On Monday, the University of Florida Board of Trustees unanimously approved using $25 million in overhead cost savings to give raises to faculty and staff.
According to a UF press release, the increase includes a 3.75% merit raise pool for staff and a 4% merit raise pool for out-of-unit faculty.
“I asked the university to find savings of $25 million that we would then invest in our faculty,” said board chairman Mori Hosseini in the release. “As a result of our $25 million in overhead savings, our state’s generous investment in the University of Florida, and our continued focus on making sure our faculty and staff are taken care of, we approved historic merit raise pools for our faculty and staff. This is the largest raise pool in at least the past 20 years.”
The board also approved a one-time $10,000 bonus to faculty who are given an “exceeds expectations” rating in their post-tenure review evaluations.
“We always want to recognize those that go over and above,” said Hosseini in the release. “We approved a $10,000 bonus for each of our faculty members who achieved ‘exceeds expectations’ in their post-tenure review. We are very proud of our faculty and thrilled to be able to provide these bonuses. We truly prioritize our people.”
The raises and faculty bonuses will become effective starting Oct. 1. Union faculty raises will need to be bargained.
“It makes a huge difference when our faculty and staff know that we care about their hard work and what they do each day for our university,” said interim president Kent Fuchs in the release. “As we look forward to the fall semester, there is a sense of excitement about our work to make sure that we elevate this great university.”
The admin/faculty dynamic in place does not seem healthy to me. It sounds like largesse being distributed. I am a lifelong union member and believe in leverage for the employees, in whatever capacity they work at the university.
The UF teaching faculty, in fact all staff, should have a AFT branch at their side.
I’m still waiting to hear where the $25M “savings” came from. There must have been some really significant cuts to get that when you factor in Sasse’s extravagant overspending on himself and out of state UF administrators and consultants doing secret “work”.
UF faculty and staff work hard and effectively; always glad to see them rewarded for their efforts.
On the other hand, it’s time for Mori Hosseini to move on. There are other units of the state university system that could use some micromanagement. I suggest UCF; they really need Mori.
“Out-of-unit faculty” means faculty who are NOT protected by a Collective Bargaining Agreement. This is yet another attempt to penalize union workers while appearing generous to the public. Most faculty are “in-unit” so they are not eligible for these raises.