Sunday 4/12/2020 update: The recorded version of Friday’s Faculty Union Town Hall is now posted on youtube here:
The Administration’s Town Hall is here. Expect more updates from the union this week on job security, the Administration’s proposed pay cuts, and bargaining, at uauoregon.org.
Late Friday night update: I’m no cheap-ass faculty union treasurer, but apparently the free trial Zoom account was overloaded with viewers, so some people couldn’t see this live. The recorded version will be posted at uauoregon.org as soon as the public relations consultants figure out how to translate all the cuss words into Latin.
Rumor has it that the union leadership will discuss the salary cut proposals that have been floating around – and make it clear that any mandatory cuts must go to the union membership for a vote.
There is no truth to the rumors that your union spent your dues hiring a $253K VP for Strategic Miscommunication and a $150K former TV anchor to moderate this town hall, or that they used consultants to make sure that the union officers have tasteful, academicish zoom backgrounds. Here’s how to watch the low-budget and hopefully more informative Union response to the Administration’s effort, and submit questions:
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The union has also made a $1300 donation to the Student Crisis Fund, and are asking the university to waive the 5% fee that they usually take off the top of small donations for administrative expenses, and instead charge the same 0% that large donors pay – to ensure that all this donation goes to help our students:
Dear Colleague:
United Academics will be hosting our quarterly general membership meeting remotely via Zoom this Friday at 4pm.
The leadership of United Academics will be on hand to answer members’ questions about how the university and the union are dealing with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Faculty are understandably anxious about the financial impact on the university, their units, and in the case of Pro Tem and Career faculty, their jobs. President Schill indicated that the administration will be talking with us about how faculty can “sacrifice” to help the campus. We anticipate discussing their proposal on Thursday and will have a report on that conversation.
Faculty have contacted UA about a variety of issues arising from the pandemic. While some of these concerns are member-specific, many others are of general interest. We invite all UA members to submit a question for Friday’s town hall. We will attempt to answer all questions during the town hall—of course some questions may require followup—and will post thorough answers to all questions on uauoregon.org.
Please submit your questions by email to [email protected]. Questions should be of general interest; if you have questions/concerns specific to your situation, we are happy to address them one-on-one.
Details on how to access the Zoom will be sent later this week. The meeting starts at 4pm on Friday, and we will upload a recording for those who cannot attend synchronously.
We hope the pandemic finds you and your loved ones safe at home. We look forward to seeing you (virtually) on Friday.
Students in Crisis Fund
We wanted to share that UAUO is donating a bit over $1300 to the University’s Students in Crisis Fund. This money is not from your dues – it came to the union from membership fees paid by faculty to the pre-union AAUP Chapter.
We have asked the Administration to waive the 5% fee that they usually take off the top of small donations for administrative expenses, and instead charge us the same 0% that large donors pay – to ensure that all this donation goes to help our students.
We encourage all of you who are able to consider donating to this crisis fund – and we encourage you to also ask the Administration to waive the 5% fee, by emailing our VP for Advancement at [email protected], after you’ve made a donation.
The website for donations is at https://duckfunder.uoregon.edu/project/20563/donate
Episcopal Campus Ministry runs a food pantry open to all students.
You can donate food or money.
dude,
that’is not BYOB it is BYOD(evice)
For a discussion about pay cuts, I’m in the camp that subscribes to BYOB.
Union cuts my salary, I cut my dues.
It’s all going to be fine. Gov Brown will give the $40M she promised Phil Knight for his IAAF Championship party to UO instead. We can cut tuition, save career faculty, keep wages constant in real $, and Pres Schill will have enough left over to keep paying Brad Shelton, Lorraine Davis, and Yvette Alex-Assensoh. That will leave Kate Brown with the problem of finding a big donor for her next political campaign though.
Many faculty members are statutorily excluded from the bargaining unit for various reasons (leadership roles in institutes, supervisory roles of other bargaining unit members, etc). When it comes to contracts, pay raises, and general rules the administration has (wisely, in my opinion) treated such faculty identically to those in the bargaining unit.
I’m curious if anyone knows what the legal situation of such faculty members would be in the face of the possibility of mandatory pay cuts. Obviously such faculty would not get a union vote, but would the administration be justified in unilaterally imposing such cuts? Or, alternatively, would the administration have to come to an agreement with each non-bargaining unit member individually as it would be a modifacation of their contract?
Here’s to hoping that it doesn’t come to this!
Good question. I’m not a lawyer but former President Dave Frohnmayer was, and during the 2009 furlough town hall (pre-union) he argued that the University Administration could not legally make faculty or OA’s accept mandatory pay cuts. Instead he tried to persuade both groups to agree to voluntary furloughs. And, fwiw, the pay cuts that President Schill has so for announced for himself and his VP’s have been called “voluntary”. Of course if you are non-tenured, and your contract happens to be up for renewal this year, the Administration could terminate you. So far as I recall Frohnmayer never threatened to do that, but our current Administration has. Terminating tenured faculty – in the bargaining unit or not – is a much more complicated process which would probably require JH and perhaps even Paul Weinhold’s UO Foundation to open up their books. Unlikely. Just my opinion, if you know more please post it.
If we are furloughed or partially furloughed, will the president allow us to use accumulated sick time to make up the gap in our pay? Asking for a friend with a hat.
This depends on the word “mandatory” – if a mandotary faculty salary cut were issued by the State of Oregon, then I think the Union is irrelevant. If it comes from the UO itself, then that will likely upon a can or worms as it now would be difficult to uniformly apply.
There would be that little matter of the 5th amendment’s takings clause, of course.
Just lop off the Law school and we will be fine. We need more classroom space anyway.