Cuts Overview – 2025

Despite continuing to hire new faculty and administrators throughout the past year, the University of Oregon announced layoffs of over 40 employees in CAS in June 2025. More layoffs are expected in September 2025. 

In addition to the original projected deficit announced in early spring 2025 of approximately $2 million, the UO also announced a later additional deficit which was “discovered” in June of approximately $30 million. The administration has been unclear about how these recently “discovered” deficits accrued (see our Goals for Financial Transparency & Shared Financial Governance).

It is United Academics’ position that the UO has not demonstrated the financial exigency required for the actions they plan to take. Thus, we believe their actions likely violate Article 25 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement and we have filed a grievance.

They have also initiated this second round of cuts when most faculty is off-contract for the summer, and cannot participate in shared governance effectively. There seems to be an unnatural rush to a resolution for this purported crisis. The timing and tempo of this is particularly galling when we look to our CBA, which states that the University is obliged to consult with effected faculty. To date these consultations have come in the form of an ultimatum: “find people to cut, or your entire department will be closed.” That is a strange form of consultation indeed.

Here’s how things currently stand from the faculty perspective:

1. The rushed, three-week process carried out during summer 2025 while faculty are not even on contract is entirely insufficient for real consultation and planning. This mirrors the rushed process used to lay off 40+ employees in CAS in June 2025.
2. Only department heads and select individuals are being consulted. The lack of broader consultation is being cynically justified with reference to a “need for confidentiality.”
3. Instead of consulting the UO Senate as a whole or the established UO Senate budget committee, a special, closed “Senate task force on budget reductions”, composed mostly of retired senate leaders, as opposed to current Senators, was used to justify the UO administration’s claim that faculty were consulted meaningfully. Members of this task force have stated during the August 29 Senate Emergency Meeting that they did not believe their limited meetings with leaders met the requirement for consultation with faculty. Moreover, the other body that MUST be consulted (as per the Faculty Collective Bargaining Agreement) is UAUO.
4. The faculty do not currently have a representative on the UO Board of Trustees, due to issues with the timing of appointments. A faculty Trustee will not be seated until after the September Board meeting at which the administration plans to approve plans for cuts. This means faculty effectively have no Board representation as cuts decisions are made.

For more information about budget cuts and layoffs, see the following sub-pages and our Finance FAQs tab.

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