Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
ANITA KUMAREmotions run high as faculty and the board continue debating over professors' rights.
TAMPA - The faculty union leader at the University of South Florida lashed out at the school's governing board Thursday, saying it is allowing USF administrators to intimidate professors and ignore their rights.
Roy Weatherford, president of the local chapter of the United Faculty of Florida, told university trustees they are to blame because they have forced professors to work without a contract for almost a year. He also criticized USF president Judy Genshaft, who he said has refused to meet with him for 18 months.
Weatherford, a philosophy professor, called the situation a crisis. "We are being abused," he said. "We have to do something. If we have to fight in public, we will. We are not going to take it anymore."
Board members later said they were offended by his verbal attack and said USF employees should be embarrassed by his tactics.
"The comments stepped over the line," trustee Robert Soran said. "I resented some of the insinuations and almost threats."
The episode, unusual for its emotional intensity, comes as the two sides continue months of bickering about lapsed employee contracts.
"This is disturbing," trustee Margarita Cancio said. "The problem here is a horrible lack of communication."
Board chairman Dick Beard tried to interrupt Weatherford at the end of his three-minute remarks, repeatedly asking him to sit down.
"I think we've heard enough from you," Beard said. "I don't want to get into a debate."
Weatherford initially refused to sit down but eventually complied. Meanwhile, union representatives were passing out fliers that said, "A Tin-Pot Dictatorship Will Never be a Research University."
Trustees asked who authored the fliers but had few other questions.
Faculty members, about half of whom aren't protected by tenure, have gone without contracts since January. That is a source of considerable insecurity because a contract typically spells out everything from a professor's right to academic freedom to their salary and office space.
USF has agreed to abide by some former regulations during negotiations, but faculty members say that has resulted in confusion.
"No one knows what our rights and roles are," asked Liz Byrd, president of USF's faculty senate and the faculty representative on the board of trustees. "We have the right to know where we stand. We need answers."
None of the state's 11 universities currently have contracts with their faculty. The problem is the many changes that have transformed Florida's higher education governance structure during the past year.
A voter initiative last year created a statewide governing board for Florida universities and individual boards of trustees at each school. A state commission only recently determined that the boards of trustees should negotiate contracts with faculty.
USF faculty and administrators have been negotiating a new contract for about two months. "We have to sit down and get this done as soon as possible," Beard said.
Weatherford said his union chapter represents 1,800 USF employees but declined to reveal how many are dues-paying members. Because the contract negotiations have remained stalled, he said many professors are afraid they will suffer repercussions if they speak up about unfair practices.
Weatherford threatened to make the fight public, complete with pickets, letters to newspapers and complaints to university accrediting agencies.
"Why do you expect us to suffer in silence?" he asked the trustees.
He said Genshaft has refused to meet with him because it's not required as part of a contract. But USF spokesman Michael Reich said the president won't talk to him about collective bargaining because she has assigned that task to others.
In other business Thursday, the board:
Approved using 2.6 acres on Fletcher Avenue for an Alzheimer's research center created by Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, whose father died of the disease. The institute would pay the school $1 annually for the land.
Approved the location of a new Lakeland campus at the southwest corner of Interstate 4 and the Polk Parkway. The land is being donated by the Williams Acquisition Holding Co.