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Executive SummaryWe proposed a plan that would provide Career faculty with the expectation of continued employment and job security. Under our proposal, Career faculty in their first year would have 30 days’ notice before termination. After their first year, Career faculty can only be terminated with 90 days’ notice for legitimate financial, programmatic, or performance reasons and only after a faculty committee review. Career faculty who have achieved promotion can only be terminated with one year’s notice for legitimate financial, programmatic, or performance reasons and only after a faculty committee review verifies that the termination is legitimate. We renewed our…

Executive SummaryVice President for Finance and Administration Jamie Moffitt gave us a presentation on the budget. We learned that the university has very little money and what money it does have is already spoken for. The administration offered the faculty a 1.4% merit raise in each year of the CBA. There would be two additional pools of money. One would be controlled by the deans (~$300,000/year) and one would be controlled by the Provost ($450,000 total) to distribute as they see fit, or not, in the case of the Provost’s pool. The administration proposed moving all Career faculty to term-to-term…

Executive SummaryThe administration team brought a proposal designed to ensure that everyone understands that only active tenure-track faculty’s contributions to the mission of the University matter to them. We resume bargaining this Thursday, February 27, at noon in Chiles 125. The administration told us that they intend to bring a response to our salary proposal. Before they give us their proposal, there will be a presentation from VP for Finance and Administration Jamie Moffitt. If you want to hear Jamie tell us that despite Tykeson, Knight Campus, Knight Tower, Hayward Field, administrative bonuses, proliferating deanlets, and general administrative bloat, the…

On Thursday, we met with the administration bargaining team for our sixth session. The teams exchanged five proposals on five small issues. You can see all the proposals here. There were new proposals on Articles 9, 11, 39, 40, and Trainings. Our update this week focuses on what we anticipate in the coming weeks. Over the course of the last couple of years, as the administration has entered into negotiations with the campus unions, they have consistently worked to convince the campus community that the University of Oregon has no money. Although this tactic is not surprising, it has been…

Executive Summary The two teams discussed key issues related to tenure and sabbatical. We debated whether the administration should have the sole discretion to delay sabbatical leaves, the obstacles to taking leaves faculty in small departments face when there is no commitment to replace their labor, the need to reform the tenure and promotion denial appeal system, and whether the administration can comply with state law and get the union accurate information about faculty on time. Through our conversations, we discovered that we have some fundamental differences of opinion on whether everything at UO is working just fine or we…

As you may have seen, the UA bargaining team has made several proposals that have the intent of improving the working life of our faculty who primarily work on sponsored research. Over the last few years, many faculty have approached us with suggestions and requests for help in making it easier to conduct sponsored research at the UO. The bargaining team incorporated those diverse perspectives into proposals at the table. Of course, we also know that “sponsored research” is a very broad world at UO, and what might work in one area of campus might not be great for another…

Executive SummaryThe administration bargaining team proposed that tenured faculty could have their FTE reduced to 0.6, 0.4, or 0.2 FTE after an unsuccessful third-year post-tenure review.  They also proposed to define the “review period” for promotion reviews be the last six years only.The United Academics bargaining team proposed a new “Teaching Professor” position. Senior II Instructors and Lecturers can ask for an intensive teaching review that would assess teaching skill and pedagogical philosophy. Successful candidates would have an indefinite appointment. We also proposed that Career faculty FTE could only be lowered by a maximum of 0.2 FTE (based on the…

2020 looks to be a busy year for United Academics. We begin bargaining this week, and we encourage you to come to our first bargaining session this Thursday, January 9, noon-3pm in the Crater Lake Room of the EMU. We will be presenting many of our most important proposals at the first session (including salary increases, better job security for career faculty, and parental leave). Healthy attendance at bargaining sessions improves our bargaining position since it shows the administration that faculty are paying attention and are behind their bargaining team. Please come and bring a colleague or three. You need…