By Nathan Crabbe
Staff writer, Gainesville Sun
Published: Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 7:06 p.m.
A University of Florida journalism faculty member whose contract was not renewed can keep her job, thanks to an arbitrator’s ruling that the university improperly used a performance evaluation that included anonymous complaints in making the decision.
Judy Robinson is an assistant professor who had served as executive director of the Florida Scholastic Press Association, a group for high school journalists. The ruling, issued Wednesday, found UF violated the faculty union contract in using “undocumented, untimely, anonymous and … unprofessionally subjective comments” in not renewing her contract.
“The problem in this case is that the reviews were cooked,” said John Biro, head of the UF chapter of the United Faculty of Florida union.
Robinson could not be reached for comment. A UF spokesman and John Wright, dean of the College of Journalism and Communications, declined comment.
As part of budget cuts, the journalism college last year put a graduate student in Robinson’s role as director of the press association. UF’s argument was in part that it could have eliminated Robinson’s job as part of those cuts, but the arbitrator’s ruling found that the college instead used an unsatisfactory performance review as the reason her contract was not renewed.
Arbitrator Tom Young found that UF included in the review anonymous complaints from a previous year about her work with the association. He found that Robinson was not shown the complaints before the evaluation and not given an opportunity to challenge or question the evaluation. Those actions represented multiple violations of the union contract, according to his ruling.
Robinson is the latest faculty member to keep a job based on an arbitrator’s decision. The cases are related to budget cuts made as the state has reduced funding in recent years.
An arbitrator last year ruled that UF violated the union contract in eliminating the job of Andrea Pham, an assistant professor of linguistics and Vietnamese language. Faculty members Hana Filip, Rose Lugano and Churchill Roberts, whose positions also were facing elimination as part of cuts, were subsequently able to keep their jobs.
Biro said another professor facing the loss of a job, education professor David Therriault, currently is preparing for an arbitrator’s hearing based on issues similar to those raised in Robinson’s case. He said the cases show a pattern of UF disregarding the union contract.
“You can’t sign a contract and not follow it … It’s as simple as that,” he said.
Contact Nathan Crabbe at 338-3176 or nathan.crabbe(at)gvillesun.com.