All 21 tenured faculty members at florida state University who had been told that their positions were being eliminated will get to keep their jobs. That was an arbitrator’s ruling on November 5 — and the university’s response to it. The arbitrator found that the university’s decision to eliminate the jobs of 12 tenured professors violated provisions of Florida State’s contract with its faculty union, the United Faculty of Florida, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. The university, while continuing to defend its actions, announced that it believed all the 21 tenured faculty members should be treated the same way, and so rescinded their layoff notices.
The arbitrator, Stanley H. Sergent, a Florida lawyer, did not back all the union’s grievances, and held that the university was within its rights to eliminate several non-tenure-track positions. But in the cases of tenured faculty members, Sergent detailed repeated, multiple violations of rights of the tenured faculty members and described a decision-making process by the university that seemed to favour some professors over others, without regard to a collective bargaining agreement Florida State is bound to uphold.
While the union and arbitrator did not contest the idea that Florida State faced deep budget cuts, the 83-page ruling repeatedly notes patterns of the university failing to meet obligations to which it had committed itself. University officials used the layoff process to “manipulate” decisions “to arbitrarily select who got laid off”, at times because of “personal judgement and relationships” and not established criteria, said the arbitrator.
The Florida State ruling is a rare victory during the current economic downturn for protecting tenured jobs. Long-standing tradition in higher education (based on the principles of the American Association of University Professors — AUUP) requires that colleges protect the jobs of tenured faculty members unless the financial situation facing a college is so dire that “financial exigency” must be declared.
Even so, colleges are expected to involve faculty members in meaningful ways in the decision-making process and do whatever is possible to protect tenured jobs. The economic downturn that started in the fall of 2008, however, has been notable for the extent to which colleges have eliminated tenured jobs without declaring financial exigency. While such actions have brought condemnation from faculty groups, the tenured faculty members at Florida State will actually keep their jobs.
Cary Nelson, national president of the AAUP, says the decision illustrates the positive power that unions can bring to faculty members. “The arbitrator’s decision on behalf of a major research university faculty contract is an important confirmation of the power a union contract has to preserve faculty job security,” says Nelson.
(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)