Download PDF of UCF Admin/gc_layoff_notice to UFF-UCF
June 24, 2009
Dear Colleagues:
On behalf of the UFF-UCF Council, I am writing to share some information about the current stealth layoff program made public last Thursday, June 4. Five programs and 45 colleagues have been targeted. In some cases, chairs of these units found out less than 24 hours before the public announcement and well after the Press Conference and release of information to news media. Many faculty in the programs learned they were to be laid off on the day of the announcement.
UFF has spent more than a year regularly asking the Administration to make public the planning materials and the process. On the eve of the June 4 faux announcement, we asked again, and were provided an 800+ page CD file with a chart identifying program ratings.
We do not believe this document addresses the financial justification for these program eliminations.
We do not believe the Administration’s claim that they had nothing in writing until the day before they posted the president’s video on Youtube and finally talked to the faculty senate. We do not believe the Administration has been honest about their financial priorities with anyone; certainly not with the faculty, the students, or the taxpayers.
We believe that the Administration has failed in its responsibility to be accountable and transparent in important decisions about the future of UCF. The process by which decisions were made remains shrouded in mystery, as do many aspects of the criteria used to make these decisions. This lack of transparency impedes any regulation by those bodies charged with overseeing the university’s curricular and financial activities.
We believe that the administration has acted unconscionably in failing to promote quality education. For example, while the administration brags on its commitment to quality, in light of the layoff announcement, seven new Honors students (including a National Merit recipient) just learned that UCF’s Statistics and Actuarial Science programs were going out of business and they wouldn’t be able to pursue these studies at UCF. These seven students who could have gone anywhere, but chose UCF, are now casualties of Hitt’s mismanagement. Welcome to UCF.
They have split colleges recklessly; they have created programs and centers to pander to political pals; and they have offered no long term planning, only stadiums, Victoria’s Secret panty deals, and payoffs (consulting gigs) for FOPs (Friends of President).
We believe that the administration’s priorities are skewed towards administrative overhead instead of supporting the main missions of the university: providing quality teaching, research and service to students. An alarmingly and increasingly high portion of UCF’s expenses go towards a bloated administration; in 10 years, administration has grown 82% while the numbers of faculty who actually teach our growing student population has only increased by 25%. The payroll to support this boom in administration has increased by 161%, while the total faculty payroll has increased by only 75%. No wonder we can’t afford Engineering Technology, Statistics or MIS. We need more PR workers for the President’s photo shoots.
We do believe the administration is frivolously spending money on luxuries and payoffs to old friends in the form of a pricey “Retire and Return” Job program.
We do believe they have paid a labor lawyer more than $100,000 (and counting) to stall negotiations on our faculty contract while they maneuvered to eliminate technology and statistics programs that should be mission critical to a university with pretension to high-tech corridor, research-intensive status.
We do believe that when faculty ask President Hitt what cuts administration will make when the academic units are absorbing cuts of more than $6M, they are owed more than a remark that administration hopes to cut $3.7M, but we aren’t going to tell you how or when.
We believe the administration has violated the Florida Sunshine repeatedly.
And we have good reason to believe there is more than enough money to sustain our teachers and programs to support our students; particularly if priorities are shifted back to supporting the research and teaching that are at the core of UCF’s mission.
What can you do about this?
Write the BOT (http://bot.ucf.edu/contact.html), write the Sentinel, write the Governor (http://www.flgov.com/contact_governor) and tell them you are tired of the hollow commitment to academic quality evidenced by UCF’s Administration. We want leadership appropriate to an institution of higher education not a repressive regime.
Attend the consultation UFF has proposed with the university. Watch our webpage (http://www.ucfuff.org/) for information.
Join your union and encourage your colleagues to do the same (follow this link for membership information). University administration has employed many tactics lately that seem aimed at dividing fac ulty and undermining solidarity; these program eliminations are a pointed example. Show them that their lack of concern for faculty and student morale, and their lack of transparency and accountability in this process, can backfire. It can bring us to stand together in our concern for faculty and student rights, and for the quality and integrity of the university we serve.
Remember, if you are laid off unfairly the union can only file a grievance on your behalf and provide an experienced UFF grievance representative to help you if you were a member when the violation of your rights happened.
There will be meetings to discuss these issues on Thursday, June 25 at 11 am, in BA 210, and again July 2 at 2:00 pm, in BA 126. Please join us. Your silence will not protect you.
Sincerely,
Dawn Trouard
UCF Chapter President
United Faculty of Florida
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