Dear Colleague,
Earlier this morning, the leadership of United Academics sent the letter below to President Schill and Provost Philips. This letter was drafted after many meetings and hours of conversation between officers, stewards, and representatives in response to many statements of concern from Career faculty who are up for renewal this year. We have had a very good working relationship with the administration during the COVID crisis, and we are positive that relationship will continue as we discuss how to provide Career instructional faculty with the security they need to focus on their important work.
Dear President Schill and Provost Philips,
Over the past two weeks, more than 1000 faculty members have dedicated countless hours, while many were also juggling home-bound families and everyone was giving up a week’s vacation, to enable the university community to shift to remote teaching while maintaining the standards of a world-class university.
Along with our graduate employee colleagues, these phenomenal faculty will keep the university up and running; their work will ensure our students have a positive experience, learn the material they need to know, and can complete the classes they need to graduate on time.
Over their careers and the last two weeks, the University of Oregon faculty have made an extraordinary commitment to our students and to the university community.
Unfortunately, 211 Career faculty members have contracts that expire at the end of the term. All Career faculty who have expiring contracts face the permanent loss of their employment at the university. The administration has not made any commitment to these faculty.
United Academics calls on the administration to extend the employment for all Career faculty who have expiring contracts for the period of one year at their current FTE, save for those who can be non-renewed for documented performance reasons.
We understand that the university may be in a difficult financial situation should there be a large decrease in enrollment next year, and we appreciate the work the administration is doing to deal with this unprecedented crisis. We are more than willing to work with the administration to find solutions to these temporary challenges, without sacrificing our instructional faculty. We know we can do it if we work together.