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Dear Colleagues, We hope you are all doing the best you can in these unconventional times. As we started writing this update, it occurred to us that by the time it is drafted, edited, and approved, whatever we had to say about the current state of affairs would be almost surely overtaken by an announcement from the Provost or the Governor, and we’d be sending stale news with advice about inoperative circumstances. Instead, we’ll remind you that UA can be your resource for raising issues and concerns you’d like to have addressed by the administration. The leaders and staff of…

Executive Summary:The administration presented their retirement/buyout proposal. It would give the administration complete control over when faculty could be bought out.Bargaining is suspended for the foreseeable future. The UA office is closed until at least Monday, March 30. Officers and staff are working remotely and continue to be available at info@uauoregon.org. Summary:On Thursday, we had our tenth bargaining session. The administration brought three proposals and we presented one.Many of the proposals and ideas we have discussed in bargaining so far have dealt with the issue of who has control of our working lives – we faculty or the administration. Our salary proposal…

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…