Announcements:
1. Rally for Last Bargaining Date: Nov. 19th, Noon, SMSU - watch for details!
2. Joint AAUP-Faculty Senate Budget Forum, Monday, Nov. 25th, 3 - 5 pm, CH 53
3. Contract Expires Nov. 30th
4. Bargaining Mediation Dates Set: Dec. 18th & 19th
News
1. Executive Payroll Soars at PSU, Despite Ongoing Budget Cuts
2. Prioritize Academics, if We Really Must Cut Again
Executive Payroll Soars at PSU Despite Ongoing Budget Cuts
Dramatic differences in the growth of salaries over the past decade, between the 51-person PSU executive admin team and faculty groups, is clear in publicly available data analyzed by Florida International University (FIU)’s Center for Labor Research and Studies.
The study, commissioned by the PSU-AAUP, investigates PSU’s spending priorities from 2002 to 2012, by analyzing the salary data reported for the campus by PSU’s Human Resources Dept.
After adjusting for inflation
* the Provost’s salary shot up by 46%
* Vice Provosts' average salaries leapt by 43%.
* Vice Presidents' average salaries rose by 29%
* Associate Vice Presidents' average salaries grew by 19%, and
* Assistant Vice Presidents’ average salaries increase by 23%
Meanwhile the number of Executive Administrators at the level of Asst. Dean and above grew by 65% over the past decade, from 31 to 51.
Over the same period, the already high student/full-time faculty ratio worsened and faculty salaries barely kept up with inflation, despite badly lagging comparators, as reported in the most recent OUS Factbook.
Both the Executive Summary and the full study is available at the PSU-AAUP’s webpage: https://www.psuaaup.net/assets/docs/images/index.php/blog/entry/dramatic-differences-in-growth-of-psu-administrators-and-faculty-positions
Prioritize Academics, if We Really Must Cut Again
It's not at all clear that PSU needs to cut 5 - 8% out of next year's budget, as is being proposed. We are quite healthy by the primary metric used by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, with an ending fund balance at the end of the past academic year of 12.6% of operating costs.
It would have been reckoned as 14.4%, in the absence of a new OUS policy to account differently for money students owe the University, or at the high end of the range of 5% to 15% required by the State Board.
But if we really must cut, we can prioritize academics:
$5.0m Cut Admin Combined Salaries to Level of June ‘11
$1.5m Cut Admin Combined Benefits to Level of June ‘11
$3.0m Shift Athletics Subsidy from Tuition to Foundation
$3.0m Cut or Postpone “Provost’s Challenge”
$1.25m Sell University Place and Broadway Building
(would stop cash loss of $1.25m annually AND bring in capital)
$1.25m Eliminate subsidy of Business Accelerator,
Cut or Postpone Cramer Hall Eco-Roof Project
______ Cut Admin Travel
$15.0 m Cut without Harm to Academic Quality
Sources: Figures come from VP Rimai's Presentations to the Faculty Senate Budget Committee and Admin Responses to PSU-AAUP Information Requests.
Please join your colleagues on Nov. 19th at Noon at SMSU, to call for
* a budget that prioritizes academics, and
* a fair contract for PSU faculty.
It's About PSU!