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Dearest Colleagues, It’s been a busy start to the 2025 academic year, and I wanted to take a moment to highlight a few of the many campaigns that UA members have been steadfastly working towards these past months. Despite all of the challenges that we have faced this year, our union is stronger than ever, and I’m delighted that so many initiatives are being championed by rank-and-file members in addition to union officers. For those who are interested in stepping into an officer role, please know that we will be holding elections for several positions in the first quarter of…

UA’s WOKE Toolkit In light of increased ideological and political pressures during the present national administration, United Academics has compiled suggestions for how university faculty of all ranks can protect themselves against future attacks and to fight back if and when they come. These can be found in UA’s WOKE Toolkit.  As a first step, the toolkit works to identify your institutional support networks. The first section lists the main entities on campus that can help you in the event of an attack – United Academics, the UO administration, and the University Senate – and recommends how you can engage…

Over the past few weeks, your union has been assembling a toolkit that we hope will help our members deal with the current war on knowledge and education. With a bit of gallows humor, we’ve taken to calling it the “W.O.K.E. Toolkit.” It contains general advice as well as links to further information on:  Resources on Campus Dangers Beyond the University Walls Protecting Yourself Online Dealing With Doxxing Classroom Precautions Dealing With ICE Please reach out to David Luebke, your VP for Tenure-Track Faculty, at luebke@uauoregon.org if there is any additional information you would like included in this resource. You…

The Fall term General Membership Meeting (GMM) is this Thursday, 5-7pm in Gerlinger Lounge. Dinner and drinks will be available at 5:00, business begins at 5:30. If you can’t join in person, you can Zoom in here. In addition to updates on our efforts to push back against layoffs and the work units should be doing to revise Review and Promotion policies, much of the conversation will focus on current threats to higher education and what we are doing (and should be doing) as a union to push back. Please join us for this important conversation! Important Reminders Open enrollment…

TL;DR:  United Academics’ Politics Committee has been working tirelessly to meet with elected leaders, strengthen coalitions, and craft an Oregon Compact on Higher Education with a positive vision for higher education in the state. Help amplify these efforts by: Signing Higher Education Labor United’s No Loyalty Oaths in Higher Ed Signing the AAUP’s Statement  We Stand for Education and Against the Trump Higher Education Compacts Signing the petition against cuts to librarians and library staff Signing the petition to save the UO Forensics program There is much work to be done. Reach out to info@uauoregon.org to see how you can put…

Hello! My name is Kate Mills and this is my first year serving as president of your union, United Academics of the University of Oregon. As the seasons change and the academic year comes to its official start, I want to take a moment to share how excited I am to be your colleague here at the University of Oregon. We begin this academic year as an incredibly strong union that has repeatedly demonstrated collective care and support for each other. Shortly after 14 months of bargaining to secure our current contract, faculty continued to show up for each other…

We’re reaching out to you today with an urgent request: If you received a layoff notice, please let us know as soon as possible by emailing info@uauoregon.org. There are two reasons why we need to know: first, administration has not informed our union of layoffs in advance; and second, if we are to file a grievance in your defense, we must do so within a very short period of time. It is therefore crucial that anyone who is laid off inform the union as quickly as possible. Our collective efforts in recent weeks were successful in staving off the closure…

You have probably read the administration’s communication today that announced tenure-related cuts will not be on the table for the upcoming year, and that there will be overall fewer cuts to current workers and academic programs than we previously expected. While we were glad to hear that the administration is finally entertaining logical and humane strategies to mitigate their projected budget deficit—such as hiring freezes for currently vacant positions—we are still very upset to hear that Career faculty, classified staff colleagues, and other workers are still under threat. We will continue working with faculty who are likely to be affected…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Thursday, September 4, 2025   Contact: Kristy Hammond, UA Staff; Chris Sinclair, UA Communications VP Phone: (541) 636-4714  Email: info@uauoregon.org ; sinclair@uauoregon.org    Oregon Legislators Express Alarm About UO Leaders’ Planned Cuts, UO Senate Prepares for Possible “No-Confidence” Vote in President Scholz Amid a public outrage over planned cuts at the University of Oregon, Oregon state leaders and the UO Senate have issued letters rebuking the administration’s plans for program eliminations and faculty layoffs. In a public letter to President Karl Scholz, Senator Floyd Prozanski, Senator James Manning, Speaker of the House Julie Fahey, Representative Lisa Fragala,…