As the University of Oregon prepares to announce more layoff notices next month, the school’s faculty union is continuing its efforts to try to halt the plan.
The university is seeking 2.5% average cuts across its schools and colleges, to help address what it calls a "structural budget deficit.”
It’s said affected faculty will be notified during the week of Sept. 7. The cuts won’t go into effect immediately—tenured faculty are guaranteed one-year notices, as well as tenure-track and career faculty in some cases.
Faculty have raised concerns about the potential loss of whole programs, and what they've described as a rushed decision-making process.
German and Scandinavian professor Michael Stern said most of the faculty are being left in the dark about the cuts, meaning they’re relying on rumors and word from program heads to understand what's coming.
Stern said the expected cuts to tenured faculty are unlike anything he’s seen during his 25 years at UO.
“No matter what their intent, it will have nationwide repercussions and will discredit the University of Oregon as a serious academic university and research institution,” said Stern.
On Friday, union members and supporters gathered on the lawn of the university’s administrative building, Johnson Hall.
They were there to support United Academics of UO representatives as they delivered a petition to university leadership. The union said they'd gathered more than 2,600 signatures.
At the rally, Religious Studies Professor Jeff Schroeder said he feared his program will be eliminated. He called for the faculty to fight back.
“There should be walkouts. There should be votes of no confidence in university leadership,” said Schroeder, garnering cheers from the crowd. "Anything and everything we can do to force UO leaders to reverse these plans and engage in actual shared governance.”
In a previous statement to KLCC, a UO spokesperson warned against speculation about the cuts, saying layoff decisions weren’t yet final.
On Friday, UO told KLCC by email that it has been consulting with academic leadership and UO’s senate as it finalizes the plan.
“Every member of our community supports our mission in meaningful ways, so we are working to ensure that no single employment group bears a disproportionate share of reductions,” wrote the university.
The Grievance
United Academics of UO has now filed a grievance, saying the layoffs would violate its collective bargaining agreement.
According to the contract language, UO can lay off faculty under program reductions resulting from financial needs, but not due to “financial exigency.”
The agreement doesn’t define financial exigency, and definitions from institutions nationwide vary.
The American Association of University Professors described it in 2013 as “a severe financial crisis that fundamentally compromises the academic integrity of the institution as a whole and that cannot be alleviated by less drastic means.”
The union is arguing that the “structural budget deficit” fits that definition. A university representative didn’t immediately respond to that interpretation.
According to the contract, "the determination that program reductions or eliminations should be made is not grievable."
UO Student Workers
Meanwhile, the University of Oregon’s student workers union said it's also facing job cuts this fall.
According to the union, dozens of employees have learned they won’t be reappointed for the new school year due to “unspecified performance issues.”
Since these students weren’t working over the summer, these aren’t layoffs or firings. But the union has now accused the university of proceeding with layoffs by another name.
Union member Diego Duarte said workers have previously assumed they’d get their jobs back each school year, unless there’s a specific problem in the workplace.
Now, he said other students are waiting with uncertainty to hear back about their positions.
“It's definitely causing a huge amount of anxiety for thousands of student workers who now are questioning whether they're going to have income to support themselves during this year,” said Duarte.
In a statement to KLCC, a UO spokesperson confirmed that university dining didn’t renew 50 student positions, and that some library jobs will now prefer work-study employees.
UO said staffing varies year-to-year, based on the changing budgets and needs of each department.
“Right now it is too early to have concrete data comparing this year's hiring to last year,” wrote the university. “Some departments have already posted hiring notices for similar numbers of student positions as they have in the past."
