FEA has provided recommendations for school board races for Hillsborough and surrounding counties.

Hillsborough

• Damaris Allen (District 2), Hunter Gambrell (District 4), Karen Perez (District 6)

Pasco

• Megan Harding (District 5)

Pinellas

• Brad DeCorte (District 2), Brian Martin (District 6), Caprice Edmond (District 7)

Polk

• Sarah Fortney (District 3), Kay Fields (District 5), Sara Jones (District 6) and Justin Sharpless (District 6), Lisa Miller (District 7)

UFF has provided information that may be of use to you as we navigate educating our students this Fall under HB 7 and the creeping state censorship we must collectively rebuke. While we will stand together and defend each other, we cannot count on any legal or political cavalry come to save us. We must all stand up now if we want higher education in Florida to thrive. To quote Kamala Harris speaking at the NEA Representative Assembly in Chicago this past July, “Do not throw up your hands when it is time to roll up our sleeves.”

In summary, what you can do includes:

• Review UFF’s guidance on HB 7 and talk through it with colleagues. You are not alone! Work with colleagues in similar subject areas to strategize and build solidarity. UFF is a union of members getting together to support each other – collectively and in our daily work lives.
• Get involved in our Get Out the Vote campaign #UFFvotes. We must change our political landscape and protect public education and Florida’s higher education system.
• Donate to UFF’s Political Action Committee (do not use any employer resources to donate to political committees or candidates!).

UFF held a forum recently with the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. To access the recording of the livestreamed event “Working and Learning under State Censorship: Academic Excellence & Academic Freedom in Florida’s Colleges and Universities,” visit UFF’s YouTube Channel or UFF Facebook page.

Further, the ACLU, ACLU of Florida, and NAACP Legal Defense Fund are investigating the impact HB 7 will have on higher education in Florida. If you are interested in connecting with them about how the law will impact your courses, feel free to reach out to Jerry Edwards (jedwards@aclufl.org) at the ACLU of Florida.

It’s that time of year again. We hope you have a great 2022-23 academic year!

We had a well attended FUSA meeting today (7/22). In addition to the FUSA council, we had 60+ rank and file members join us for a review of bargaining and next steps. There was a request to share the bargaining team’s “Rationale for Economics,” i.e. FUSA’s argument for administration.

In addition, due to admin’s response to FUSA’s economic rational–offering only a permanent loss of step–the council approved forming a committee to explore holding a vote of confidence.

If you have any questions, please contact your campus FUSA representative.

You are invited to an emergency FUSA Council meeting this Friday, July 22nd, 12 – 1pm, via Zoom. We will share the outcome of last Friday’s Bargaining Session. It is in your very best interest to attend.

Check your inboxes for a message from the FUSA President with the Zoom link sent Tues 7/19/22.

FUSA will meet with Administration for contract negotiations on Friday, July 15, 2022, 9:00AM – 4:00PM. The session will take place in the Ybor City Campus Performing Arts Building, YPAB rooms 312 & 313.

Please join us June 24 at 9am on the Ybor campus in YFAC 226 for the last FUSA meeting of the 2021-22 academic year. It will also be Elizabeth Key-Raimer’s final meeting as FUSA President.

Some key takeaways from the NEA Special Report on Professional Pay in Higher Education (with data from NEA HE 2022 Salary Report):

• Full-time faculty represented by unions earned about $5,000 more in 2021 than their peers who work in the same states but don’t belong to unions. The difference is even bigger—a whopping $17,000—between union members and faculty working in states without faculty unions.
  
• At community colleges specifically, union faculty members earned an additional $18,000 in 2021, or 27 percent more than non-union faculty in the same states. (Over a 25-year career, the difference amounts to an additional $450,000.) At research universities, the union difference was $6,000.
  
• Like all educators, professors worked harder than ever in 2021, as they pivoted their classes online and attempted to support students who were dealing with all of the traumas of the pandemic. Meanwhile, faculty’s “purchasing power,” a measure of salary corrected for inflation, fell 1.3 percent between 2020 and 2021. In other words, despite their increasing work, faculty members felt like they had less money, not more.

Are you tired of Zoom meetings?

Well you are in luck, FUSA is returning to in-person meetings! This month’s meeting will be held May 27 at 9:00 am, on Ybor City Campus, YBOR 204. All faculty are invited to attend. We hope to see you there!

Take note of the following upcoming FUSA events:

You are invited to attend the FUSA Faculty Graduation Reception from 7:30-9:30am prior to commencement on 5/6. Breakfast will be available and our retiring faculty will be recognized.

On 5/13, the third of four planned bargaining sessions will occur between 10am-2pm at the Ybor Student Services building – YSSB 307 & 309/310. Come support the bargaining team as they advocate for you at the bargaining table.