FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Contact: Kristy Hammond, UA Staff; Chris Sinclair, UA Communications VP
Phone: (541) 636-4714
Email: info@uauoregon.org ; sinclair@uauoregon.org
Faculty Union to Deliver Public Petition to UO Leaders on August 29, Local and National Organizations Respond to Plan for Cuts
According to an August 18 email sent by President Scholz and Provost Long, internal decisions about planned program cuts and faculty layoffs at the University of Oregon may be made as early as August 29, with layoff notices issued the week of September 8. At the same time, the United Academics (faculty union) petition against hasty cuts has collected over 2000 signatures since it was launched on August 19, and more than 500 letters have been sent to UO leaders.
United Academics and campus allies plan to rally and deliver the public petition to Johnson Hall at 10am on Friday, August 29th. Members of the press are invited to attend this on-campus event in order to interview impacted faculty.
Nathan Whalen, a longtime faculty member and current staff member of UA, argues that this overwhelming public condemnation indicates that UO leaders should not rush a decision:
“The University is refusing to follow established procedures and policies in an ill-advised and rushed plan to completely undermine tenure at the University of Oregon, all in the name of a projected budget deficit. This will have everlasting effects on our institution and makes us question the financial stewardship and priorities of the current administration.”
National groups are also speaking out against UO’s rumored plan to gut programs and faculty lines (largely in the Humanities) in order to meet a “projected deficit”. A public letter by the President of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) suggests that UO’s “claim of financial necessity is thin” and that “an institution’s desire to shift priorities is not the same as a fiscal crisis.”
A public letter issued by the American Academy of Religion (AAR) condemns the cuts and highlights the UO’s responsibility “for helping shape thoughtful, engaged, and critical citizens. Eliminating the department and degree programs that have at their center intercultural literacy and critical consciousness of world religious traditions goes counter to the public record of distinction of the University.”
Similarly, a public letter issued by the Genocide and Holocaust Studies Crisis Network suggests
“After eliminating Korean, Portuguese, Swedish, and Swahili in the spring, the plan to eliminate Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, Germanic and Scandinavian, Religion, and Classics, as well as reduce the program of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and History, thereby depriving Judaic Studies, Holocaust Studies, and Arabic Studies of the majority of core faculty, represents far more than budgetary reallocation – it dismantles the very intellectual infrastructure necessary to understand and combat the forces that fuel mass atrocity and systematic persecution.”
About ten student organizations have co-sponsored a resolution condemning planned cuts, which was unanimously passed by the Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO) on August 26. Co-sponsors include the UO Student Workers (student worker union), Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (graduate worker union), Young Democratic Socialists of America, Arab Student Association, Muslim Student Association, Jewish Voice for Peace UO, Climate Justice League, AccessAbility Student Union, and The Insurgent.
According to union leaders, conversations are also taking place with donors and elected officials who are concerned about planned program eliminations. One notable alumnus of a program on the chopping block (Religious Studies) is Oregon Governor Tina Kotek. Some of the positions and programs up for cuts are funded through earmarked donations, such as the recent $25 million donation to the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages, and the Arthur and Barbara Mokin Fellow of Holocaust Studies.
Faculty highlight the rushed timing for cuts, which they argue is a strategy to undermine public shared governance, given that faculty contracts do not begin until Sept 16. The faculty website strengthenuo.org makes the argument that UO leaders have violated university policies and UA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement through these unilateral actions:
“Only department heads and select individuals are being consulted… 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 primarily of retired senate members, as opposed to current Senators, was suspiciously created just for this purpose. Moreover, the other body that MUST be consulted (as per the Faculty Collective Bargaining Agreement) is UAUO.”
Impacted faculty are asking for a slower decision-making process that centers educational outcomes and ensures the national reputation of the University of Oregon does not suffer. Associate Professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Susanna Lim, suggests:
“What is lost here is not just jobs, but values. The logic behind the cuts is to eliminate small departments, as if size equals value. That is profoundly misguided. Some of the most vital knowledge in a university is taught in small programs. To discard them in the name of efficiency is to impoverish both education and democracy.”
# # #
For press inquiries or to be added to our press contact list, please email info@uauoregon.org. Press can also contact UA 3209 to request interviews with impacted faculty.
Press can find more information about planned cuts at the UO and the broader financial picture of the institution on the faculty website strengthenuo.org. Coverage and press resources are continuously updated at: strengthenuo.org/for-press. Press are also welcome to subscribe to our faculty union newsletter RSS feed here.
# # #
United Academics AAUP/AFT Local 3209 of the University of Oregon is the exclusive union representative of faculty at the University of Oregon. As faculty representatives, stewards, and leaders, we work every day to improve our university and the state of higher education in Oregon. More info about UA Local 3209 can be found at uauoregon.org.