GTFF and Administration Reach Tentative Agreement to Avert Strike!

After months of negotiations with the UO administration, our union cousin the GTFF has tentatively agreed to a new contract.

Like with the SEIU, demonstrating a credible strike threat appears to be essential in contract negotiations. For the GTFF, 87% of GEs participated in the strike authorization vote, with 98% voting yes.

Congratulations to the GTFF on their Tentative Agreement!

Turning the Blue Wave into Action

The election last week resulted in many wins by candidates endorsed by United Academics and AFT-Oregon, including Tina Kotek in the governor's race, and the entire Eugene-Springfield state legislative delegation. In the House, that includes Rep. and House Speaker Julie Fahey (House District 14), Rep. Lisa Fragala (House District 8), and Rep. Nancy Nathanson (House District 13). Joining them now will be Rep.-elect Kori Rodley (House District 7), who won election to the House for the first time. Congratulations, Kori! In the Senate, Sen. James Manning (Senate District 7) and Sen. Floyd Prozanski (Senate District 4) won re-election. At the local level, Callee Ackland won in the Springfield city council race.

Congratulations to all of our endorsed candidates! We look forward to working with them in the future. With the 2027 legislative session just around the corner, there will be opportunities for United Academics members to engage in promoting legislation that supports higher ed faculty throughout the state. More news on that score to come!

We are particularly excited about meeting regularly with Governor Kotek to discuss how to raise Oregon's funding for higher education. In an August email to Oregon academic labor leaders, the Governor highlighted her interest in pursuing her Prosperity Council's recommendation to "strategically align higher education funding with West Coast states to strengthen Oregon's workforce, research, innovation, and industry partnerships in high-growth sectors." Matching California and Washington funding levels would entail more than doubling our state's higher education budget. A change of that magnitude will take time. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to send Governor Kotek a message urging her to prioritize higher education funding in her upcoming budget proposal.

Clarifying the UO’s Projected $63.3M Budget Shortfall

The executive administration’s wording about its “estimated $63.3 million budget shortfall” has been the source of much confusion. The following is an attempt to clarify the projected shortfall that is the center of attention and discussion this fall.

The important context is that much of the UO’s revenues and expenses can be predicted from year to year. On the revenue side, students who start as freshmen proceed through the university’s programs at relatively predictable rates. On the expense side, future personnel costs can be estimated based on the university’s current employee distribution and known or expected future increases (e.g. raises based on union contracts or expected PERS/PEBB cost increases). The university regularly creates multi-year forecasts of revenues and expenses in order to make hiring decisions (among other things).

Suppose that in a given year fewer freshmen enroll than expected. This creates an immediate (current-year) budget problem: as an example, if you were expecting to enroll 1,000 students at tuition of $50,000, and you actually enrolled 800 students, you will receive $10 million less revenue than you expected. As our budget is managed to keep revenues and expenses close, in this example, we would face a $10 million deficit without cuts to expenses.

Since our programs last longer than a single year, a reduction in incoming freshmen implies a reduction not just in current revenue, but also in revenue in subsequent years: next year we will have fewer sophomores than expected, in the following we will have fewer juniors, and so on. If enrollment of freshmen also stays lower in those subsequent years, the problems will compound.

This is unfortunately exactly what the executive administration is forecasting for UO. Last spring, the administration announced that fall out-of-state enrollment would likely be lower than previously expected based on data available at the time. This fall, the lower forecast has come to fruition: there are fewer new out-of-state students on campus than expected. As in the example above, this creates an immediate budget problem, which the administration estimates to be $25 million.

So where does the $63.3 million number come from? The administration is assuming that the state of enrollment this fall is a “new normal:” they predict that future out-of-state enrollment will stay at the lower level experienced this fall. This means that, relative to previous budget forecasts, the gap between revenues and expenses will rise each year until the current freshmen are seniors, four years from now. After that time, the forecasted gap is constant year-to-year, absent other changes to revenue or expenses. The administration calculates that, four years from now, the annual gap between revenue and expenses will be $63.3 million.

Critically, this gap is not a one-time gap that can be fixed with one-time funds. Rather, the projection is that, absent changes to expenses, the university will face a $63.3 million deficit each year. Thus, the executive administration argues, we must take drastic action on the expense side now so that we do not experience these deficits this year and in future years.

It’s important to note that the administration is assuming that enrollment stays constant at this new level in future years. In reality, enrollment may increase relative to this year (in which case the projected deficit would be smaller) or decrease (in which case the projected deficit would be larger).

AMAC Wants to Hear From You!

The administration of the University of Oregon released their preliminary proposals to address the projected budget deficit at the University Senate last Wednesday. These proposals, if executed, will degrade the quality of education UO faculty offer to undergraduates and graduate students, undermine faculty research, and threaten UO’s academic reputation.

We encourage you to use the AMAC feedback form to give your opinions/suggestions on the administration's preliminary proposal. This feedback goes directly to the Academic Modification Advisory Committee who will produce a report evaluating the administration's plan for a significant academic change to ensure that the plan:

Includes provisions for students to complete their degree within a reasonable teach-out period or receive equivalent alternatives;
Is compliant with existing university policies and procedures and collective bargaining agreements that provide reassignment or other protections for affected faculty and staff;
Preserves essential curricular functions and academic records;
Mitigates harm to related programs and units.

We also recommend you send your feedback to the Board of Trustees.

AMAC will host listening sessions via Zoom on:

House Bill 4124 Study Public Survey

The Higher Education Coordinating Committee’s lead consultant for the House Bill 4124 higher education revitalization study, EY-Parthenon, has launched the House Bill 4124 Study Public Survey.

We encourage you to participate and to help us to share this survey widely in Oregon!

To learn more about the study’s background and process, visit the HECC HB 4124 implementation web page, where you can also find a link to the survey.

The survey asks open-ended questions about the “challenges and opportunities” facing higher education in Oregon. Comments about UO in particular (from the board of trustees to administration to teaching to research) are all fair game as are comments about the Oregon public university system as a whole, including the role of the HECC and the state legislature. The ongoing disinvestment in public higher education by the state is well-known, so if you comment on the need for increased funding, we encourage you to articulate where and how state appropriations should be spent.

The United Academics Politics Committee is recommending that the HECC and state legislature take the following actions:

Increase state funding for higher ed while establishing guardrails that ensure funding is used for core academic expenses and for reducing student costs.
Reform the selection process for university boards to allow for more transparency and to ensure greater balance of expertise, with more trustees having experience in higher ed and the public sector.
Establish more collaborative decision-making processes surrounding the creation and closure of academic programs to ensure faculty and student participation in those decisions and to enhance coordination between Oregon’s public universities.

Please share this survey opportunity with your communities. Anyone who is interested in public postsecondary education in Oregon is welcome to participate.

The survey will be open through December 4, 2026.