Support the Mission of the University of Oregon
Tuition has increased faster than inflation. State funding has increased faster than inflation. Administrator salaries have increased faster than inflation. But administrators are demanding that the teachers, librarians, and researchers charged with the educational mission of the institution, take real wage cuts. While everyone recognizes the challenges faced by our institutions of higher education, the UO is getting more money per student than ever before. Where is this money going if not to student education and knowledge creation?
The value of a degree from the University of Oregon is dependent on the quality of the professors, instructors, researchers, and librarians. An erosion in wages, whether due to artificial austerity, benign neglect, or slow attrition affects not only the quality of education and research, but also the value of our degrees for current students and alumni alike.
The United Academics of the University of Oregon, our faculty union, has proposed fair wage increases which cover recent inflation and move our salaries to the average of our peers in the American Association of Universities, of which we currently rank near the bottom. Our analysis indicates that this could be done simply by returning the proportion of the UO’s operating budget for faculty back to their pre-pandemic levels.
In spite of the recognized learning loss stemming from the pandemic, the administration is spending less on education per student than before the pandemic, adjusting for inflation.
Since the pandemic, the UO administration has prioritized administrative growth over fostering and supporting academic excellence. The pandemic itself caused a major increase in administrative work for faculty too. Of course, the pandemic was a historic disruption, and in an effort to survive the upheaval United Academics faculty agreed to pare their wages if necessary to save the institution.
We are currently bargaining our first successor collective bargaining agreement since the pandemic, and the administration has been unwilling to agree to raises which cover inflation, acknowledge the additional work since the pandemic, and recognize the commitment to the education mission demonstrated by faculty.
The Mission of the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a comprehensive public research university committed to exceptional teaching, discovery, and service. We work at a human scale to generate big ideas. As a community of scholars, we help individuals question critically, think logically, reason effectively, communicate clearly, act creatively, and live ethically.
Our vision for the University of Oregon is one where the educational and research mission are at the fore; an institution of higher learning where we attract and maintain the best researchers and instructors and provide a world class education for the citizens of Oregon and beyond. Yes, this will take a shift in economic priorities, but only back to those before the pandemic. Our demands are neither extravagant nor frivolous. Our demand is that the fiduciaries of the University of Oregon perform their primary fiduciary duty: support the mission of the University of Oregon.
Our aim is to secure a fair contract to support not only the needs of faculty of the University of Oregon, but also to ensure a strong academic future for UO. We are currently in state-mandated mediation, a final step in the bargaining process before a potential strike. Faculty do not want to strike, but the current economic package presented by the administration and their arguments for austerity do not match the economic realities of the institution, nor recognize the increase in faculty labor since the pandemic. If the administration does not relent, we may have no choice but to strike.
We are asking for support from the entire UO community: students, parents, alumni, donors, legislators and citizens of Oregon and beyond. We hope that a significant display of community support can inspire the administration to reconsider their priorities for the University of Oregon, before we are forced to engage in an unnecessary disruption.
More Information
- How Administrators Manipulate Budgets to Create Fake Deficits
Much of this information is from an article in the student newspaper, the Daily Emerald. The administration is claiming a deficit because out-of-state enrollment did not meet targets. Let’s look … - A Choice to Move Resources from the Mission
The Education and General, or simply E&G budget, is the “bucket” of money which goes to the core mission of the university. This is funded by tuition and state funding. … - Eroding Competitiveness
The University of Oregon is a member of the American Association of Universities (AAU), a consortium of highly ranked research universities. These are our peers, the institutions with which we …
Links & Media Coverage
FAQ
What is United Academics?
We are the representative of the faculty at the University of Oregon. We are a union affiliated with the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers. We promote and defend quality public higher education by working together to uphold the University of Oregon’s academic and research priorities.
Bargaining? Mediation? What is going on?
Every three years we bargain a new collective bargaining agreement; a contract with the university which specifies expectations, benefits, pay etc. We have been bargaining with the administration since Spring and the administration has called for mediation–a state mandated part of the process for when negotiation break down.
If we cannot reach agreement during mediation, the members of United Academics may vote to authorize a strike. During a strike all labor by members stops, but negotiations continue until an agreement can be reached.
But the UO says it’s broke!
With rising tuition, rising state appropriations and a rising Education & General budget, it is hard to argue the UO is broke. Their financial position is better than ever. Have they overextended themselves by prioritizing administrators and administrative pay? Perhaps, but that is different than being broke.
Our asks can be achieved by restoring the percentage of tuition and state funds which go to faculty back to their pre pandemic levels.
But UO says their biggest expense is personnel. Where else are they going to make up the deficit?
If you’re a little short on funds one month do you A) just pay less on your mortgage this month! or B) Cut back on your fun budget?
Also, They’re a little short because they purposefully overestimated their income and then went on a shopping spree with money they didn’t have.
A strike? That sounds inconvenient.
Right? At this point, we do not know if we will be forced to strike. That will take a vote of our membership.
We would rather arrive at a fair contract at the bargaining table, with a minimal amount of disruption. However, we have heard unequivocally from our members that they are not satisfied with real pay cuts, especially in light of growing UO revenue. If the administration does not divert course we may be forced to strike.
This is why we are appealing to you now. With enough pressure from UO constituencies, we hope to avert the need for a strike.
Tuition is rising, how can you ask for more for yourself?
Tuition is rising. In the late 20th Century states divested from higher education, and the vacuum was filled by a corporate attitude where the price of higher education is calculated not as a public good, but as a commodity. Tuition is maximized for revenue, not value.
Currently a lower and lower proportion of tuition dollars are going to faculty salaries.
But the solution to whatever budget crisis the administration is claiming, cannot be to devalue the profession of higher education to the point where smart, ambitious, engaged people do not want to go into it. The education of future students depends on the maintenance of the profession.
Our ask is not extreme. A return to the pre pandemic proportion of the UO Education & General budget going to faculty.
Where are you getting your numbers?
UO is required to release certain financial data to the public on their Institutional Research website. This includes information for salaries, demographics, etc. Information about budgets and projections is found on the UO Business Affairs website. Some information about salaries of our comparators can be found in the annual Faculty Compensation Survey by the American Association of University Professors. Information about student enrollment is from UO Student Services and Enrollment Management.
We have done our best to provide accurate numbers and projections. However, UO purposefully makes it difficult to analyze the data they provide (for instance by using dashboards or providing data via pdf instead of in a spreadsheet), and so some numbers are necessarily estimates. As we get information to provide better estimates and projections we will update this page.