UFF-USF

With the lawsuit filed by Bob Graham and Lou Frey (and later joined by the BOG), pending budget cuts, and talk of tuition hikes on the horizon, there needs to be some general discussion of university funding in Florida. As far as I can tell, there are six sources of revenue for universities:

• Public funding
• Tuition
• Donations
• Grants and contracts
• Auxiliary units
• Patents and licensing

You may consolidate some of these categories or split one or two, but that’s essentially it. Because the rough political consensus in Florida has been that undergraduate students pay approximately 25% of the costs of their education, raising student tuition even a significant amount can only pay for a modest increase in a university’s overall funding. At the consultation Wednesday, administrators confirmed that a 5% tuition hike in the spring would fill less than 1% of the 4% expected cuts, and I think the state’s university presidents made that point in front of legislative committees last week. Over time, larger hikes can change the funding mix, but it won’t reap a miracle.

The same modest change is possible growing endowments, but for a different reason: people give foundations money for specific purposes, and unrestricted endowment donations are less frequent than either I or foundation officers would prefer. The result is that unless there is a specific goal and donors willing to give money to something like a an endowment for sabbaticals or bridge funding*, increasing the endowment is less likely to benefit general faculty salaries than to raise the next library or provide a stipend to a small number of faculty in endowed chair positions. The library benefits everyone, but so does a stronger sabbatical and leave program and better general salaries.

Contracts and grants are important, but even indirect costs are short-term benefits, evanescent if hit rates decline. And a surprising amount of indirect costs are absorbed in animal care. And investigators are unhappy with how post-award administration works at USF.

So while I expect tuition to go up, and I’d love there to be a successful capital campaign that raises money for new library facilities and endowments for sabbaticals and bridge funding, any of those decisions can only be part of a broader mix to support higher education. A substantial part has to come from a more secure base of public funding.

UFF-USF – USF Board of Trustees Collective Bargaining Agreement 2006-2007

Vote on Your 2006-2007 Collective Bargaining Agreement at the union meeting on Friday, April 20, 2007, between noon and 1 pm, at Tampa campus in EDU 258 during the regular chapter meeting.

The United Faculty of Florida at USF and the USF Board of Trustees negotiators reached “tentative agreement” on the Salary Article and the Benefits Article of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on Friday, April 13, 2007. Additionally, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed that establishes a process to explore the development of a Paid Parental Leave program. See the text online at http://uff.ourusf.org/connections/REOPENER.doc.

All faculty and professional employees in the bargaining unit are eligible to vote to accept or reject the new CBA. If you vote “yes” to ratify, the new Agreement provisions will take effect immediately. Promotion Increases will be retroactive to 8/7/06, Merit Increases will be retroactive to 10/1/06, and Market Adjustment Increases will be retroactive to 1/2/07. Competitive Pay Increases have already been distributed.

If the unit votes “no” to ratify, negotiators must return to the bargaining table to renegotiate an agreement which is satisfactory to you. The UFF bargaining team and executive officers urge you to vote “yes” on this new CBA. A large faculty vote will convey to the Board of Trustees that we, the faculty, are seriously interested in our professional futures.

Due to the protracted process of bargaining this contract, timeliness in ratification is important if employees are to receive the salary increases before the end of this spring 2007 semester. For this reason, all voting will take place at the next meeting of the UFF-USF Chapter, from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2007 at Tampa campus EDU 258.

Much of our past Agreement has remained in place, and the complete text of the proposed changes to the Agreement is available online.

The proposed Agreement affects the terms and conditions of employment for Faculty, Librarians, and Other Bargaining Unit Members, and the Highlights are as follows:

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