Did You Know?

The UNF chapter of the United Faculty of Florida has decided to provide its members and nonmembers alike with brief factual tidbits (Did You Know?) designed to inform faculty of their rights and to engage faculty and administration in fruitful discussions on issues related to our work and our shared goals. The information conveyed in these segments more often than not directly relates to the performance of faculty members’ contacted duties.

These Did You Know segments arise from the questions and issues that the union confronts on a regular basis. Many of the topics in the Did You Know? messages are designed to dispel misconceptions promulgated by ignorance of the CBA, the law, or common institutional practices.

Summer Requirements

The assignment of a course during a summer term does not include other credit-generating activities such as thesis or dissertation supervision, directed individual studies, supervised teaching or research/scholarship, or supervision of interns. No faculty member shall be required to undertake such activities without compensation. Furthermore, faculty members who have not been assigned a summer course shall not be required to undertake committee work without compensation. Summer Office Hours. Faculty members shall maintain not less than two (2) office hours per week for the first course they are assigned to teach during the summer and one (1) office hour per week ...
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Union Membership Helps you Save Money!

UFF members are automatically members of NEA, AFT, and FEA, and get access their benefits programs.

$1 million employment liability coverage
Two free 30-minute consultations with a participating attorney each year.
Free financial planning services and consumer information
Free classroom resources
Special rates on auto and home loans, mortgages, auto and home insurance policies, and disability insurance
Discounts on hotels, auto buying, car rentals, moving costs, cellular phone plans, computers, books and media, dining, theme park tickets, movie tickets, and pet insurance.
Scholarship programs for members’ children.
The Union Plus credit card. After 3 months as a cardholder, you ...
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Union Dues may be Tax Deductible

As an UFF-UNF member, your dues are typically deducted from your paycheck and are considered after-tax deductions, meaning tax is withheld from your paycheck before your dues are paid. Please consult with the IRS and your tax specialist to find out about the union dues tax deduction. Note: Union dues may only be deductible if you itemize on Schedule A, but not if you take the standard deduction. To find out if you qualify for a deduction, you need to calculate your AGI (Adjusted Gross Income), as well as all unreimbursed employee expenses (see link). Your union dues may be ...
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AA Policy: Former Administrators Keep Their Salary When They Go Back to Faculty Roles

Former administrators retain the rate of pay they received as administrators even after they have returned to their non-administrator faculty roles. Typically, former administrators keep all or a portion of the stipend they received for their administrator role (depending on length of service) and the only adjustment to their former administrative salaries is that they are adjusted to 9 months rather than 12. This results in former administrators being paid significantly more than their departmental same-rank peers. In addition, former administrators are usually awarded a one-semester sabbatical at full administrator pay before returning to their faculty roles. According to the ...
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UFF Strongly Encourages all Departments to Develop Guidelines

The current UNF-UFF Collective Bargaining Agreement, covering academic years 2014-2015 through 2016-2017 refers to the existence of a within-discipline standard for the purposes of promotion and tenure at UNF. UFF encourages all departments to develop discipline-specific guidelines or merely state what other standards are to be used within their academic unit. For example, departments that do not chose to develop their own set of guidelines are encouraged to refer to those published by leading professional organizations in their field. Not having any discipline-specific guidelines leaves promotion and tenure decisions entirely at the discretion of administration, without feedback from departmental faculty ...
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Processes for Establishing Guidelines for Evaluation and Promotion

Article 9.7 of the CBA states that each department may adopt guidelines for evaluation and promotion. The faculty and chair may prepare draft guidelines and distribute them to all faculty for review and comment, and ultimately a vote. Deans are allowed 30 days to ensure the guidelines “comply with the [CBA] and the mission and goals of the University”, then approve them or return to the department for revision. Provided the department responds to the Dean’s comments within 60 days, the Dean does not have the power to modify the guidelines. Once the faculty, chair and Dean are in agreement, ...
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Political Activity Do’s and Don’ts for Faculty

We each have the Constitutional right to the freedom of speech and free association, although when exercised in the course of public sector employment, the courts have placed restrictions on our First Amendment free speech rights. As public employees, we have additional Constitutional protections in the workplace that those in the private sector may not enjoy. In-unit faculty are also protected by the provisions in our Collective Bargaining Agreement in regards to our Constitutional rights and the right to due process for disciplinary action (see Articles 27 and 30). Nevertheless, as an employee of a public university in the state ...
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UFF work counts as service

You don’t need to be an Officer or Senator (our elected positions) to serve on a UFF committee. Just contact UNF-UFF President John White (j.white@unf.edu) and let him know you would like to participate. Shared governance with UFF makes a tangible difference in the lives of faculty and therefore our students and University. Our current committees are:

Bargaining – You can get involved in negotiating our contract (CBA). You don’t necessarily have to sit at the negotiation table to participate. We always need observers to the negotiation process and people willing to help with research and campaigns for certain ...
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Working towards supporting contingent faculty

UFF is a member of the Florida Education Association (FEA), which represents 137,000 teachers in Florida. Additionally, we are members of two nation-wide unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), representing millions of teachers. The National Education Association (NEA) recently launched a challenge to the US Department of Labor about the poor treatment of contingent faculty at public universities and the inability of many of these faculty to qualify for unemployment benefits. In a June 2015 letter to Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, the NEA cited a recent report about contingent faculty by ...
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Budget Reserves

The Florida Auditor General’s Report No. 2016-175 Financial Audit (March 2016) (page 43) reveals that UNF computes the total pension liability by assuming that UNF employees (including faculty) receive an annual increase in salary of 3.5% (including an inflation adjustment of 2.6% percent). The result is that the total amount put into “reserves” is based on an estimate for a raise, even when all faculty do not receive a raise. These allocations to pension liability lock up recurrent funds that are no longer available for other uses at UNF. Share This:

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