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UNITED FACULTY OF FLORIDA-FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
April 6, 2009
From: UFF-FAU Executive Committee
To: All Bargaining Unit Employees
Re: FIU Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy Study on FAU Personnel Practices, Budget Priorities
As you are now well aware Florida Atlantic University administrators have announced their plans to deal with the state
budget crisis by potentially shutting down academic programs and laying-off tenure-earning and tenured faculty. UFF does not believe
this is a fiscally sound or rational policy as it will further damage the ability of FAU to carry out its mandated public service missions
of teaching, research, and service. Further, UFF asserts that the administration’s repeated announcements of cutbacks and layoffs
even before the 2009-10 state budget is agreed upon in Tallahassee is simply not forthright or responsible management practice.
This winter, in an effort to better understand the budget priorities of the University, United Faculty of Florida at FAU
commissioned a study assessing FAU’s personnel practices. This study is now complete and a copy is attached. The report, titled, “How is
the Money Spent? FAU Expenditures on Higher Level Administration in the Period from 2001-02 to 2008-09,” was conducted by the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy at Florida International University. The researchers used personnel data provided by the FAU administration. We strongly encourage you to read it closely and discuss its findings with your colleagues.
Overall, “How is the Money Spent” provides some very important information belying the administration’s continual
assertions that it is acting in the best interest of faculty, students, and the University as a whole. Of particular concern
is that over the past seven years administrative positions have grown by over fifty percent. While administrators continually apportion
a larger and larger piece of the fiscal pie for themselves, faculty positions and salaries have grown far less vigorously. These
developments have all proceeded under the administration’s watch and continued while the state budget crisis deepened. Thus, if
there are any cost-saving measures to be enacted to deal with the ensuing fiscal crisis, they should rightly begin with
administrative positions and salaries, NOT WITH THOSE OF FACULTY WHO ARE ALREADY PAID LESS WELL THAN COLLEAGUES AT PEER INSTITUTIONS ACROSS THE STATE AND COUNTRY. Moreover, in light of the data presented in “How the Money is Spent” the minimum 2.5% salary increase the PERC Special Magistrate has recommended FAU grant its faculty is modest
and justified.
UFF-FAU’s official website will debut shortly at www.uff-fau.org. There we will endeavor to keep you apprised of
important current information and events related to your employment at FAU. If you are not already a member of UFF please consider joining today by contacting the UFF Membership Chair. UFF is poised to provide legal representation for faculty in the event the
FAU administration serves you with a layoff notice. However, you must be a dues-paying member when you receive a layoff notice. Please remember, OUR FACULTY UNION’S STRENGTH IS IN NUMBERS.