Dear Governor Crist:
We recently learned that the FAU chapter of the United Faculty of Florida (“UFF”), the union that represents some faculty at Florida Atlantic University, contacted your office about the “unchecked power and questionable judgment of the University’s top administrators and Board of Trustees” in regard to the reorganization of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the layoff of five tenured faculty.
The sentiments that the UFF shared with your office were also posted on their blog, and we are disappointed by the level of vitriol in their latest posting. In June, we met with our Board of Trustees to continue updating them on our budgetary process, which, as you know, was an arduous task. We struggled to protect the academic core of the institution so that our students and faculty would be least impacted. Like so many state universities, we had to make tough decisions to balance our budget, trying to impact a limited number of faculty positions. During that BOT meeting, it was made clear that we were committed to working to find placement for these faculty elsewhere in the University where practicable. Sadly, the value we place on tenure has been impugned by the negative characterizations by the UFF; however, we are confident that the vast majority of our faculty sees through the UFF’s distractions and understands that FAU continues to be committed to its faculty.
From the outset, University leadership has been in constant dialogue with the affected faculty members in an effort to find resolution. In fact, as soon [as] it became feasible, all five faculty members were offered an extension of their layoff notice period with assignments in other academic units for the entire 2009-10 academic year. We are now exploring all avenues to determine if these assignments can extend past this academic year. It appears that the leadership of the faculty union is either confused or uninformed, since the posted blogs and correspondence with state leaders, including yourself, do not refer to the productive discussions that have taken place and continue to take place with the five affected faculty members.
Despite the rhetoric of the UFF and its negative effects, please be reassured that FAU’s leaders continue to work each day for a resolution that is beneficial to FAU – its students, faculty, staff and community.
If you have any questions about this issue, please do not hesitate to contact me at 561-297-3450.
Sincerely,
Frank T. Brogan
President
Florida Atlantic University
cc: Sheila McDevitt, Chair, Board of Governors
Nancy Blosser, Chair, FAU Board of Trustees
Laid-off professors offered other jobs, Brogan tells Crist, By Kimberly Miller, Tuesday, August 4, 2009, Read more at palmbeachpost.com
Brogan versus Brogan
uff-fau.org, June 13, 2009.
“This president respects tenure as much as he did when he arrived [at FAU]. … [T]he suspicions are misguided. FAU respects tenure as much as any other state university. As president of this university I want that quote entered into the record in a way that cannot be misunderstood and shouldn’t be accepted as anything but what I mean it to be. This university supports tenure. That’s a fact.” –Frank Brogan, June 10, 2009
Fact: As Florida Commissioner of Education, Frank Brogan led the fight against tenure for K-12 educators, derisively referring to a scaled-back term for teacher evaluation and improvement as “tenure light.”