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Florida State University Professors Protest Pay Raise

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 July 2005, 18:00 CDT

Jul. 6--It was like a flashback to a bygone era of campus activism.

They chanted, carried picket signs and marched from the student center to the castle towers of the Westcott Building at Florida State University. There were even some beards and sandals in the procession of two dozen faculty members who delivered a letter to FSU President T.K. Wetherell, protesting low salaries and the administration's hard-nosed tactics in negotiations with their union.

"It's a matter of priorities," said Ted Baker, a computer-science professor who chairs the faculty union bargaining committee. "It seems that, at FSU, faculty salaries are a lower priority than at other State University System schools."

Business management professor Jack Fiorito, president of the campus chapter of United Faculty of Florida, said FSU has offered a 2 percent pay raise for the just-concluded fiscal year, plus some promotion increases and unspecified "merit" raises for selected faculty members. For the new fiscal year, he said, the university wants to fund only the 3.6 percent raises all state employees get on Aug. 1.

The UFF declared an impasse in its negotiations with FSU last May. Fiorito said the administration refuses to take seriously the faculty's right of collective bargaining, through 18 months of negotiations on salaries for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 fiscal years.

A special hearing officer was appointed to consider issues in the impasse, but no settlement meetings have been held yet.

In leaflets passed out in the shade of Moore Auditorium, where the march assembled, UFF said other universities have given or proposed raises of 3 to 5 percent for last year. The union said at least two, Florida Gulf Coast and the University of Florida, are proposing 5.1 and 5 percent raises, respectively, for the new fiscal year.

"We don't think the administration appreciates that the faculty is really upset about this," Fiorito said. "We've seen academic studies lately that show a clear connection between academic salaries and academic prestige. I don't see how the administration thinks we can be a prestigious university and pay second-rate salaries."

The professors chanted "Hey, T.K., what do you say? Find a way to raise our pay!" as they marched to the front of Strozier Library on Landis Green, scene of many mass protest rallies against the Vietnam war and supporting the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. From there, they marched to Westcott, circling the bubbling fountain, where many other protests were staged back when FSU students fancied themselves "the Berkeley of the South."

Surprised, amused students smiled and paused to look at the procession. A few seemed to be snapping pictures with their cell phones.

"I'm here because I want to be part of a great university," said Daniel Klooster, who has taught geography and environmental studies at FSU since 2000. "I think the way that I become part of a great university is by being part of a faculty that is well-rewarded for our efforts - and we all work really hard."

Klooster said he checks out two or three other jobs every year - partly out of curiosity but mostly in earnest. "I'd like to be able to get a raise, and that's the only way I can do it, by getting a job offer from somewhere else," he said.

Irene Padavic, a sociology professor with 19 years at FSU, said she marched because "it seems unfair that FSU faculty are slated to get so much less in raises for the past year than all the other state universities.

"I think the university should bargain in good faith," she said, "and work with us to come to a settlement that's closer to what professors at other state universities are making."

Physicist Curtis Johnson said that in 17 years at FSU, "I have never once, not once, had a salary increase which matches inflation. In real terms, I'm getting paid about one-third less than when I started."

Fiorito said FSU got a 10.75 percent increase in its operating budget and authorization for a tuition hike of 7.5 percent in the past legislative session. He and Baker said the university's position has been that the money is needed in many other areas, rather than salaries.

Wetherell was out of his office, but a receptionist accepted the UFF letter laying out union positions on pay raises and bargaining rights. The university later issued a statement by attorney Michael Mattimore, who handles labor negotiations for the state.

"Given the available resources, Florida State University believes its position on wages and union rights is fair and appropriate," Mattimore said. "The university's proposal provides benefits to the faculty while protecting the core mission of the university, maintaining fiscal responsibility and avoiding hiring freezes, departmental budget cuts and internal reallocations."

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Source: Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Fla.)

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