After five years of bargaining with UF administration, the United Faculty of Florida at UF has approved a new contract by a vote of 491 to 4.
Increased levels of academic freedom and more generous sabbatical policies are the two most important aspects of the contract, said John Biro, the president of the United Faculty of Florida at UF.
“Faculty will now be able to speak freely about any university policy, in or out of the classroom,” he said. “Without the fear of retribution, [professors] are completely free to speak.”
This new policy, which extends beyond the bounds of free speech laid out in the U.S. Constitution, makes UF one of the most academically free universities in the country, he said.
More lenient policies relating to sabbaticals, in which professors are paid to research their own projects outside the university, could attract high-quality professors from around the world to UF, Biro said.
The new contract, which is more than 300 pages long, will be ratified by the UF board of trustees in March and will apply to about half of the university professors.
“I think it’s a great contract,” said Paula Fussell, the UF vice president for human resource services. “It’s good for the university as a whole.”
