Category: News

Dear Colleagues, As we return to campus for another semester, we are once again faced with the challenges of the ongoing pandemic. This morning, Andrew Gothard (President, United Faculty of Florida), issued a letter to the Board of Governors calling on them to allow for greater local authority for universities and campuses across Florida to take the precautions they believe will best protect their communities (e.g., allowing classes to begin the semester remotely). As the… Continue reading

Dear Colleagues, In light of the recent surge of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and the ongoing public health crisis, we are writing to update you with the information we have at this time. As of December 31st, we know that the emergence of the omicron variant presents new challenges to our university community. Preliminary data suggests the variant is more likely to infect both vaccinated individuals and those who have previously recovered from another strain of… Continue reading

Chuck Elkins was a longtime member of the Department of English at FIU. He was one of the founders of the UFF chapter at FIU and for many years was a union activist and leader, in addition to being a scholar, teacher, and serving also as a Vice Provost (at what was then known as the North Miami campus).   I got to know Chuck when I came to FIU, initially through the Friday afternoon… Continue reading

Continue reading

Dear Colleagues, We are writing to communicate the understandable frustration of our faculty at Florida International University for the lack of a coherent response from the FIU administration regarding the rise of the Delta variant and hospitalizations across Miami-Dade County and throughout the state of Florida. Despite numerous overtures from UFF-FIU, the FIU administration has chosen  to not openly consult the faculty union about a safe return to campus for our entire community. Given the… Continue reading