Tag: faculty association

2019-2020, Anonymous, Answered, From Floor

Vote of No Confidence

Anonymous Question for Dr. David Fenner, Faculty Association President

What is the process to arrange for a vote of no confidence in the FA President?

 

Answered from the floor by Dr. Fenner

“Failure to execute faithfully the duties of the office constitutes cause for an officer’s removal. On receipt of a petition for recall of an officer for cause, signed by at least forty members of the Faculty Association, the Nominations and Elections Committee shall schedule a recall election. Removal from office shall require a two-thirds majority of those members voting. “

2019-2020, Anonymous, Answered, From Floor

Faculty Association Lunches

Anonymous question for Dr. David Fenner, President of the Faculty Association

My question is about faculty association lunch being provided. I am wondering why no lunch is provided for faculty association, as this is what stimulates conversation among faculty and builds comradery. I would like to know why that decision was made and who made it.

 

Answered from the floor by Dr. Fenner

At the end of spring 2019, Dr. Fenner met with Shari Shuman to discuss that the President’s office will no longer provide lunch for FA meetings. The cost was about $20,000 per year and that the funds needed to be reallocated. She promised to provide some funds, which she has done: $5,500, which has been used for snacks at FA. Dr. Fenner reported also that he’s been able to help raise $5,000 from two anonymous donors. Additionally, the head of catering, John Schneider, gave FA a good deal on pricing FA lunches. Dr. Fenner plans to be able to provide food at the rest of the FA lunches through the end of spring 2020.
Dr. Fenner provided an update on the anonymous questions process. See minutes.

2018-2019, Anonymous, Answered, From Floor

ISQs and Promotion

Questioner: Anonymous

Question posed to David Fenner, FA President

Word is out there that UNF has denied tenure to faculty members who have only a little less than perfect scores on the ISQs even though the university committee’s evaluations were positive as were those that came earlier in the process. Can the FA Executive Committee bring a resolution to notify the BOT that this administration is destroying people’s lives at the university?

 

Answer from the floor by David Fenner, FA President

I will pass this on to Dr. Rakita, FA vice president and chair of Executive Committee, to pick up this question at the Executive Committee. Because this is a matter of terms of employment, the Union needs to take center stage on this rather than the Faculty Association. But having said that, we’ll certainly be involved with that. I’d also like to say that in the past, Faculty Association presidents have been strong voices of advocacy with regard to both faculty salaries and with promotion and tenure, where they sit as members of the BOT. I believe that all of that is going to come up at the June BOT meeting, and I will be there represented as appropriate.

2018-2019, Answered, From Floor

Faculty Salaries

Questioner: Anonymous

Question posed to David Fenner, FA President

According to the National Education Association, faculty salaries at UNF are the lowest (or near lowest) in the Florida State University System which makes up 11 schools. Moreover, UNF salaries have been the lowest in the state for the past decade. What has the Faculty Association done to raise faculty salaries at UNF during this time? What is the Faculty Association doing to address the fact that UNF has the lowest faculty salaries in the state?

Answer from the Floor by David Fenner, FA President

Let me say a couple things about that. The first thing to say is that I am very, very clear on the dividing line between the Faculty Association and the Union, and the Union really takes care of matters of employment. So I’m careful not to sort of wade into those waters. To the degree to which Kally wants to talk to me about anything, I’m delighted. The second thing to say is that you probably know that the President of the Faculty Association is a member of the Board of Trustees, so I’m privy to information that’s coming to the BOT with regard to bargaining, and that kind of moves me on to, not exactly the management side, but I’m sitting there with the management side when I’m being briefed by the  attorney, so it would really be a conflict of interest for me to get into anything to do with salaries.  Having said all of that, I will say that last year we passed a resolution calling for a certain percentage of funds that might be realized from a performance funding model for the metrics to go to faculty bonuses.   And this summer I worked out—and I’m delighted to share this information with Kally or with anybody who would ask—numbers with regard to how that might look in terms of how much money we were talking about in general for faculty and staff bonuses, so forth and so on. Those numbers didn’t go anywhere but I’m keen to do whatever—I will follow Kally’s lead with regard to support for enhancing the salaries of the faculty.

2018-2019, Anonymous, Answered, From Floor

Vote of No Confidence on COAS Dean

December 6, 2018

Questioner: Anonymous

Posed to: David Fenner, President, Faculty Association

Of the 29 signatures needed to advance the motion of no confidence for Dean Rainbolt, how many COAS faculty members signatures have you received?

Response from the Floor by David Fenner:

Dr. Fenner stated he received 26 signatures from COAS faculty members from six departments. The deadline for receiving signatures was December 7th (2018).

2018-2019, Anonymous, Answered, From Floor

Administrator/Faculty Bullying Policy

December 6, 2018

Questioner: Anonymous

Posed to: David Fenner, President, Faculty Association

The new “bully” policy was motivated by concerns for protecting against faculty-on-faculty bullying? However, many faculty have witnessed administrator-on-faculty bullying. Does the new policy apply to administrator-on-faculty bullying? What procedures should a faculty member follow if they are the witness or are the victim of administrator-on-faculty bullying?

There is confusion over its application where administrators who are also members of the faculty are involved. Does the policy protect faculty against bullying by a member of the administration?

Response from the Floor by David Fenner:

The new Bullying policy does not protect faculty from administrator bullying. The purpose of the existing Bullying policy is to protect faculty on faculty bullying. Where there is a difference in level, such as cases where there is a difference in level, such as administrators bullying faculty or faculty bullying administrators that fall under the purview of the United Faculty of Florida and the CBA.

Follow up statement:

CBA article 10.4F has broad language that protects faculty from bullying from administrators:

 “Observe the published rules and regulations of the University, provided that the rules and regulations do not contravene academic freedom, which includes the faculty member’s right to responsibly criticize and seek revision of those rules and regulations;”

2018-2019, Anonymous, Answered

Live Streaming for Faculty Association Meetings

Questioner: Anonymous

Posted to: David Fenner, Faculty Association President

Will the Faculty Association be live streaming their meetings? Many faculty cannot attend meetings due to class and other obligations. With newer technology, it doesn’t require much effort and it is not costly. The faculty union live streamed all of their negotiation sessions this past year. Doing so enabled faculty who could not attend sessions to watch. The sessions are also archived on the faculty union website for later viewing by faculty and others. This is common practice at other institutions.

Response from the Floor by FA President Fenner

The FA will explore live-streaming meetings. The Association is working towards identifying a means to vote anonymously. There was hope to preview electronic voting earlier, but a more cost effective system is being explored.

2018-2019, Answered, From Floor

Ordering of Faculty Association Agenda Items

Question from the Floor by Judy Rodriguez, Professor, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics:

Is it possible to reorder the Faculty Association agenda such that the Question and Answer portion is moved to the end, and the legislative calendar is moved forward in the agenda order? In most meetings such as this one, questions and answers are typically held at the end of the meeting.

Response from the floor by FA President David Fenner
The order of agenda items for the Faculty Association meeting are set by the FA Bylaws. At an upcoming retreat of the Executive Committee of the FA, we will discuss whether there could be more flexibility in the order of agenda items.

2018-2019, Anonymous, Answered

Faculty Association Unanswered Questions

Questioner: Anonymous

Posted to: FA Secretary Dan Richard, FA President David Fenner

Why are questions asked to the Faculty Association approximately a year ago still pending responses according to the minutes of the Faculty Association? When should faculty expect for responses to be submitted to questions asked to Faculty Association?

 

Response from the floor by: FA President Fenner

We have received a number of questions, and we do have a backlog of unanswered questions. I will work with Dan Richard and Liz Gregg, current FA Secretary, to clear this backlog.