Courtesy of LC-AAUP
Recently, Lewis & Clark has moved forward with layoffs and budget cuts in light of the recent budget shortfall, with Vice President for Student Life Ben Meoz announcing the elimination of some vacant positions, the reduction or non-renewal of some non-tenure line faculty contracts, and the layoffs of 14 staff members. In response to these changes, faculty have pushed back, arguing the college’s financial crisis is being framed too narrowly and without sufficient input from those most affected.
On March 4, the LC chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) hosted a teach-in focused on budget cuts, compensation and faculty governance. The event drew faculty, staff and students into a broader conversation about the college’s financial future. AAUP is a nationwide organization that helps professors advocate for their interests at their institutions.
Organizers said the event was, in part, a response to what they see as rushed administrative decisions around budget cuts and staffing at the expense of faculty consultation.
In email correspondence with The Mossy Log, the steering committee LC-AAUP — made up of seven faculty members from the College of Arts & Sciences and one professor from the Graduate School — clarified their mission.
“Our motto is ‘equity, solidarity, transparency,’ and we believe that our working conditions are student learning conditions,” they wrote.
The budget and compensation event ran from 12:40-1:40 p.m., with roughly a dozen faculty and staff members were in attendance, and two professors brought their classes. Professor of Chemistry Julio C. de Paula, a member of the LC-AAUP steering committee and the budget and compensation committee, was one of the presenters at the event. The other presenter was Kundai Chirindo, the department chair for rhetoric and media studies and a member of the LC-AAUP. They began by handing out copies of the chapter’s guiding principles and a letter from chapter president Oren Kosansky from Feb. 16 regarding recent actions by the administration to mitigate the college’s budget issues.
The first principle they highlighted was shared governance. De Paula explained further:
“Shared governance is an overarching principle for everything that we do,” de Paula said. “We are interested in fostering more conversation between members of the community, students, faculty, staff and the folks making decisions about the financial future of the college, so that budgets are the product of conversations, ideas that come from every corner of the institution.”
Kosansky mentioned in his letter how pressing the issue of shared governance is for many faculty members, who feel that the college has been making decisions too hastily without considering their perspectives.
“Many of the concerns we are hearing from faculty stem from the sense of urgency that is being imposed upon us. We have heard from our members and other faculty colleagues that there is a feeling that executive decisions and curricular changes are being unduly expedited, that consultative processes are being rushed if not overlooked, and that a strategic vision has been underdeveloped,” Kosansky wrote.
De Paula and Chirindo then brought up how LC is made of three schools that operate distinctly — CAS, the Law School and the Graduate School — but to outside entities, such as the IRS, lending agencies and accreditation organizations, they are a singular institution. LC-AAUP wants a more holistic way of looking at the budget; rather than being confined to the position of CAS, they want to consider sources of capital across the institution. The chapter also includes one professor from the Graduate School and is looking for a representative of the Law School. This aligns with their priority of shared governance, in which faculty members throughout the institution have a voice.
Chirindo explained that the current narrative about a budget deficit and guidelines around spending are just one way of looking at things, and that the chapter wants another perspective. “AAUP is one place where we’re striving to find ways to tell different stories, using those numbers,” Chirindo said. “So we think that because the college is an institution with three different perpetrating budgets … the principle of shared governance mandates that faculty at all three schools should have a say.”
One of the biggest issues for LC-AAUP is compensation, which they see as crucial to creating the best learning environment for students. In the “Compensation” section of their principles document, the first point speaks to the importance of fair compensation:
“Faculty and staff salary raises and compensation should keep pace with inflation and should be treated as an elemental priority, rather than a discretionary variable and institutional budget.”
Yet, as de Paula explained, salary raises to keep pace with inflation are a “floating variable” that can be adjusted to balance the budget, which he would like to see changed. He detailed the recent trend of salaries at LC.
“Adjusted for inflation, salaries have been decreasing at Lewis & Clark for faculty and staff over the years,” de Paula said. “There are a number of reasons why that’s the case, but it’s getting harder and harder for Lewis & Clark to compensate its workforce in a way that it’s possible to continue with a certain standard of living that is consistent, or at least matches the rate of inflation.”
Another concern mentioned by both Kosansky and Chirindo was staffing cuts. Chirindo felt that the current solution of reducing staff feels like “blaming people, blaming each other,” and that the AAUP wants to find a solution that better supports the “core mission” of the school.
To aid in this, LC-AAUP has hired an outside consultant to examine publicly accessible data about the college’s financial situation, with the goal of finding what other narratives could be told about the current situation and how extreme measures truly need to be. While they are not trying to work against the administration’s budget analysis, the group wants a third party to look at the data. Since the review is still underway, the chapter is unable to share any findings or speculations at this time.
After de Paula and Chirindo’s presentation, the floor was open to questions or comments attendees had about their experience with the budget and governance. One person asked if LC-AAUP believes the “grim” narrative the school is putting forth. De Paula answered that while tuition revenue is certainly down, he and the group remain positive for solutions to this, especially alternate solutions to what is being proposed now.
In their email to The Mossy Log, the steering committee described the teach-in as “successful” in their goal to educate the community and encourage discussion about current conditions for faculty and staff.
“It provided an opportunity for exchange of ideas and experiences between faculty, students, and staff, as well as collective strategizing about ways we can respond and organize collectively,” they wrote.
Just two days after the teach-in, on March 6, Vice President for Student Life Ben Meoz sent an email to all CAS students addressing the financial path of the college. He explained that the current budget deficit is likely to continue growing without action, resulting in the college implementing a three-year plan to manage financial responsibilities while minimizing impacts to the functioning of the school. The plan includes a series of layoffs, eliminating vacant positions and reducing or not renewing some contracts of non-tenure tract faculty.
“With personnel costs making up the majority of expenses in CAS, impacts to personnel are unavoidable,” Meoz’ email read.
He said that letting go of staff has been difficult and reassured that the focus of the institution is still the student experience.
Regarding the recent reduction of faculty and staff, the steering committee expressed concern about the impacts to the student experience and faculty working conditions.
“We are skeptical that reducing or eliminating contingent faculty, which is to say generally the lowest paid and least secure jobs, will effectively address the budget crisis, while we are however fairly sure it will negatively impact the overall vibrancy of the campus community and the educational experience for students,” they wrote to The Mossy Log.
This sentiment reflects the ideas presented at the teach-in; de Paula said he thought letting go of staff is a product of the administration’s attitude about the issue.
“I think what we’re seeing is the consequence of the administration and other committees looking at the budget in a particular way and finding a particular solution,” he said. “Again, what we’re trying to do is ask the question: is there a different way to look at the budget which might lead to different solutions?”
Already, budget and staffing reductions are impacting various academic departments, including those who have not even had any layoffs. Reiko Hillyer, professor of history and department chair, explained that in the past few years, two professors, who specialized in China and medieval Europe, have retired, and their positions will not be filled any time soon. While the department has still been able to function, she worries about their ability to teach a variety of courses, including in specialty subjects that interest students.
“Not only does that mean that we can’t cover entire areas, but it also means that if we are obligated to cover core courses, in other words, courses that are required for our history majors to graduate — a methods class, a thesis class, those sorts of things that aren’t necessarily in our area of specialty — there are fewer of us to cover those,” Hillyer said.
Hillyer also expressed concern about the possibility of losing the administrative coordinator for the English and history departments, Amy Baskin. In the classics department, the administrative coordinator was let go, according to an email from Department Chair Gordon Kelly. Hillyer described Baskin’s work as crucial to the department, beyond basic administrative tasks.
“She contributes to the learning culture and community of our students. It just feels very scary, because we have not only grown to rely on these folks to help create an integrative and comfortable place of belonging for our students. … But we also hold them very dear. I mean, these are our dear friends and our dear colleagues,” Hillyer said.
Magalí Rabasa is an associate professor of Hispanic studies, which is part of the world languages and literatures department that relies on 13 contingent (non-tenure) faculty members. She is also on the steering committee of the LC chapter of AAUP and the contingent faculty committee.
While there have not been any recent faculty layoffs, an anonymous faculty member who has been at the college for more than a decade was slated to be laid off. Still, she has seen the effects of staffing shortages on students’ education, she said in an email to The Mossy Log.
“My department, and specifically my section (Hispanic Studies), has been impacted by staffing and course reductions for next year, including the elimination of sections of Spanish classes at all levels (100-400). This means students will have less options for class times, fewer choices of topics courses, and less flexibility with scheduling courses required for the major,” the professor wrote.
One staff member who was laid off was Kaiti Lemon, the former academic advising specialist for student athletes, and her loss has been mourned by the community. On March 7, she emailed student athletes to inform them that she had been let go. The next week, flyers began popping up around campus saying “WE WANT KAITI!” with a QR code leading to a Google Form for students to give feedback about their experience with Lemon.
In her email to student athletes, Lemon encouraged students to advocate for themselves.
“If you feel any sort of way about this decision, I’d encourage you to use your voice. To the Dean, to the President, to Petie (Director of Physical Education & Athletics Mark Pietrock). Fight so you’ll always have someone in your corner,” she wrote. “I wish nothing but the absolute best for each and everyone of you.”
Many support members of the support staff have also been impacted by the layoffs and restructuring. Chel Pinnock is a technical support manager in the IT department and the president of the Lewis & Clark College Support Staff Association (LCCSSA). LCCSSA is a union that represents roughly 100 nonprofessional, nonexempt employees across all three schools, including secretarial, administrative offices, campus safety and laboratory technician employees. Nonprofessional employees do work that is primarily clerical, technical, manual or trade-oriented, as opposed to supervisory or specialized academic work. Employees hired with nonexempt status are automatically enrolled in the union. The bargaining unit excludes from membership housekeeping employees, faculty, student employees, casual or temporary employees, part-time employees who are regularly scheduled to work less than 20 hours per week, and supervisors.
In an interview with The Mossy Log, Pinnock discussed the ways that the members of the union have been impacted by the recent staffing changes.
“With my union, we had two positions that were vacant. They were eliminated, and they’ll never be filled. They’re gone. We had two members who have had their hours reduced. And then six more have had their positions eliminated,” Pinnock said.
She explained that individuals whose positions were eliminated may be able to exercise “bumping rights,” allowing them to displace the least senior employee in a comparable role, provided they are qualified for the job. The process means that workers whose jobs were not initially cut could still be forced to leave.
“It’s hard on everybody. It’s hard to make the decision to kick somebody else out of their job. And it’s hard to be sitting there in your job going, ‘wait, what?’ … It’s really hard for everybody all around,” she said. “It’s a very common thing to have in contracts, especially in education.”
Pinnock said some affected employees are considering bumping, but she could not share details. Others are still deciding, while some will take severance if no comparable position is available.
Like Hillyer and Rabasa, Pinnock expects the layoffs to place strain on departments throughout campus. This includes faculty who now have fewer administrators to assist with tasks such as copying and collating documents, ordering supplies and assisting with symposia organization such as through booking guest speakers.
Another concern regarding layoffs is the communication and decision-making process behind them. Hillyer said that it feels as though layoffs are happening very quickly, and communication is being done in an “undignified” way. She feels confused about how much input from faculty was taken into account to consider future impacts.
“I don’t know how much consultation there was with faculty,” Hillyer said. “I don’t mean that just individual faculty who may have lost their admins, but consultation in terms of how it’ll all be restructured in the aftermath, what faculty need, what best serves our programs and our students.”
Rabasa and LC-AAUP feel uncertain about how the decision process was made and what faculty are being told about the security of their employment.
“I also have concerns about the process through which these decisions have been made. Over the past year, there has been inconsistent messaging around who and what would be impacted, and what the timeline for decisions and non-renewal notifications would look like,” Rabasa wrote.
Staff and faculty mentioned a general atmosphere of low morale and fear due to recent layoffs. Hillyer specifically said, “it’s just a scary time,” due to the uncertainty surrounding many positions, especially considering the closeness colleagues share.
Pinnock spoke to the sentiment she has felt among fellow staff members.
“Everybody’s taking a hit in some manner, and everybody’s hurting and grieving. We’re losing people we’ve worked with for a long long time. I think it’s also hard at the executive level, too. They’re not liking this,” she said.
Despite the difficulty regarding the budget and layoffs, LC-AAUP and faculty still have hope for possibilities in the future. The chapter encourages faculty across the three schools to learn about their work and suggests that students build awareness of issues and share their concerns with the administration.
Hillyer voiced optimism about new initiatives like the partnership with the Albina Vision Trust and the proposal of new academic disciplines. She also has faith in the philosophy and value of a liberal arts education and the educational experience offered at LC.
“I really believe that once students are in a classroom, our education is incredible, and our faculty are incredible. Our students are amazing. You can come and come through here and have a terrific education, even through all of this uncertainty,” Hillyer said.
At the budget event, Chirindo addressed similar concerns about the college being in an extremely difficult situation and again returned to the idea of finding other narratives.
“When I say there’s this narrative that’s this doom and gloom, I choose to believe a different story. I choose to believe a story of possibility,” Chirindo said.
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Well done. Thank you, Olivia.