Provost Gerry Giordano introduced Bob Smallwood. Smallwood is the Associate Provost for undergraduate programs and assessment. He has assumed some of the responsibilities previously held by Hank Camp and Bill Wilson.

Lisa Jamba reported the committee met this a.m. No July or August meetings are scheduled. No chair has yet been selected. Meetings will be scheduled on the 1 st Thursday at 10 a.m. The committee has been working on streamlining the APC process. An information item is anticipated on the September agenda. There are 3 items on today’s legislative agenda.

-

No activity during this reporting period.

As of the date of the Faculty Association meeting, the Governor had signed 98 of the 394 bills that the Legislature passed in the 2005 regular session.  The Governor received the state budget on May 24 th and signed it on May 26 th with $180 million in vetoed projects (none at UNF).  The Governor has not received 3 bills, which would significantly impact the state universities:  HB 1001 – the “governance” bill, SB 2236 – the “excess hours” bill, and SB 2264 – the “residency” bill.
UNF had another record year for PECO funding – a total of $19.9 million.  This funding includes $12 million for the new education building and $5 million for expanding the College of Health.  The state university system brought home $28.5 million more in PECO funding than what was recommended by the Board of Governors.

By now you all have received President Delaney's and my email pertaining to the Administration's declaring impasse. You are probably all wondering what this exactly means. When Impasse is declared by one side of the negotiations, that side (the Administration) must present their impasse position prior to going before the magistrate. The Administration's impasse position can be seen on the Union's website. The Union will not present its impasse position before we go to the magistrate. However, our last proposal with the multiple concessions made to the Administration in order to avoid impasse and to reach an agreement as quickly as possible can also be seen on the Union's website. According to Leonard Carson, Chief Negotiator for the Administration, those articles that have Tentative Agreements will not be part of the impasse.

IMPASSE PROCESS: In impasse, there are three options open to the negotiating sides:

(1) The parties may request that a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) be appointed to assist the parties in reaching agreement. The mediator has no power to compel either party to take any action. The mediator acts as a catalyst in attempting to bring the parties together. Both parties must agree to the appointment of a mediator to see if a compromise can be reached.
(2) the parties may request PERC to send them a list of names from which the parties will select a special magistrate to conduct a hearing on the issues in dispute. The special magistrate has no power to compel either party to take any action. However, the special magistrate will issue a recommended decision within 15 days after the close of the hearing. The recommended decision is a suggestion to the parties of how they might reach agreement. The parties have 20 days to consider the special magistrate's recommendation. The parties may agree in writing to waive the appointment of a special magistrate, and go directly to the third step in the process.
(3) the parties will present the items remaining in dispute to the UNF Board of Trustees. The Board will conduct a public hearing at which time it will consider the arguments of the parties on each issue, and the special magistrate's recommended decision, if any. The Board will then vote on a resolution of each issue remaining at impasse.

Following the Board's action, the tentative agreements reached by the parties at the table, along with the decision by the Board of Trustees, are placed into a written agreement. The agreement is then presented to the members of the bargaining unit (regardless of whether they are union members) for a ratification vote. If the bargaining unit votes to ratify, the agreement is presented to the Board of Trustees for ratification.

If the bargaining unit votes not to ratify, the tentative agreements become null and void, and those items return to the status quo ante. However, those items resolved by the Board of Trustees take effect as of the date of the Board's decision, and remain in effect for the remainder of the first year which was the subject of negotiations. The parties then return to the bargaining table to begin again the process of negotiations.

CURRENT SITUATION: The Administration has decided to start the impasse procedures with a special magistrate. However, neither President Delaney nor I believe since we both feel we are very close in salary positions that we will actually be coming before the magistrate. Although, you must realize this is always a possibility. Impasse does not mean that we stop communicating but it does mean that the players in the negotiations change from the teams to only the principles. Only salaries and few unsettled issues in Evaluations, Assignments, Instructors Step-Advancements, and few others are unsettled. Only these issues will go to the magistrate. All TA'd articles will be accepted in the new contract. We are hopeful that we will be able to reach a mutual agreement before the magistrate’s hearing on salaries and the few remaining issues in order to finalize the contract.

One of the major issues leading to the impasse was the inability of the Administration's team to cost out their or the Union's proposals at the individual level. They have requested faculty evaluations for 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 from the Deans and Chairs. The Union pointed out several errors in the initial costing of the Administration's salary proposal (such as the omission of some of our current faculty in the two years, improper faculty CIP codes, differences in salary for some faculty in various databases). The Administration is correcting errors and is also verifying faculty salaries and the faculty assigned CIP codes (discipline's code to determine a faculty salary's benchmarks). Once the Administration has the faculty evaluation information, they will be costing their proposal, the Union's proposal and any variation between the two in order to try to reach an agreement. The Union has been assured that the costing runs on various models will be shared with us.

Steve Shapiro to Administration: What is the status of summer contracts?
Dr. Giordano: Ann Hoover is continuing to work on summer contracts. Giordano will assume personal responsibility to see that summer contracts are completed.

Stan Swart (COAS): Could Academic Affairs confirm that we are all covered by workman’s compensation?
V.P. Shari Shuman: Employees on payroll, are covered for worker’s comp, benefits and retirement.
Stan Swart: How about 9 month employees?
Question will be forwarded to administration.

Kathy Robinson to Information Services: There is a disparity between the schedules accessible through the UNF home page and those accessible through Banner.
Shawn Brayton: Information Services will update the home page version more frequently to minimize any disparities.

Sheila Mangum (Acquisitions Librarian) to V.P Shuman: The process for obtaining a credit card for purchasing purposes has been suspended, when will we be able to obtain new cards? Many vendors require a VISA or MC for payment.
Shari Shuman: This has been a continuing problem during the conversion from AMSOUTH; and the integration of approval mechanisms into Banner. Hopefully, new cards will be available by August or September.

The meeting adjourned at 1:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

_______________________
Katherine M. Robinson, Secretary