The Senate returned to a major issue of the last meeting: legislation being considered in Tallahassee. The primary concern was with House Bill 999 / Senate Bill 266, which, among other things, “authorizes state university boards of trustees to review tenure status of faculty members,” and “revises requirements for general education core courses.” The Senate conducted a survey of faculty with a 33.64% response rate and concluded that well over half were concerned about the effect of legislation on recruiting and retention, on diversity / equity / inclusion, and on post tenure review. There was a discussion about effects of the law leading to the observation that the law may have effects beyond the text of the law. One possible effect might be failed searches for new hires.
Then there’s the budget. The Senate was informed that historically, funding of individual colleges was determined by negotiations between the colleges and the central administration. During 2022 - 2025, the university is transitioning to a “Responsibility Center Management” (RCM) budget system. In this system, funding to each major unit (i.e., each colleges) depends on the revenue the college brings in as determined by Student Credit Hours and enrollment. Various services - such as the physical plant and the library - will be supported by “taxes” levied on the colleges - and tax revenue is also dedicated to support valuable units of greater need than revenue. The stakes are high, the issues complex, and the details technical, and President Schneider said that the Senate should address these issues come fall.
There was a proposed change in USF Policy 10.050 on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, which would provide for a faculty committee to review cases of violations of university policy on academic freedom and responsibility. The issue was whether the proposed change would be consistent with the UFF USF Collective Bargaining Agreement, which provides for a grievance process.
This was the first Senate meeting with the new Provost and Executive Vice President, Prasant Mohapatra. After an opening statement saying that he is committed to the USF community, he was asked a series of questions about how RCM would be implemented. He observed that most universities now use some version of RCM, he did not anticipate that over 90% of funding will allocated through RCM, and he would work to make sure that no valuable units or programs fell behind as a result of RCM.