Category Archives: Board of Regents

It’s probably not surprising that the EMU-AAUP is not for President Susan Martin’s idea that the bargaining units on campus give up the negotiated pay increases for next year.  Before I get to the email that EMU-AAUP President Susan Moeller sent around about this, two modest and related thoughts:

• While I agree mostly with what the union is saying about administrators (that there are too many that cost too much), I think faculty need to be careful because when we lose administrators, that administrative burden inevitably gets forced on to faculty.  This is the dreaded “administrative creep.”  What needs to happen, IMO, is we need to be much smarter about administrative work and eliminate duplicative work (various flavors of “program review” immediately comes to mind) and we need fewer administrators.  Or rather, EMU needs a thorough audit of just what exactly various administrators are administrating.
• One thing EMU could do to save a boatload of money in the long-run would be to eliminate department heads as members of the administration and replace that role with faculty chairs.  The difference is subtle but important:  while a department head is an administrator that serves at the pleasure of the dean, a chair is a faculty member generally elected by faculty in a particular department or program.  Chairs are cheaper since faculty chairs are compensated with release time instead salary, and, in many small departments at EMU, a highly paid department head is overkill.  Now, I make this suggestion in part because I’m relatively confident that the administration will never ever allow this to happen since chairs would be more beholden to faculty than to deans and the like.  Still, I think it’s something that EMU ought to consider in the coming years.

In any event, here’s Moeller’s email:

Dear Faculty Colleagues:

On Monday, President Martin sent a message suggesting that the faculty and other unions give up their pay increases.  Here is a summary of why we do not believe this is appropriate:

1.        The administration is grossly over-estimating the size of the budget problem.
a.        The administration does not include all revenues in their analysis
b.        The administration consistently over-estimates expenses such as faculty salaries and benefits
2.        If cuts are needed, the place to make cuts is in administration and athletics.
a.        There are too many administrators making too much money at EMU
b.        Athletics costs EMU $16 million per year from student fees and the General Fund.
c.        Cuts in the above two items need to be made before lower paid workers at EMU lose their jobs or other workers give up their modest raises.
3.        The process to decide that workers will be laid off has been secretive and not included any of the collective bargaining units
a.        The Board of Regents has had 4 meetings with administrators to decide on layoffs.  These meetings may violate open meetings laws.
b.        The unions representing the employees who have been asked to take pay cuts were not invited to present their perspective to the Board.  When we asked President Martin if we could be invited going forward, she said no.

Bottom line: It is unconscionable that the administration will lay off low paid workers, given they exaggerate the budget problem, do not acknowledge the bloat in administration and athletics, and have not asked the bargained for employees for their input as these decisions are being made.  Giving back our modest raises is not appropriate, as this would lead to pay cuts for many of our members.

A more detailed analysis of the EMU budget situation is below:

 

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