The United Faculty of Florida-UCF Podcast

In this episode I spoke with the historian Jody Noll from Georgia State University. We spoke about the 1968 Florida Teacher’s Strike which resulted in bargaining rights for teachers not only K-12 but college and university. You can see his online digital exhibit on the strike here.

In this episode I spoke with Ben Green about Harry T. Moore. Green is the author of the biography of Moore titled Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore America's First Civil Rights Martyr. During Moore’s time the state of Florida did not have teacher unions, more professional organizations but under his leadership the professional organizations operated as a union by suing the state of Florida to equalize pay between White and Black teachers and administrators. The school system that canceled the workshop on Florida and the civil rights movement was Osceola County not Miami-Dade.

In this episode I spoke with Marshall Ogletree the retired Executive Director of United Faculty of Florida. We spoke about the 2022 Florida Legislative Session and the various laws passed that will impact higher education.

In this episode of the UFF-UCF Podcast I spoke with Professor Davarian L. Baldwin, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut. He recently published the book In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Citieswith Bold Type Books. We spoke about the impact of how local universities expand into downtown centers and how universities have transformed into what he has termed a UniverCity. Please join us for this important conversation.

In this episode of the UFF-UCF Podcast we interview Claudia Schippert our Grievance Chair. As our Grievance Chair Claudia is the person in charge of contract enforcement. This means if your rights are violated at the workplace based on the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) or our contract, Claudia and the Grievance team can represent you and address your concern. Listen to this episode to learn what a Grievance is and also visit our webpage to learn more.

In this episode UFF-UCF President Robert Cassanello spoke with Professor Kevin R. McClure. Professor McClure Associate Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He publishes on education leadership and organization. We spoke about the Great Resignation during this time of COVID and to what capacity it is impacting the college and university workforce. We tackled the subject and speculation if and the extent that COVID will permanently transform the workplace.

In this episode UFF-UCF President Robert Cassanello spoke with Thomas Auxter. Professor Auxter is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Florida and former president of the United Faculty of Florida. Professor Auxter has been at the University of Florida since 1973. We spoke about the historic and current threat to tenure by Florida Governors, state Legislators and by university administrators. Professor Auxter has written about the challenges organizing for faculty unions in a right to work environment. You can read his article here.

In this episode UFF-UCF President Robert Cassanello spoke with Larry Gerber, emeritus Professor at Auburn University, about his book The Rise and Decline of Faculty Governance. We spoke about the introduction and evolution of faculty governance on college and university campuses since the nineteenth century. Many of us have had the discussions and have speculated at the crisis of shared governance in the era of the COVID-19 Pandemic is not an outlier but is how the system is supposed to function. Please listen to the podcast you can also read more about Larry Gerber’s work here and here.

In this episode our Vice President Beatriz Reyes-Foster spoke with Sandra Wheeler and Lana Williams from Anthropology about parental leave and how marriage equality impacted their family and work life before and after marriage equality.

In today’s episode I spoke to Yovanna Pineda about the commentary she wrote about HB 233 for the Orlando Sentinel. HB 233 has been imposed up college and university faculty and students in Florida. We talked about this legislation and the misguided effort to promote “intellectual diversity.” We discussed what this legislation means and its context. If you haven’t check out Professor Pineda’s commentary in the Orlando Sentinel here, if it is behind a paywall wait until your free articles refresh again it will be worth it.

In this Episode I spoke with our colleague from the Department of Sociology Jonathan Cox. We spoke about Critical Race Theory and how we can continue to approach this topic in our classrooms and our research. Big thanks to the ghost of Joseph Welch who allowed us to use his clever catch phrase. We will await on Governor Desantis’ reply to the question and broadcast that out to you. Until then locate someone you know teaching Critical Race Theory and tell them you love them. They are not an endangered species. Small mindedness is.

For this episode we were fortunate enough to have UFF President Andrew Gothard and Vice President Caitlin Gille in the UFF-UCF Podcast Studio for a brief interview. We recorded this in late June before they took office on July 1. They were touring the state for their "Listening Tour" and for our interview we got them talking. If you want to reach out to either of them please email them. You can reach Andrew at jandrewgothard@gmail.com and Caitlin at cmgille@gmail.com. If you email them and tell them the secret password (Swordfish) they will give you the location to the super secret location of the UFF Presidential Inauguration Party. The UFF Presidential Inauguration After Party requires a different password even I don't have access to. 

In this episode Robert Cassanello (UFF-UCF President) and Jonathan Beever (UFF-UCF Treasurer) talk about the ethics of returning to campus in the fall. Many of us wish to return to campus and our workplaces with a plan that collectively puts the safety of those most vulnerable at the least risk. However, the state government, specifically the Florida governor and legislature want us to return as quickly without any restrictions many of us have become accustomed to in the past year plus of the pandemic. What Beever and Cassanello try to do in this episode is reconcile what we can do as individuals so that we can influence the best collective outcomes. Not required, but consider picking up your personal copy of A Modest Proposal and don't be afraid to scream "think about the children" at least the ones that won't be vaccinated until early to mid fall. If you wish to do that latter we ask you don't fall into a Simpsons caricature.

This is our first episode of our podcast The UFF-UCF Podcast. In this inaugural episode we will hear the State of the Union Address from Robert Cassanello, President of UFF-UCF followed by a conversation with Beatriz Reyes-Foster our Vice President. We also answered the questions members sent into us.

00:27-State of the Union 2021

06:40-Conversation Between Robert and Beatriz

13:20-We Answer Member Questions

33:07-Shout Outs