UI system now planning on 20-25 percent cuts next academic year. No new hires, most departments will not admit grad students, and no counter offers for faculty. Retirements encouraged, no adjuncts and serve support staff cuts.
Furloughs at Illinois
(131 posts) (31 voices)-
Posted 3 years ago #
-
That sounds quite a bit more drastic than what I've heard. Maybe it is a systemwide averages vs. specific department sort of thing.
Posted 3 years ago # -
No grad students and no adjuncts? Are they going to increase the teaching loads of the TT and tenured faculty? Someone has to stand in the classroom.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Glad I'm not a political scientist looking for a job this year. ...No wait, I am! Doh!
Posted 3 years ago # -
Direct from Dean to Heads. I doubt teaching loads will increase but am not sure. Seems like there will just be less classes/programs. Word on this will start to leak soon but all these measures are based on both the assumption the State will not pay the UI system money owed and the loss of stimulus money next year. I could post the email I got but most of this stuff is private right now.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Illinois now faced with layoffs. Interview w/ president Ikenberry from the student paper:
DI: Do you have any idea of how many people you expect to be laid off or when this decision will be made?
SI: No clear idea. Of course, there are about 11,000 people involved in the furloughs, but right now the number of layoffs I hope will be modest. That’s part of the reason for the hiring freeze — to help minimize layoffs. If we don’t increase the size, if we don’t fill open positions, that’s a way to manage the crisis. The answer to your second question is no, I don’t know what the number is going to be, and (that’s) partly because we don’t know the depth and duration and severity of the crisis. Back to your question, ‘How bad could it get?’ We don’t know.
DI: With budget cuts and furloughs, how can the University of Illinois stay a top university in the nation?
SI: That’s a tough one. I think the answer is, that may not be do-able when you look at it.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Right now staff is being cut, they are working on cutting civil service employees, all adjuncts might be cut, and faculty in departments with less than 10 folks will be targets of consolidation or elimination. No funding for a grad students but you can attend on fellowship (external) or pay.
Posted 3 years ago # -
no wonder Elkins fled and Hays is trying too. but why didn't Wendy Cho stay at NW?
Posted 3 years ago # -
Hmmm...
Let's see...
Elkins left in early 2008, and Cho returned from one year at Northwestern in 2006, sooooo unless these scholars had some prophetic foresight of the global economic collapse in late 2008, the impact that it would have on the state budget, and the tangentially related decision of state legislators to withhold 93% of their contributions to the university, I'm gonna go with "it probably had nothing to do with it."PS: I'm trying to flee, too, but nobody seems to care. ;)
Posted 3 years ago # -
99 percent of faculty did not know before Dec how bad things were going to get. Those who did were on exec comms for faculty senate and didn't seem to care tell the rest of us.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Everyone thought A&M was going to raid from the UCs, but it looks like UI will be the target. Seems sensible since U.C. Davis is A&M's only real "peer school" in the UC system, and UI is at a similar level.
Posted 3 years ago # -
99 percent of faculty did not know before Dec how bad things were going to get. Those who did were on exec comms for faculty senate and didn't seem to care tell the rest of us.
Gashuff,
Do you attend Senate Faculty meetings? This is where stuff like this is discussed.
Posted 3 years ago # -
For those of us who don't want to get furloughed, we now have the option of a reduction in pay of the same amount as the would-be furlough. I'm really not sure which is worse: not getting paid to not work, or working but not getting paid for it.
Posted 3 years ago # -
I would take the lower salary. I am uncomfortable with the furlough idea, because everyone knows that faculty will work during furlough days: research; preparation for class and administrative duties, etc. Thus, in my mind furloughs establish the idea that faculty should only get paid when their time can be strictly accounted for (i.e., classtime), and treats all other faculty work/duites as something that can be done for free (uncompensated).
Posted 3 years ago # -
Troll's point about what furloughs imply is a good one that I had not thought of. Are the pay cuts associated with furloughs any less permanent or easier to reverse when budgets improve than simple salary reductions? If so, that would seem to be their one virtue over salary cuts.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Are the pay cuts associated with furloughs any less permanent or easier to reverse when budgets improve than simple salary reductions?
In California, furloughs for public sector workers are being extended into the indefinite future.
Posted 3 years ago # -
We were told by the Faculty Senate ex comm that furloughs and other cuts had been decided before Christmas break. One can only assume the timing of the announcements over break was meant to minimize impact. This has not happened. We are working on a teach in on Feb 16.
Troll's point about furloughs being a problem is true, but in my mind, accepting a voluntary pay reduction (which is what the offer is being called) is much worse than a furlough. I did not read the details closely but I would rather be in the fight with the rest of the faculty rather than take a voluntary pay reduction. At this point, furloughs are involuntary. No faculty approved this measure while accepted a formal pay reduction would basically be like surrendering point when we still don't think furloughs were necessary and solve any problems. They only save something like 18 million out of the 400 million we are in the hole. Furloughs are barely a drop in the bucket and negatively impact the only ones generating cash for the university system, professor who teach classes.
Furloughs can be extended at any time since they were inserted into our notification of appointments a few months ago. A Dean the other day said lists of tenure and tenure track profs who might up for elimination were being made up. The old line was that programs with less than 10 faculty were in trouble but that seems to not be the case. We are unsure what the critera for elmination will be. Political science across the UI and UIC campuses will be fine but it may have to merge with Urban Planning or other similar institutes. It could also be merged in with other social science fields in a manner like the Arizona system.
We anticipate not having a graduate class, no adjuncts, elimination of virtually all non academic programs, and increased class loads. The only way we can save the system is to increase revenue and decrease costs. Fighting with the administration is a dead end. In my view, the only way forward is to fight the state and get them to raise taxes or/and increase bond sales. We also need stimulus money extended for a few more years.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Of course, the idea of having individual faculty decide for themselves to take a furlough or a pay cut is bogus. My point is that the idea that furloughs are somehow temporary or can be readily rolled back is false. Moreover, furloughs are particularly dangerous for faculty because it moves the profession toward piecework. In other words, we get paid for the classes we teach or research we produce, not for the job of being a professor.
It should also be noted that in the discussions surrounding furloughs, as far as I know, administrators are not saying that they are reducing research or teaching quality expectations. Thus, faculty are doing the same jobs for less money. Hence, instead of embracing the fraud of furlough days (or days off) let's just call it a pay cut, and negotiate in the future from that position.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Of your points are correct. The idea is to have a teach in next month to educate the public and students about the situation and the role of faculty.
Posted 3 years ago # -
>> In California, furloughs for public sector workers are being extended into the indefinite future.
Are you saying this in reference to UC and CSU faculty, or state bureaucrats?
Posted 3 years ago # -
My understanding is that current budget planning in California assumes the continuation of furloughs for public employees. I would not assume there is any distinguishing among types of public employees.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Oh. Well, there is. The governor in CA does not have discretion to furlough UC faculty.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Oh. Well, there is. The governor in CA does not have discretion to furlough UC faculty.
Given the increasing budget cuts being imposed on higher education by the state government, that is a distinction without a difference.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Yeah, that's true, there's not much difference between "furloughs for public sector workers are being extended into the indefinite future" and "furloughs for university workers have not been extended into the indefinite future."
Posted 3 years ago # -
There is a difference though.
Speaking only to the status of the CSU (which is all I know about), it is up to the CSU--and its constituent campuses--to decide how to balance the budget. This year the Chancellor proposed furloughs as a cost saving measure to our faculty union and a bare majority voted to accept furloughs. Budget allocations were made to the campuses based on this budget reality. Each campus then responded based on their local conditions. If the faculty do not vote for furloughs next year (that is, if they are proposed by the Chancellor) then campuses will have to deal with the budget realities that come out of the CSU administrative offices in Long Beach.
In short, whether furloughs in the CSU continue "into the indefinite future" is a function of the choices faculty and administrators make in the face of the budget realities handed to them by the Governor and the legislature.
Posted 3 years ago # -
The fact is that the higher education budget is being cut again in CA. These will be imposed through a combination of furloughs and staff/faculty cuts. In other words, in the same way that they are being imposed on the rest of the public sector. It is foolish to think otherwise.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Furloughs are not a given. Staff/faculty cuts probably are. At a systemic level there is effectively no difference; higher education in CA is going to take it on the chin. I am hardly saying anything different than you are T. But the original point I was responding to was that furloughs were a given; they are not (the CFA would have to agree to furloughs--the governor and/or Chancellor have no unilateral authority on this point).
Posted 3 years ago # -
TCJ,
I understand your point, but while the process for "regular" public sector employees and faculty is different, the outcome will be the same (i.e., furloughs and jobs cuts). The difference in procedure should not give you comfort.
Posted 3 years ago # -
First, I take no "comfort" in any of this. It is a tragedy for the state and for every person who is negatively impacted by this circumstance. In fact, I took the path of "discomfort" by supporting furloughs in the hope of avoiding job cuts for others. I could have voted my narrow self interest, but I did not (I am protected from all but the most devastating job cuts since I have tenure and rank).
Second, you are quite mistaken about the "outcomes" -- it could be a combination of furloughs and cuts, it could be one, or it could be the other; but, neither the Governor nor the Chancellor have the unilateral power to impose furloughs. That was the point that I was responding to in the first place.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Oh, I didn't realize Troll is GAG.
You see, Troll has implicitly tried to equate furloughs and attrition/layoffs. This is necessary to bolster Troll's claim that furloughs have been extended to the indefinite future, when they plainly have not.
Of course, I'm keeping my job, so I feel rather differently about these two options; they are obviously not equivalent at the individual level. So, since furloughs have not been extended indefinitely in CA and are not equivalent to other policies thatmight be emplaned, GAG's stupid argument that furloughs are less preferable than outright salary cuts unravels. One is permanent the other is not.
Posted 3 years ago #