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UFF Biweekly EXTRA
United Faculty of Florida -- USF System Chapter
5 June 2017
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ANNOUNCEMENTS

Next Chapter Meeting Friday, June 16, near USF Tampa

The UFF USF Chapter will meet Friday, June 16, at Noon, at Perkins Restaurant, 5002 E. Fowler Ave., in Tampa, at the intersection of N 50th Street and E. Fowler, just east of USF Tampa. Everyone is invited to attend.

Join UFF Today!

Download, fill in, and mail the membership form. Benefits of membership include the right to run and vote in UFF chapter and statewide elections; representation in grievances (UFF cannot represent a non-member in a grievance or litigation); special deals in insurance, travel, legal advice, and other packages provided by our affiliates; free insurance coverage for job-related liability; and the knowledge you are supporting education in Florida. Come and join the movement.

UFF on Adjuncts, Travel Scholarships, and the Legislature Returning to Tallahassee

UFF USF Statement on the SEIU's Adjunct Campaign at USF

As noted in an article in the latest UFF USF Biweekly, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is seeking to represent adjunct faculty at USF. They have presented a petition for an election so that adjuncts may vote on whether or not SEIU will represent USF adjuncts in bargaining and enforcing a contract.

At the June 2 Chapter Meeting, the Chapter resolved to send out the following Open Letter to the USF Community:
Like many leading universities, USF relies increasingly on adjunct faculty to teach many courses. Adjunct faculty range from people with particular skills and experiences that they can bring to the classroom to enrich students' education, to people who can teach classes relatively inexpensively. Many adjunct faculty are paid a fraction of what permanent faculty are paid per course, and typically lack benefits, promotion opportunities, teaching resources and support, and opportunities to interact with colleagues.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) seeks to represent USF adjuncts in bargaining and grievances. Currently, USF faculty and professionals, USF staff, and USF police are represented by unions, and all three are represented by those unions because at some time, faculty and professionals, staff, and police voted in favor of being represented. The SEIU is seeking a similar election so that adjunct faculty will be able to decide for themselves whether they would like to be represented by SEIU in bargaining and grievances.

The United Faculty of Florida Senate resolved last spring to cooperate with the SEIU campaign, and the USF Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida supports the SEIU campaign and the right of adjunct faculty to vote on whether to be represented.

$ 500 Travel Grants for UFF Members

The USF Chapter of the UFF will award six $ 500 Travel Scholarships for fall and spring. This will be for travel for participation in a professional activity. All applications are due by August 9, and only UFF members are eligible. In addition, no recipient of the Fall 2016 or Spring 2017 cycles of travel grants, and no member of the UFF USF Executive Committee, is eligible to apply. The six recipients shall be selected by lot at the August 11 chapter meeting. For more information, see the Travel Scholarship Flyer. There are two new conditions:

  • When presented or published, any research or presentation facilitated by this grant must acknowledge that the work was partially supported by the United Faculty of Florida.
  • After the work is presented or published, the recipient will compose a short (200 words or so) description of the research, scholarship, or creative work, for publication in the Biweekly.
This initiative is part of our membership campaign. If you would like to become active in the UFF USF Membership Drive, contact the Membership Chair, Adrienne Berarducci (click here).

The Legislature Returns to Tallahassee

The Governor Scott and the legislative leadership appear to have made a deal about the budget, which was announced in a letter from House Speaker Richard Corcoran. This agreement came as Scott signed the $ 83 billion budget - minus over $ 400 million in vetoed projects.

But the compromise requires additional legislation, and hence a special session. A three-day special session starts Wednesday, and there is a lot of media buzz about how education funding - and what it should pay for - is the hot topic. We are watching this session carefully.

LOGISTICS

Next Chapter Meeting Friday, June 16, at noon, at Perkins Restaurant, 5002 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa. We will have lunch. All UFF members are invited to attend. Non-members are also invited to come and check us out. Come and join the movement.

Membership: Everyone in the UFF USF System Bargaining unit is eligible for UFF membership: to join, simply fill out and send in the membership form.

NOTE: The USF-UFF Chapter website is http://www.uff.ourusf.org, and our e-mail address is uff@ourusf.org.

About this broadcast: This Newsletter was broadcast from uff.ourusf.org, hosted at ICDsoft.com, and is intended for all members of the UFF USF Bargaining unit (USF faculty and professionals at most departments). A (usually identical) version will be broadcast to USF-News and USF-Talk from mccolm@usf.edu.

If you do not want to receive the UFF Biweekly, you can unsubscribe below. If you do not receive the Biweekly, but want to, e-mail a message to gmccolm@tampabay.rr.com.