After two months of impact bargaining, UFF and the UF administration have agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) over emergency policies implemented in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that impact your contract.
Summary of Memorandum of Understanding
This MOU includes provisions aimed at protecting faculty members’ intellectual property and ensuring that their performance during this crisis is evaluated appropriately. The MOU’s main points are as follows:
- Faculty will maintain ownership and control of all course materials used in remote instruction (unless previously contracted).
- Pre-tenure faculty may extend their tenure probationary period by one year.
- Course instructors will receive an automatic satisfactory evaluation or higher for Spring 2020 courses in which they received an average instructor evaluation score of 3.30 or higher. Course instructors with an average instructor evaluation of 3.30 or lower will be evaluated within the context of the COVID-19 crisis and will be eligible for the normal range of evaluation outcomes.
- Course instructors may petition to exclude Spring 2020 course evaluations from their performance records.
- UF will direct Chairs (or their equivalent) to consider the impacts of the COVID-19 emergency on faculty members’ instruction, research, scholarship, creative activity, and service when evaluating their annual performance.
- P.K. Yonge faculty may exclude the student performance component from their annual evaluations. Also, if a P.K. Yonge faculty member chooses to waive their evaluative feedback for the current school year, their 2018-2019 evaluation will determine their annual adjustment.
Some exceptions to the provisions above apply. Please read the full MOU for details.
This MOU modifies the 2017-2019 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Except for modifications associated with this MOU, all terms and conditions of the 2017-2019 CBA remain in effect. UFF and the UF administration will bargain a new MOU on COVID-19 impact for the Fall 2020 semester.
For this MOU to take effect, it must be ratified by a vote of the bargaining unit. Due to the COVID-19 emergency, this vote can be conducted online. Mmembers of the bargaining unit should receive a separate email from “Helios Voting Administrator” with a link to the voting website and a unique username and password. Voting will begin Wednesday, May 20 at 6 am, and conclude on Friday, May 22 at 6 am.
If you do not receive an email from “Helios Voting Administrator” or have other problems voting, please let us know: officemanager@uff-uf.org
In solidarity,
The Bargaining Team