UFF/USF Chapter Meeting
March 7, 2008
In attendance: J. Martin, M. Klisch, B. Welker, S. Wohlmuth, E. Mitchell, M. Moats, J. Noonan, R. Kaplan, H. Hechiche, S. Tauber, L. McBrien, S. Dorn, E. Odgaard.
The meeting convened at 12:05 p.m.
Adoption of the Agenda: The agenda was adopted as presented.
St. Petersburg Meeting Reminder:
The next USF/UFF meeting on March 21, 2008, will be on the St. Petersburg campus. Exact location will be announced later.
Budget Situation/Legislative Agenda:
Ed Mitchell, Executive Director of United Faculty of Florida, spoke to the chapter about the budget situation, saying there was “no good news.†The state’s education system and in particular, higher education, is paying for Jeb Bush’s cutting taxes. Of the one half billion cut, higher education’s cuts are disproportionate. But the really bad news is next year when even more must be cut. He then talked about the attempt of the state senate to take away the power of the Board of Governors to set tuition rates and other of their powers. Any attempts must pass by a 3/5 vote of the legislature and then any amendment to the state’s constitution must pass by a 60% majority of the citizens voting if it comes to that. There was much discussion on whether or not the chapter should take a stand on this issue; if so, in what way?
Votes:
Those present who were eligible to do so (not in the running for one of the 4 chapter offices), helped prepare the votes for counting, and tally them on sheets for later tabulation. This took the remainder of the meeting, as the bargaining team was to meet with the University Bargaining team at 2 p.m.
Bargaining Session:
S. Dorn asked that all those who could please attend the bargaining session that was taking place at 2 p.m. in SVC 2070.
The meeting adjourned at 1:36 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Jana Martin.