Update from USFFA Weekly Email
Weekly Update
December 2, 2020
A message from President Sonja Martin Poole
President Poole delivered this message to the Policy Board Nov. 18.
By now you have read the communication from Provost Cannon in which he indicated that he would not be addressing our members as scheduled at the Nov. 11 Policy Board meeting. The appearance was planned several weeks ago during discussions between the USF Faculty Association leadership, Provost Cannon and select members of the Provost’s Council.
From our perspective, the purpose of his appearance was to communicate directly with librarians and faculty on a number of issues that we are concerned about -- the budget, shared governance, job security, strategic planning. This was intended to be a meeting to gain a common understanding of the overall future of our university. We expected to get answers to our many questions and gain some sense of certainty during these very uncertain times.
The Provost’s decision to cancel his meeting with the Policy Board was made in the wake of the resolution that was passed at our General Membership meeting last Wednesday. The resolution, which was proposed by rank-and-file members, and passed by a 90 percent majority, stated that the USFFA would initiate the procedure to take a vote of no confidence in President Fitzgerald if the administration again threatened our members’ jobs in order to compel us to accept continued cuts to salaries and benefits. The purpose of this resolution was to take this kind of threat off the table in any upcoming negotiations. Its aim was to protect our most vulnerable members and dissuade the administration from using this vulnerability to demand further concessions from everyone. It was motivated by a desire to protect our members and our educational mission. That said, the resolution wouldn’t have been necessary if the administration had not threatened our members in the first place.
I want the administration to understand the significance of their decision to threaten probationary faculty and librarians with termination last spring. It was a traumatic experience for our members--both for those faculty and librarians immediately affected by the threat and for their colleagues who felt that it put them in an impossible position. It made a lasting impact on our community and has consequences that reach far beyond summer negotiations or even the COVID-19 crisis. This is the context in which members endorsed the resolution proposed at last week’s meeting.
In response to the resolution, the Provost claims that “more conversations are needed for folks to understand the university’s current financial status and the next steps necessary to ensure our future.” We agree. However, in cancelling the leadership’s upcoming Policy Board visit, they foreclosed a chance to have the kind of conversations he recommends.
We don’t pretend to have a full and complete picture of the university’s budget. But we want one. We want more open and honest dialogue about the university’s finances. We don’t just want to be heard. We want a voice--a real voice--in the direction of USF. We want our values, our perspectives, and our labor to be taken seriously by those in leadership. We understand that there are challenges ahead. But the only way that we will be able meet those challenges is by confronting them together.
The presentation on the budget last week in the General Membership Meeting was developed from the report by the forensic accountant who was hired by the USF Faculty Association to investigate the University’s financial situation. The reason that we hired the forensic accountant in the first place is our members have felt that the administration has not been transparent about the budget. We are not alone in this feeling.
Provost Cannon has encouraged us to ask UBAC questions about the University's finances, but our members want more than the opportunity to ask questions. They want answers. I understand that we may not get some answers on the spot -- that perhaps, with some questions they’d have to get back to us later. That’s okay. We get it. Just let us know you’ll get back to us and then follow up. But first, just SHOW UP. Without greater willingness on the part of the administration to directly address faculty and librarian’s concerns, I fear that there will be continued unrest. This, in my view, was a missed opportunity.
We need to first agree on the facts. This is very different from what we should do. We have not established a common agreement with the administration on basic facts about the budget and budget allocations. When we can agree about how much we have available for operating expenditures and how the funds are allocated, then we can move on to substantive conversations about what should be done -- understanding that budgets are reflections of values and we may disagree on which values should ultimately be prioritized. We cannot have material discussions about what should be done if we can’t agree on basic facts. And for that we need to have our questions about the facts answered.
Provost Cannon expressed in his communication that we need a break. I agree. We need time for rest and reflection; time to practice self-care and discernment. We’ve all been under considerable stress for a while now. We’ve been asked to do some heavy lifting during times of intense social injustice, political upheaval, all in the midst of a global pandemic. Our lives have been turned upside down. We are angry, anxious, and exhausted. Still faculty and librarians are willing to roll up their sleeves to solve the real problems that we face in a way that aligns with our educational mission and Jesuit values.
Make no mistake. We are deeply disappointed in the Provost’s decision to cancel his and his Council’s appearance at Policy Board. We were looking forward to hearing first-hand from the university leadership about their thinking and plans on issues that matter to us. We know that the issues we are facing will not disappear next week, next month, or even next year. This is why I believe it is important to have forthright conversations with the Provost about the future of USF at this point in time.
And those conversations may be uncomfortable. They may even be contentious. It is unlikely that everyone is going to be happy or satisfied with the outcome, or maybe even the process. But there is no way we are going to mend the deep divides that are tearing us apart as a community if we don’t face each other and muddle through these tough waters -- together.
I also want to make one thing clear. This is not personal. I have sincere reverence for Provost Cannon and members of the Provost’s Council. Provost Cannon in particular has always impressed me as someone who has a huge heart, demonstrates concern and care for others, and is a compassionate servant-leader. I appreciate Provost Cannon’s courage to step up unexpectedly and unceremoniously after the ousting of the previous provost. I admire that when asked to serve, he did -- even though he was likely still grieving personal loss. I recognize the conditions that he found himself in and did not sign up for. He barely had time to get a crash course on serving as a provost before being hit by the problems brought on by the pandemic. I will always respect and admire him for this -- nothing will ever change that. It actually makes me uncomfortable anytime I find myself taking issue with his decisions. I’m going to be honest with you: Our relationship has been strained as a result.
However, this is what I signed up for -- I am here not simply to represent our librarians and faculty. I am here to advocate for librarians and faculty. In doing that, I believe I am also advocating for the University as a whole. And while they may make me weary sometimes, I’m not afraid of the difficult conversations. Anybody who knows me knows I don’t shy away from difficult conversations. Because it is in these conversations, in respectfully listening, sharing and being responsive to one another, that we reach a place of understanding, reconciliation, and resolution.
I am hopeful that, as suggested, the administration will reschedule with us after the Thanksgiving break.
November 18th Policy Board Meeting Update
The Policy Board discussed President Poole’s address and there was general agreement that it’s unfortunate Provost Cannon cancelled his appearance. Poole noted that she had been informed of that decision nine minutes before the letter went out to all faculty and librarians.
The board discussed a resolution by the ASUSF Student Senate calling on the university to impose no new tuition increase next year if classes are still entirely remote – and to impose no more than a 1.9 percent increase if we are back on campus. That 1.9 percent, the resolution states, should go entirely to supporting faculty and staff who make less than $128,000 a year.
Vice-President Keally McBride noted that the University Budget Advisory Committee (UBAC) has narrowly accepted a Cabinet proposal for a 1.9 percent tuition hike, and has since been modeling changes in faculty and staff salaries. Students were told last year that faculty pay was driving tuition increases, but when they saw the data, they realized overall faculty compensation had decreased. The board decided to hold off on endorsing the resolution until after the students voted on it.
The board also approved some technical changes in the bylaws regarding the Nominating Committee, making it clear how the committee will function and that it will not in any way stand in contradiction to the Association Constitution, the Collective Bargaining Agreement, or published Association policy.
An open letter from the Law School faculty and Librarians
Dear friends and colleagues:
As you know, USF has experienced financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration imposed salary cuts on many of you, and others of you bargained with the administration to reduce your salary. The Association of Law Professors (ALP) is a very small union of 19 tenured and tenure-track law faculty and four professional librarians. The ALP was under no obligation to bargain with the administration over salary reductions. In fact, the administration stated to us: "The University acknowledges that by an oral agreement between [the ALP] and the Dean, Article 10 [which is the ALP’s compensation clause] is currently in effect until the expiration of the 2020- 21 academic year….ALP and USF will reach an agreement on reductions if ALP is willing to join the effort as other campus employees and unions have. ALP and USF will not reach an agreement on reductions if ALP does not want to join the effort, and if so, salary levels for this year will stay level."
Despite that, the ALP voluntarily offered two different proposals to reduce our salaries. One proposal would have reduced our salaries for this academic year, saving the University an amount estimated to be over $100,000 dollars, without incurring any additional costs or obligations to the University, as well as cut the amounts in our research grant program, our research and travel funds, and our research assistant funds. In fact, this proposal offered voluntary concessions in every category suggested by the administration in their original proposal.
The other proposal offered a more significant reduction in our salaries and other expenses for this year but asked the administration to extend our existing compensation clause for several years and to institute a guaranteed 2 percent cost of living adjustment and a merit pool for future years. It also provided that these increases would not accrue if the University was still incurring losses as a result of the pandemic.
We asked this because ALP members do not have a contract with a COLA or guaranteed merit increases or steps. We have been trying to bargain with the administration over this for several years, but they have refused to bargain. During the last eight years, ALP faculty members have only received merit raises in four years, and they have each been in the range of 1 percent. At the same time, we have received no COLA increase for eight years. As a result, our salaries have not kept up with the increase in the cost of living, and so we have in effect experienced a decrease in our income over the last eight years.
Yesterday, we were told inexplicably that the administration would not accept either of our proposals. Essentially, the administration declined our voluntary offer to reduce our salaries and save the University an amount estimated to be over $100,000. This savings would be on top of the $625,000 that the law school faculty is already foregoing this year by several members voluntarily taking full and partial leaves for this academic year.
We do not know why the administration made this decision, but we wanted you to know that we did offer to share in the sacrifice that so many of you have made. In addition, many individual faculty members will instead be donating money to existing funds developed to help students that have been adversely impacted by the pandemic, including the COVID-19 Response Fund. If you know of any other such funds to help employees or students, please let us know.
Take care and keep safe, Tim Iglesias, Chairperson; John Shafer, Secretary-Treasurer; Maria Ontiveros, Member at Large
Please Join the Discernment Process on USF Mission and Values Statement
Kimberly Rae Connor, Professor/School of Management and Faculty Chair for Mission Integration/Lane Center, sends the following letter:
Dear Colleagues,
I’m following up on the recent email you received from the University Council for Jesuit Mission regarding their efforts to revise the USF Mission Vision and Values. Among the affinity groups the Council is reaching out to is the USFFA. Nearly every USFFA member is also aligned with other affinity groups that are being formed and we encourage you to participate in those, or even more than one, should the opportunity exist. But if you wish to reflect on and contribute to the development of a new Mission Statement from a point of view shared by a collective of union members, please use this link to sign up for the final discernment session, this Friday, December 4th.
The groups are limited to 12 colleagues but if enough USFFA members show interest in additional sessions, I will create them. Once we have created the groups, I’ll send participants a Zoom link. Thanks for taking the time to consider this opportunity for communal discernment.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13LtFwQfSFh3d3vKPwmRtcPDhmCaFGnxnE4-EkeyrFys/edit
Fare forward.