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Beginning in 2016, the 30-year step pay system had two components: a pay increase every year of teaching for experience and a periodic cost of living wage increase. “We felt it was going to resolve a lot of issues,” Sippel added.

to recruit and retain qualified faculty. In comments submitted by FUSA members to HCC’s board, many echoed concerns about cost of living, stagnant wages, and overwhelming workloads.

“I am living paycheck to paycheck and teaching overloads every semester and every summer, and we are told not to depend on overload,”Suzy DeVore, tenured theater professor at HCC wrote. “If I did not teach overload, I would not be able to pay my bills.”

Following the vote, board of trustees chairperson Nancy Watkins told Atwater to bring back a detailed workshop on the matter.

CL reached out to Atwater for comment, but instead heard back from Angela Walters Eveillard, Director of Marketing & Strategic Communications at HCC who wrote that, “We are still in negotiations and look forward to finding a resolution.” recent decision by the Florida Board of Governors to approve an emergency regulation to “block access to applications and social media platforms that may put personal information and national security at risk.”

Sippel says FUSA hopes to come to a “quick resolution,” too.

Most everything on the internet harvests demographic information about users, but TikTok has recently come under fire over concerns that the Chinese government could order the app’s developer ByteDance to hand over user data.

The email said USF is implementing measures affecting students, faculty and staff who will no longer be able to use the apps on university-owned devices or networks.

“Access to these applications through USF’s wired and wireless networks from personal devices will be blocked unless an exception is granted under the regulation,” the email added. Other apps being blocked by USF’s campuses in Tampa and St. Petersburg include Chinese

“It benefits everybody to have some additional level of objectivity,” council member Carlson said from the dais during the April 6 city council meeting.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice continues its probe into the Tampa Police Department’s (TPD) “crime-free multi-housing program,” which targeted mainly Black renters for eviction. Last month, city council members agreed to access information about the investigation as long as they don’t disclose the information publicly.

Faculty union at Hillsborough Community College casts vote of ‘no confidence’ in college president

Last month, Hillsborough Community College’s union, Faculty United Service Association or FUSA, cast a vote of “no confidence,” in HCC

A minimum and a maximum increase was included in the plan from 2016-2019. Under Atwater, FUSA says those wages remain stagnant after almost eight years. The administration got its own step pay system in 2019 and implemented a salary study recommendation for a 30% increase over three years. That was supposed to end in 2022 and faculty salaries were set to increase beginning this year.

“The college has made it clear that those 30% pay range increases are necessary to recruit and retain qualified administrators,” Sippel said. “This is the year where they were absolutely supposed to address faculty payments that needed to be increased. And there was no money in the budget.”

Sippel and fellow HCC FUSA members believe their wage increases are also needed

University of South Florida is now blocking TikTok, WeChat and other apps

Following in the footsteps of many other American universities, the University of South Florida announced plans to block access to TikTok, WeChat and three other apps. An email from USF’s IT department obtained by CL cites a messaging app Tencent QQ, Russian social network VKontakte, and the Russian cybersecurity software Kaspersky.

Other Florida schools that implemented TikTok bans last week include Florida A&M, the University of Florida and Florida State University.—Ray Roa

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