By Nathan Crabbe
September 18, 2009

University of Florida faculty members reacted coolly Thursday to a plan to eliminate their sick leave payouts to prevent other budget cuts.

UF Provost Joe Glover presented details of the plan and other budget-cutting measures Thursday to the Faculty Senate. He said the measures were necessary to help close a $16.6 million budget gap.

“Frankly, some of these things are unpalatable, but we at this point do not have better suggestions,” he said.

Faculty members signaled their resistance to giving up the longtime benefit. Philosophy professor Tom Auxter called the plan a “very serious attack on faculty” who had stayed at the university despite lower pay than other schools and were counting on the payouts.
“This is what people are expecting as part of their future,” he said.

Glover also presented details on a plan to use federal stimulus money to pay for a retirement incentive. Faculty who retire by June 30 would receive an extra year’s pay. Faculty who are at least 65 years old, have six or more years of service and are not in the state Deferred Retirement Option Plan program would be eligible.

Another proposal would establish a minimum payment of $5,000 per three credit hours for teaching summer classes. Glover said colleges could pay more, but the amount would probably be used as a base pay for many summer classes and would be less than union-represented faculty now receive. The change would save up to $1 million annually, he said.

While faculty raised questions about those proposals, the sick leave plan received the most opposition. Faculty accrue 104 hours a year of sick leave. Faculty who have been at the university longer than 10 years are eligible to get a quarter of the leave as a payout when they leave. The amount is capped at 480 hours, an amount that Glover said most receive. “Statistically, faculty are never sick,” he said.

The administration would not change the amount of sick leave given, but eliminate the payouts starting in 2012. It estimates about $3 million in annual savings. Glover said a survey of members of the Association of American Universities, an organization of leading research universities, found no others were paying such a benefit.

Zoology professor Jane Brockmann said the plan was “short sighted” and could backfire on UF. Faculty currently have elective surgeries and even plan to have babies during their summer breaks, she said.

Eliminating payouts means faculty will instead use their sick leave for such things, she said.

“You will find more people actually using it and requiring the university to find adjuncts, substitutes, etc.,” she said.

The plan is part of $16.6 million in proposed cuts this year, an amount of cuts left to be decided later when the budget was approved in May. Glover said the administration could accept alternative proposals, but spending needed to be reduced to prevent cuts to programs.

“It is not going to be helpful for people to stand up and deplore this proposal without proposing an alternative that they think is better,” he said.