Since the recent overturning of Florida’s restrictions on transgender care for minors and adults, I can't help but think about the recent wave of bigoted jabs at higher education in our state.
Almost a year ago on July 1, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 256 — a bill specifically intended to limit the power of unions in the state. The challenge that the Florida Legislature forced upon us has developed in several ways. While we have seen a growing community stand behind our unions, we have also seen an escalation of attacks on the groups we have a responsibility to protect.
Repercussions of 256
Our legislature has loved wasting their time on poorly-written bills that end up costing the state more money. SB 256 has successfully forced several unions into perpetual member organizing and has already decertified many. But the bill has also overwhelmed the Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC), the entity responsible for union certification. PERC is self-described as “a small, independent, quasi-judicial agency,” and we are seeing firsthand how this bill is going to burden PERC officers.
Any union that hasn't reached 60% membership must file a card campaign for certification, which requires 30% of the bargaining unit to send in ‘interest cards’ to call for an election. This paperwork and the election that would follow it is conducted by PERC. To get some numbers in perspective: UFF-UF and UF GAU alone have a bargaining unit of around 4,300. Aside from just our locals at UF, there are approximately 600,000 unionized public sector employees in Florida.
Basically: lots of mail, lots of paperwork and lots of money because the state has to cover half of the postage.
I can't help but wonder if it may just be cheaper and more efficient to leave unions alone and spend those funds on better wages and benefits for our public sector employees.
The list goes on
Senate Bill 846, known as the “Countries of Concern” bill, caused panic and protest among international students. It outlines the necessity of an additional screening process for new applicants (e.g., faculty, graduate assistants) and academic relations (e.g., research grants, joint research endeavors) from China, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, Iran and North Korea. The screening process ought to determine the ‘risk’ and ‘value’ of these applicants and cross-country associations, but there is no rubric nor definition of risk and value that the Florida Legislature has provided nor one that UF has adopted.
The hiring process for international graduate students from these countries following the passing of the bill has become unrealistic and even resulted in some departments completely ignoring applications due to the lack of clarity on the process.
With 1,100 graduate students from China alone (with an unclear count on how many have been hired as graduate assistants and would have been impacted by this bill had they applied later), the impact of SB 846 on the research UF loves to boast will be much more apparent in the coming years. The bill effectively removes power from experts in the field to create the best possible academic and research programs, and puts this power at the hands of the politically-motivated.
Post review has essentially turned tenure into five-year increments, with department chairs, college deans and universities’ chief academic officers conducting reviews at the conclusion of each period. This is another heinous attack on academic freedom and the lives of experts in the field.
Tenure is an integral part of academic freedom, as it protects experts in the field from being fired at will if their research contradicts the politics of the university and the overarching legislature.
It also creates a new layer of precarity within academia, making professors continuously worry about competing in the job market. This is sure to be a detriment to their lives, their teaching and science as a whole by imposing a norm of fast science.
The Florida Legislature has admittedly started a transformation of education in the state, replacing expertise with biased curricula and politically-motivated actors; this is not education, and it is not science — and it is bound to make UF a place people run from rather than run to.
We hope that these changes bring a new wave of voters and inspire more organizers to work together to elevate the voices of those most hurt by these initiatives. One thing is abundantly clear: it is time to leave it to the professionals and write laws that support the education of students and the lives of workers.
Cassie Urbenz is a UF first-year graphic design and visual communications graduate student and GAU Co-President.
