Investing in Our Talent

One of UCF’s main goals is to help develop the next generation of talent for our community. To make that happen, we must invest in our own faculty and staff.

One month ago, I wrote to you about UCF Human Resources’ efforts to evaluate and restructure the university’s A&P and USPS job classifications and pay grades. The results showed that some of you are being paid below comparable market rates.

At that time, I promised that we could do better. Our leadership team has developed a plan to help employees who fell below their pay grade minimums. This is the first step. We will continue to focus on making UCF an outstanding place to work and providing opportunities for career growth.

The first phase of this plan — if approved by the UCF Board of Trustees at its meeting on May 16 — would fund salary increases for eligible employees who were notified that their current salaries were below their new pay grade minimums.

The increases, which would be effective June 14 and appear in July 5 paychecks, would bring these employees to the identified market minimum salary.

Please contact your college or department’s HR representatives if you have questions or want more information.

The decision to fund these increases is a top priority, even though finding the funding is not easy. We will fund the increases through existing and new resources.

The second phase of the plan will involve a thorough review of the university’s compensation policies, procedures and practices. I expect that will take several months to complete.

This phase is important because I believe it is our shared responsibility to ensure the funds we have — taxpayer funds from the state, tuition and fees from students and their families, donations from supporters, research grants and more — are spent to their highest purpose.

Leadership Update

I am pleased to share that I have appointed Misty Shepherd as our long-term interim chief operating officer. She has been serving in this interim role since last fall, overseeing administrative units that include Facilities and Safety, Police, Human Resources and more.

During these difficult times, Misty’s leadership has been exceptional. I am grateful for her leadership and that she will continue to help us make the necessary changes to prepare UCF for a new president in summer of 2020.

We are actively searching for a long-term interim chief financial officer and plan to announce a decision about this important position soon.

Our Momentum Continues

The end of a semester is always a busy time. With that in mind, it’s easy to miss the many good things happening at UCF, such as a team of researchers who recently discovered how to control the speed of light.

Light is about the only thing that moves faster than the UCF football team, which concludes its spring practice season with a scrimmage Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Spectrum Stadium. I hope you will cheer on our Knights one more time before they take the field this fall!

Finally, as the semester wraps up, thank you for all you do to support our students and accelerate our momentum. I look forward to celebrating with you when we graduate thousands more Knights the first week of May.

Charge On!