submitted by UFF-UF’s Current Research in Higher Education Working Group

This new column for the UFF-UF newsletter and website will report on and share peer-reviewed scholarly research findings about teaching, research, and administrative climates in higher education. The aim of this column is to bring empirical research to bear on discussions about the life of the University of Florida professoriate. Each newsletter, we will share one or two recent articles or books, and provide citations for interested readers to access the full publications. The column editors welcome suggestions of research and contributions from all UFF-UF members (email currentresearch@uff-uf.org).
 
We begin with an invitation to UFF-UF members to discuss how faculty can address the changing needs of students in a restricted-funding climate for higher education. The background for this discussion is an increasing and multidisciplinary body of scholarship that is examining the rise of so-called “neoliberal” thought and accompanying free-market-style management policies in the administration of universities. (A March 8, 2009 editorial by Stanley Fish in the New York Times gives one bird’s-eye view of this discussion.) Much of this research demonstrates the different vocabularies and assumptions that public and private management systems have towards undergraduate and graduate education. Continue Reading >