UFF-USF

Now that we know the latest figures, according to the data USF submitted to the American Association of University Professors, we can measure our discontent with salaries: 2.1%. That’s how much salaries rose from last year, the mean raise for faculty who continued at USF this year. USF faculty raises this year are much less than they were two years ago (4.9%) and were less than raises this year for Hillsborough Community College (3%) and K-12 teachers in Hillsborough County (8%). I suspect that if we looked at raises since 2001, USF’s faculty raises would be much less than at HCC, where the starting salary for someone with just a masters degree rose 54% in a six-year period.

Lower raises for faculty at USF have consequences for the institution: lower morale and higher turnover. When the USF Board of Trustees approved a new strategic plan, the goals were lofty: meeting admissions criteria to the elite Association of American Universities. The vast majority of that work has to be done by faculty and by the majority of faculty. There is no way to meet the needs of the faculty and the university without higher pay. Without meeting the needs of faculty, the goals of the Board of Trustees will go unmet.

We have already seen the erosion of the educational environment this year with substantially increased class sizes for several dozen classes. The federal budget for research grants is not going to increase, which means that hit rates will drop in many programs. Most faculty will work their tails off, as they usually do, but without a significant pool of money for faculty raises, many will also leave, leaving more work for the rest of us.

Four years ago, then-Faculty Senate President Liz Bird argued that low salaries were threatening USF’s future. For a few years, salaries rose faster than inflation. But now that raises lag inflation, we need to remind our community, our legislators, and our Board of Trustees that low faculty salaries still threaten USF’s education and research environment.

A few years ago at a statewide UFF governance meeting (the UFF senate), I saw a senator from another campus wearing a threadworn t-shirt with the caption, “United Mindworkers of Florida.” It was a play on the phrase “united mineworkers,” but it makes the point that what we do as faculty is work. In a month when U.S. News and World Reort called faculty jobs “cushy” and ABC news anchor Charlie Gibson implied that the faculty at a small Benedictine liberal-arts college in New Hampshire must make $100,000, it’s evident that someone needs to remind the general public (or at least sloppy journalists) that successful faculty members often work 50-60 hour weeks.

Reading the grim budget news from the state of Florida makes that role of the United Faculty of Florida even more important. Legislators will want the state budget to be strategic. Unless we remind them that the faculty are the strategic resource in the state university system, they might think of flashy programs, initiatives with catchy acronyms, and the like. Part of the role of the United Faculty of Florida is public advocacy. Three years ago, we fought back a bill that threatened academic freedom. This year, we will need to focus on the state budget, reminding the legislature that investing money in universities and university faculty is one of the most efficient use of resources the state can make.

Sometimes the value of higher education is lost in the discussion over tuition. A recent study by the College Board, Education Pays, confirms what all such studies have been saying for several years: Higher education more than pays for itself in direct economic benefits: lifetime income of college graduates who pay taxes, employees with pensions funds in retirement and health insurance with employment who do not require expensive social services, and increased relocation of businesses to states that have an educated population.

The lobbyists our dues pay for will help convey that message, but paid lobbyists are more effective when we work as constituents. Call your legislators’ offices today, before the legislative session starts. Make an appointment to talk with your representative or senator to explain what you do, why focusing the state’s resources on higher-education faculty is a great use of state funds, and why that is even more important in hard budget years. Make sure that our legislature understands how hard we work and how much that makes a difference in the lives of USF students and the state.

Data submitted by USF to the American Association of University Professors shows the raises for continuing faculty slipping dramatically in two years, from 4.9% in 2005-06 to 2.1% for faculty this year. This slip happened for faculty at all ranks, and for both 9- and 12-month faculty. See the attached PDF file for more details.

USF faculty raise data, 2005-06 through 2007-08

The January 11 chapter meeting will be in Tampa starting at noon (I need to confirm the room #). The January 25 chapter meeting will be on the Lakeland campus in LTB 1121.

For directions to the Lakeland campus, click here.

In the Democratic presidential debate last night at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, moderator Charlie Gibson asked a question of Hillary Clinton about two college professors making more than $100,000 (from the NY Times rush transcript):

MR. GIBSON: If you take a family of — if you take a family of two professors here at Saint Anselm, they’re going to be in the $200,000 category that you’re talking about lifting the taxes on. And — (laughter).

MR. EDWARDS: I don’t think they agree with you.

SEN. OBAMA: I’m not sure that that’s — (laughter) –

SEN. CLINTON: That may be NYU, Charlie.I don’t think it’s — (laughter) — Saint Anselm.

Senator Clinton is absolutely right. According to the AAUP salary survey data on St. Anselm, the mean salary for full professors at the college in 2006-07 was $77,400, and the mean salary for assistant professors was $49,600, about half of what Gibson assumed. (Clinton was underestimating the average full-professor salary at NYU, which was $149,500 in the AAUP survey. It’s probably close to $100K if you look at faculty overall.)

Gibson’s hypothetical shows an amazing ignorance of higher education, especially small private colleges.

At USF, the AAUP survey reports that full professors outside medicine made on average about $100,000 in 2006-07, but that hides considerable variation by discipline (music and English professors don’t make anywhere close to that). To put that into a national perspective, among Research I institutions, USF salaries for assistant, associate, and full professors rank in the fourth quintile, with more than 60% of research institutions paying more than USF does.

The United Faculty of Florida is conducting an election for the statewide office of UFF First Vice President. The elected candidate will fill the vacant office and serve the remaining term through August 14, 2009.

Two versions of the nomination form are attached. The file named “UFFVP-Fill-in-Nomination.pdf” has fill-in boxes that the member may type into and then print. The file named “UFFVP-print-Nomination.pdf” is a “camera-ready” document that you may use to reproduce multiple paper copies to distribute (has no visible fill-in boxes).

• UFFVP Fill-in nomination form
• UFFVP Print nomination form