ELECTION RETURNS

Yesterday, at a special meeting over Zoom, UFF USF Election Committee Chair Debra Sinclair counted the ballots, assisted by volunteers in the Chapter. Here are the results:

• The elected officers were re-elected: Arthur Shapiro is president, Steve Lang is vice president, Greg McColm is secretary, and Sonia Wohlmuth is treasurer.
• The four candidates for delegates to the Florida Education Association Assembly were elected: Richard Manning, Greg McColm, Steve Permuth, and Arthur Shapiro.
• The twelve candidates for the United Faculty of Florida Senate were elected: Karin Braunsberger, Leon Hardy, Steve Lang, Richard Manning, Greg McColm, Cynthia Patterson, Vic Peppard, Steve Permuth, Debra Sinclair, Sandra Stone, Bob Welker, and Sonia Ramirez Wohlmuth. (President Shapiro serves ex officio.)

Officers and representatives assume their positions immediately. However, we still need six more delegates and seven more senators. Officially, representatives attend the statewide meetings in fall, but considering the current situation, it is not clear how those meetings will take place (the Assembly sets policy for the FEA and the Senate sets policy for the UFF, so something must be done). But the organizing & recruiting campaign will take place, albeit in a different (and online) form. We ask all UFF USF members to consider volunteering for one of these positions: if you are interested, please contact the Chapter Secretary.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

$ 500 Research & Instruction Scholarships for UFF Members

The USF Chapter of the UFF will award six $ 500 Travel Scholarships for spring, summer and fall. This will be for research and instructional expenses (not excluding travel having occurred this semester). All applications are due by Wednesday, April 17, and only UFF members are eligible. In addition, no recipient of the 2019 cycles of travel grants is eligible to apply, and members of the Executive Committee are ineligible. The six recipients shall be selected by lot at the April 19 chapter meeting. For more information, see the Research & Instruction Scholarships Flyer.

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, Debbi Sinclair (click here).

USF United Support Fund for Food Pantries

Many of our students are struggling during this crisis, and the USF Foundation is supporting the USF Food Pantries to help out. They are accepting non-perishable donations, but one can also make monetary donations for the pantries at St. Petersburg, Sarasota / Manatee, and Tampa.

More Resources

One of our national affiliates, the American Federation of Teachers, has posted two interesting items:

• A PDF on Google docs with answers to questions asked by International Students and Scholars Present in the United States on Visas.
• A webinar page called the Solidarity Academy (Academic Workers United for Pandemic Defense and Collective Power). They post recordings of past webinars there.

• 538, the sports and politics handicapping site, has posted an article on Why It’s So Freaking Hard To Make A Good COVID-19 Model of the spread of the pandemic, explaining how some of the forecasts are generated. Chemists and physicists may notice that these compartment models resemble rate equations, which will remind ecologists of Lotka-Volterra equations; all part of the differential equation toolbox.
• Politifact has looked at the question, Are homemade masks effective against coronavirus?
• World Scientific has posted an e-book, Prevention and Control of COVID-19, edited by Wenhong Zhang, Director of the Department of Infectious Diseasees in the Huashan Hospital of Fudan University, and Head of the Shanghai COVID-19 Treatment Expert Group. It is clearly intended for the general public, but from the point of view of the Chinese effort.

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.

LOGISTICS

Chapter Meeting Friday, April 24, via Zoom: for an invitation, contact the Chapter Secretary.

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 UFF USF members.

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