Time and place. This meeting was conducted at 12 noon on Zoom.
Attendance. Twenty-five members, including ten members of the Council, two guests, and four unidentified.
President’s Report & Essential Issues.
- Report on Union 101 Town Hall. Discussion.
- Report on August 11 Meeting of the Faculty Senate. Discussion.
- Report on the BOT meeting. President Shapiro reported to the Board that USF was not acting sufficiently against the epidemic, and that members of the community were concerned.
- Statement by the UFF.
- Motion made and seconded to issue the following statement. Motion approved Unanimously.
Statement by the USF Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida
The University of South Florida faces an emergency as a surge in COVID-19 infections poses a real danger to members of the USF Community.- The USF Public Dashboard reports a surge in cases among students, staff, and faculty since late July.
- Over the past month, in Hillsborough County alone, the daily average cases have increased fourfold while hospital admissions have increased fivefold and the positivity has increased threefold.
- The Florida Department of Health reports that only 47% of college-age residents have been vaccinated, while the number of new cases has increased fifteen-fold in the last two months.
- During the previous week, Florida experienced more COVID-19 deaths than any other state and more cases than any state besides Texas – more than three times as many as California and nearly three times as many as New York.
Action is imperative to protect the USF community, but not only has the State of Florida failed to mandate protective measures, it has irresponsibly and possibly illegally barred institutions and local authorities from acting. The Florida SUS Board of Governors and the USF Board of Trustees should assume their constitutional responsibility to protect students, staff, and faculty – even if it means litigation – and we demand that the USF Administration takes these minimal steps:
- Mandate universal vaccination for all students, staff, and faculty (except for valid exceptions).
- Require all members of the USF community to wear masks when indoors (save for valid exceptions).
- Require weekly COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated individuals with quarantine measures for those who test positive.
- Upgrade ventilation and air conditioning systems with filters, UF scrubbers, and other anti-contagion features.
- Allow instructional faculty the discretion to move to online course delivery.
- Ensure that every class held F2F must be in a room or space large enough for social distancing.
- Publicly disclose criteria for decision-making on health and safety on campus. These criteria should be at least comparably rigorous to those of the CDC.
COVID-19 is dangerous, and members of the USF community are at risk. We must act now.
- Motion made and seconded to issue the following statement. Motion approved Unanimously.
- Job Description for USF President. Steve Lang and Ed Mitchell will collect information towards producing a description.
- Paper Newsletter. Steve Lang and Greg McColm will prepare a proposal for a newsletter and fliers.
- Meeting Modality. Because of the pandemic, meetings shall continue to be online.
- Letter to President Law. The President will compose a paper letter.
New Business.
- Membership List Reconciliation. We will seek a new person to do membership reconciliation.
- USF Budget. The chapter will seek a forensic audit.
- Surveillance. A Facebook page usfparents identifying itself as affiliated with USF Parent and Family Engagement had the following post, identified as being posted by the owner of the page:
Families: Students who have received recent notification from their faculty that there has been a change to instructional modality, from that published in the Fall 2021 class schedule, so take the following steps. (1) Confirm modality has shifted from what was published in the Fall 2021 class schedule. (2) Email their faculty/instructor to inquire why the course modality has been shifted. Determine if this shift is temporary or permanent. If a student confirms the course modality shift does not meet the standards outlined here (https://www.usf.edu/…/instructor-classroom-guidance.pdf) they should contact the dean of the college for that course (https://www.usf.edu/academics/colleges.aspx). Student should include the following in their email to the Dean: student name, U#, communication from instructor that references adjusted/change to modality, the name of the instructor/professor, and course name and section.
Discussion. - Faculty Scholarships.
- Motion made and seconded that the Chapter shall reinstitute the scholarship program for the same amount and with the same caveats with the addendum that the scholarship may also cover journal page charges. Motion passed.
- Socials. Discussion of the tailgate.
- Regional Campuses. Discussion.
- HB 233. It is suggested that the letter on HB 233 be linked from the website.
Reports.
- Government Relations. There will be a workshop this fall.
- Collective Bargaining. Discussion.
- Treasury. We are solvent.
These minutes were respectfully submitted on 27 August 2021.