Good afternoon. We hope that everyone had some time to relax during the winter break. We were also thrilled that many faculty members received hard-fought raises in their December paychecks.

Although we are only in the first week of the semester, we know it has been hectic for many of us. We hope your classes are going well and you are working on compelling research in your fields. As you are already aware, UFF-UNF has been busy working with the Faculty Association, the Provost, and other administrators to advocate for faculty and express the faculty’s legitimate concerns about the data request from the state. Because you have already heard this from the President and Provost, I will provide a look ahead for UFF-UNF. 

First, we wanted to thank all the faculty, colleagues, family members, community allies, and business leaders for providing public comment on the proposed post-tenure review regulation. The Board of Governors received 1,400 unique public comments, a record response to a proposed BOG regulation. The next phase in this regulation is the BOG meeting. The Board of Governors is scheduled to meet at Florida International University on January 24th and 25th. We anticipate they will vote on whether to approve the post-tenure review regulation. Based on the laws passed recently and the recent developments in the SUS, this regulation aims to stifle academic freedom and freedom of speech and weaken our collective bargaining rights. UFF will continue to organize to halt or amend this regulation across the state. If you have not done so, please sign our UFF petition to protect tenure in the Florida University System and share the petition with others. I sent a link to the petition in my all-faculty email at the beginning of December. We hope to gather signatures from both the public and the higher education community on a local, national, and international scale. UFF will submit the petition in the coming days. If you are a member who would like to get more involved with this issue, please reach out.  

In other news, UFF is also continuing to monitor the developments from the New College of Florida. Additional information about what is happening at the New College of Florida can be found in news outlets such as the Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times, to name a few. UFF is currently organizing support for our colleagues’ academic freedom and freedom of speech. 

UFF is also looking ahead to the upcoming legislative session. We anticipate that many of the patterns in legislation since 2021 will continue and intensify in this next legislative session.