Good afternoon.

As UFF-UNF announced on October 19th, we are thrilled to have a tentatively agreed-upon collective bargaining agreement (CBA)! UFF-UNF has been working diligently with the UNF-BOT team to finalize a full copy of the tentatively agreed CBA, which is now available on our website (see tentative CBA). Thank you to our UFF-UNF bargaining team, past and present (Claudia Sealey-Potts, James Beasley, Cami Acceus, Angela Mann, Kally Malcom, Jennie Ziegler, Maria Atilano, and Greg Gundlach)! They are the reason we finalized the contract in record time. Your service and dedication to UNF faculty made this new contract possible.

The ratification of the Guidelines and tentatively agreed upon CBA will be in person on Tuesday, Nov 8th, and Wednesday, Nov 9th. Voting will take place in the first-floor conference room of the Biology Bldg. (59/1001) from 10 am and 4 pm. Please find some time to come out and vote. The results of this ratification will be brought to the next UNF BOT meeting on Thursday, November 17th.

We briefly highlight some of the significant victories for UFF-UNF in the tentatively agreed to CBA. These changes are finalized once the CBA is ratified by the UNF faculty and the UNF Board of Trustees.

Of utmost interest to faculty, UFF-UNF negotiated a substantial raise of 5% for faculty members who were in full-time, non-visitor status as of April 1, 2022. Faculty who have been issued a notice of non-reappointment or termination were not included in this raise. Unfortunately, UFF-UNF was unsuccessful in advocating for the inclusion of visiting faculty members in this raise. Additionally, there will be a $1,000 bonus for the same groups, but this time returning visitors and visitors who transitioned to permanent lines were included. The agreement also guarantees a third-party analysis of compression and inversion within faculty ranks. UFF-UNF also maintained the 12-month language (in addition to the 26-pay period language) to guard against paycheck issues, as we had in previous years. In other good news, UFF-UNF will begin wage reopeners for 2023-2024 by March 2023, which will be especially helpful for those faculty hired after April 1, 2022.

Changes to the conflict of interest article include examples of what is considered a conflict of interest and what is not; these are now included in a brand-new appendix. We also maintained that only faculty members with conflicts must report them. All faculty should carefully read the conflict of interest article to ensure that they are knowledgeable.

Regarding the promotion articles, UFF-UNF defended a faculty member’s right to choose the list of external reviewers to review their dossier; we also moved up the timeline for Chairs to start requesting letters so that candidates are more likely to have their top recommendations. UFF-UNF also made it so that the overall evaluation of the instructor item (currently Question #10 on the ISQs) is no longer required to be reported, and there is an increased number of sabbaticals and professional development leaves available to faculty members. In addition, in the tentatively agreed to CBA, there are strengthened intellectual property rights on what counts as “instructional material.” Other new additions include requiring assignment letters to contain the percentage of effort of assigned duties and requiring contracts to be distributed before the fall contract start date. Previous CBAs did not include a deadline for issuing annual contracts, resulting in contracts being issued as late as October and faculty members being concerned about their employment.

Furthermore, new language allows faculty to receive two bankable points for internships or teaching practicums outside their regular assignment. UFF-UNF was also able to preserve the in-unit grade appeal committee, retain the rights of faculty to be quickly reassigned back into a position in the event of a layoff/restructuring/or reassignment, and preserve step two in the grievance process. Lastly, UFF-UNF negotiated more course releases for the bargaining team, which have been desperately needed. We are actively recruiting more members for the bargaining team, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you are a member of UFF-UNF and are interested in learning more about bargaining. Please see my last all faculty email for a more exhaustive list of the changes between this tentatively agreed-to CBA and the previous CBA.

In other news, UFF-UNF has been busy with our Get Out the Vote Campaign. Recently we partnered with the UNF Center for Community-Based Learning, the UNF Intercultural Center, and UNF administration (with swag from the LGBTQ Center and the presence of the Florida ACLU). The event was held on Friday, October 28th, from 1-3 PM. During the event, students got their questions answered about voting. Many students didn’t know where they were eligible to vote, and some did not know how to register to vote. We helped eligible students develop voting plans by showing them where they could vote within their county. We also provided students registered to vote in Duval county rides to the early voting location closest to campus. Attendees enjoyed food, drinks, and camaraderie with their fellow students, staff, and faculty around early voting. We especially wanted to thank Mikayla Beaudrie for her hard work organizing this successful UNF community event with our UNF colleagues.

Similarly, if you are eligible to vote but have not voted yet, please do so. Further, remind your students to vote if they are eligible, as historically, voter turnout is the lowest among 18-24-year-olds. UFF-UNF wants to ensure everyone’s voices are heard in these midterm elections.

On a less upbeat note, we wanted the faculty to know that the Board of Governors posted the new post-tenure review document as an agenda item for their next meeting on Wednesday and Thursday at USF in Tampa. It is noticed under the Academic and Student Affairs Committee. Please review it as it could impact faculty. We also encourage faculty to consider attending Board of Governor Meetings if possible. What is going to happen as as follows, once the Board of Governors votes to notice the post-tenure review document at next week’s meeting, the document will be open for public comment for 30 days before the Board of Governors can vote to approve the post-tenure review document. Once it is open for public comment, we encourage all faculty to please comment on the policy. If the post-tenure review policy is noticed next week as we anticipate it will be, we will have until the beginning of December to make our voices heard about the policy. If you are a member of UFF-UNF, let us know if you are interested in helping with our response. This is a critical moment where we need as many people as possible to be engaged.

Lastly, if you need assistance with a work-related matter and are a union member, please don’t hesitate to reach out. If you would like to join the majority of faculty as a member of UFF-UNF and need a form, or if you have a general question, please email me.