Category: Minutes

Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.

Attendance. Nineteen members, including eleven members of the Council, and one staff member and two guests.

Minutes. Minutes for the 11 September meeting approved.

President’s Report & Essential Issues.

• Meeting with President Currall. Discussion.
• Opening School in Fall. Discussion.
• Townhalls. Discussion of Townhalls on layoffs, retirements, and multi-year appointments.

New Business.

• Survey of Faculty Attitudes During Fall. Report. Discussion.
• New Website. Update and discussion.

Committee Reports.

• Grievances. Discussion.
• Membership. Discussion.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Bargaining. Discussion.

These minutes respectfully submitted on 2 October 2020.

Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.

Attendance. Nineteen members, including eleven members of the Council, and one staff member and two guests.

Minutes. Minutes for the 28 August and 7 August chapter meetings approved.

President’s Report & Essential Issues.

• Local State of the Pandemic. Discussion.
• Consolidation. Discussion.
• Consolidation. Discussion.
• The MOU. Discussion.
• Diversity. Discussion of dissolution of the CAS Diversity Committee, and reports from The Oracle and The Tampa Bay Times.
• Enrollment. Up 1 %, but not evenly across all campuses.
• Financial Issues. The 2019 Florida Auditor-General’s report on USF on p. 34 indicates a raw “unrestricted net position” of $ 494 million with expected liability to that account of $ 706 million, leaving a liability of $ $ 218 million. Discussion.
  • Motion made and seconded that the USF Chapter of the UFF hire someone for up to $ 5,000 to conduct an audit to determine USF’s financial position. Motion approved.

New Business.

• Survey of Faculty Attitudes During Fall. Preliminary report. Discussion.
• College of Business. The College has posted a list of journals and requires publication in these journals. Discussion.
• Lauren Byers. Ms. Byers is the UFF state staff person assigned to USF, and her grandmother just died after an illness.
• New Faculty Handbook. The Chapter is reviewing a draft of a new faculty handbook.
• New Website. Update and discussion.

Committee Reports.

• Grievances. Discussion.
• Membership. Discussion.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Tenure and Promotion Workshops. An Extra will be sent out shortly.

Motion to approve the budget passed.

Bargaining. Nothing to report.

These minutes respectfully submitted on 13 September 2020.

Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.

Attendance. Seventeen members, including eleven members of the Council, and one staff member and six guests.

President’s Report & Essential Issues.

• Possible layoffs and furloughs. Discussion.
• Title IX training. Discussion.
• Consolidation. Discussion.
• MOU. Discussion.
• Diversity. Discussion.
• Enrollment. Up 1 %, but not evenly across all campuses.
• Survey. We will conduct a survey on how faculty are doing this fall.

New Business.

Committee Reports.

• Grievances. USFSP continues to generate grievances.
• Membership. We are conducting a recruiting campaign with the assistance of the NEA.
• Treasury. The following budget for the coming fiscal year was presented to the Chapter:

  • Items	Summary of Expenses Fiscal Year 2019-20	Proposed Budget Fiscal Year 2020-21
    Printing/photocopies (increase in the event of a new contract)	7,280.32	15,000
    Recruitment	10,098.29	12,000
    Meetings	7,647.65	6,000
    Travel (includes travel scholarships)	7,287.75	10,000
    Clerical Support	560	3,000
    Computing (includes web design)	949.69	3,000
    Postal Services (includes mailing new contract)	199.01	1,000
    Misc/supplies	732.64	5,750
    Bank fees	30	30
    TOTAL	34,785.17	55,780

  Motion to approve the budget passed.

• Bargaining. Nothing to report.
• Government Relations. The West Central Florida Federation of Labor has asked for volunteers to man phone banks for the fall election. Anyone interested should contact the Government Relations Chair.

These minutes respectfully submitted on 6 September 2020.

Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.

Attendance. 22 members, including eleven members of the Council, and one staff member.
Minutes of the Previous Meeting. 24 July 2020 minutes approved.

President’s Report.

• Greeting New Faculty. A glitch in HR has resulted in our not getting unit lists, including new faculty. We hope to rectify this soon.
• Reopening the University. Discussion of the situation.
• Consolidation. Some faculty are leaving USF.

New Business.

• Letter from Black Members of the USF Community. USF has appointed two black advisors.
• Fall Enrollment. The Administration anticipates flat enrollment this fall.
• Fall Schedule. The Chapter shall meet every other Friday, starting on August 28.
• Tenure & Promotion Workshops. There will be a workshop on October 9 from 9 am to 11 am.

Committee Reports.

• Grievances. We have a number of assignment disputes, particularly in USFSP.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Bargaining. The Chief Negotiator made a public documents request regarding documentation of discussions of layoffs, and has been advised that the cost will be $ 2,500.
  • Motion made and seconded that the Chapter allocate $ 2,500 towards this public documents request. Motion passes unanimously.
• Publicity. Working on two technical problems.
• Government Relations. The West Central Florida Federation of Labor has endorsed several candidates for the August 18 election.

These minutes respectfully submitted on 8 August 2020.

Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.

Attendance. Twenty members, including thirteen members of the Council, one staff member, and four guests.
Minutes of the Previous Meeting. 10 July 2020 minutes approved.

President’s Report.

• Reopening in Fall. Discussion of safety measures required for reopening in fall. We will invite the USF General Counsel to the August 7 Chapter Meeting. Discussion of the applicability of an old USF policy on bloodborne pathogens.

New Business.

• USF St. Petersburg. Many faculty do not know their assignments, which means the USFSP Administration missed the contract-mandated deadline for informing faculty of their assignments.

Committee Reports.

• Grievances. Discussion of assignment disputes.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Bargaining. The BOT has still not voted on ratifying the MOU. Discussion of the next round of bargaining.
• Membership. The Committee will compose a video for the new faculty orientation.
• Publicity. The Committee gave feedback on a proposed new website design.

These minutes respectfully submitted on 29 July 2020.

Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.

Attendance. 21 members, including nine members of the Council, and one staff member.
Minutes of the Previous Meeting. 19 June 2020 minutes approved.

President’s Report.

• Reopening in Fall. Discussion of the logistics of reopening in fall, discussion comparing USF’s Plan for Autumn 2020 promulgated by the Board of Trustees, and the UFF/FEA Higher Education Re-Opening Committee Guidelines.
• Letters on Black members of the USF Community. Discussion of various options for action.
• USF Finances. On top of budget cuts, the governor instituted a “holdback” of 6 % of allocated funds.

New Business.

• Teaching online. Scott Grizzard is developing videos on technology for online teaching, partially supported by UFF, USF, and the NSF. Three of these videos are posted on YouTube.
• The MOU. UFF USF employees voted to ratify the MOU. The ball is now in the BOT’s court.
• Website. The Chapter looked at two proposed logos, and provided feedback to the developer.
• USFSP. The software for assigning textbooks, Follett Discover, appears to be malfunctioning
• Letter in support of sexual victimization survivors. Some members of the Women and Gender Studies department have posted a letter supporting the #USFSurvivors Twitter hashtag, “where USF alums and current students were sharing their stories of sexual victimization at USF and various failures of response,” and calling on USF President Currall to “share his action plan on how USF will both respond to the survivors and move USF toward becoming environments free from sexual violence.”

Committee Reports.

• Grievances. Discussion of assignment disputes.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Bargaining. We need new members of the Bargaining Team, and we need to start bargaining a new CBA by August 1.

These minutes respectfully submitted on 11 July 2020.

Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.

Attendance. 18 members, including ten members of the Council, one staff member, and one guest.
Minutes of the Previous Meeting. 5 June 2020 minutes approved.

Essential Issues.

• The President’s Townhall Meeting. President Currall held a Townhall meeting on 19 June 2020. Discussion.
• Consolidation. Discussion of assignment problems.
• Letter from the CAS Diversity Committee. Discussion.

President’s Report.

New Business.

• Counting Ballots for the MOU. We anticipate receiving 400 ballots, and we should ask volunteers to help count them on Zoom channels.
• Website. We will need photographs, in particular, headshots of all Council members.
• USFSM. USFSM has small classrooms, no residence halls, and largely non-traditional students who commute from home. USFSM may be largely online this fall.
• USFSP. USFSP has residence halls and dining halls, and contracts for these uncertain. USFSP enrollment fell as consolidation proceeded. The situation is uncertain.

Committee Reports.

• Government Relations. Call for volunteers.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Bargaining. Bargaining is scheduled to begin in August. Discussion of prospects for layoffs. Discussion of F2F class assignments.

These minutes respectfully submitted on 21 June 2020.

Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.

Attendance. 26 members, including 13 members of the Council, one staff member, and one guest.
Minutes of the Previous Meeting. 22 May 2020 minutes approved.

President’s Report.

• Fall. Discussion of logistics of online, face-to-face, or hybrid classes. Discussion of class size: see Quality Matters posts on the subject (in general, see Quality Matters site.
• Consolidation. Discussion of Tenure and Promotion workshops.

New Business.

• Chapter Meetings. The Chapter anticipates a high probability that chapter meetings will be conducted online for the foreseeable future.
  • Motion made and seconded that the Chapter shall purchase a year subscription to Zoom. Motion approved.

Committee Reports.

• Bargaining. Discussion of bargaining items on the table. Discussion of the CBA language and the pandemic. The MOU is now before faculty for ratification.
• Government Relations. Josh Rayman has been appointed chair of the Government Relations Committee. Anyone interested in serving should contact him.
• Grievances. .
• Membership. .
• Publicity. The Publicity Committee has interviewed three candidates for redesigning the website and ancillary functions.
  • Motion made and seconded that the Chapter hire Trevor Collinson to redesign the website and ancillary functions Motion approved.
• Treasury. We are solvent.

These minutes respectfully submitted on 6 June 2020.

Upon President Shapiro’s nomination of Josh Rayman, and majority of the Council voted to confirm him as Grievance Chair.

Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.

Attendance. 23 members, including 13 members of the Council, and one staff member.

President’s Report.

• Fall. The Board of Governors will meet on May 28 just after 2:00 pm to discuss plans to open in fall. The UFF office in Tallahassee encourages us to attend.

New Business.

• The Pandemic. The Administration has sent out a survey of faculty to gauge faculty concerns. There seems to be a lot of faculty anxiety in the Bargaining Unit.

Old Business.

• Consolidation. Discussion of treatment of tenure and promotion packets from regional versus Tampa campuses.
• Government Relations. Reports on the recent meetings of the PCTA and UFF Government Relations committees. The USF Chapter will endeavor to form such a committee.

Committee Reports.

• Bargaining. Discussion of upcoming bargaining.
• Grievances. USFSP continues to generate a large number of grievances.
• Treasury. We are solvent.
• Membership. Discussion.
• Publicity. The Publicity Committee is conducting interviews with prospective web designers.
  • Motion made and seconded that the Chapter authorizes the President to offer up to $ 3,000 for a web design. Motion passes.

These minutes respectfully submitted on 9 May 2020.