Friday, February 12, 2010

Consequences of the 2% raise

The University CFO has admitted publicly that the 2% raise will be paid for with retrenchment and temporary layoffs! http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/02/12/budget-cuts/

8 comments:

  1. I wonder if the administration will try to make it seem that any attempt by faculty to avoid "sharing the pain" will result in more cuts amongst support staff and higher tuition increases? They like to pit groups against each other, and they have done so in the past (i.e. when the clerical, health care, and maintenance workers negotiate their contracts).

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  2. Layoffs sound like a great solution.. as long as they are limited to senior administrators making over 200,000 a year!

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  3. I've been following and participating in a number of struggles across the university over the past eight years (first and second AFSCME strike, General College, GradTRAC). Something that has always astounded me is how BAD faculty are at organzing. Too often we fetishize our teaching and research as political, spend all our time doing academic work and pat ourselves on our back for our politics. At the same time, however, the administration has been taking political action as well--"strategic positioning" being just one example. If we don't organize they're going to sweep the floor out from under us and prevent us from being able to the teaching and research we want to do.

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  4. Anonymous (1) - the divide and rule issue really important, I think. (Btw, folks can comment anonymously but with a unique name by choosing the Name/URL option--fill in a name, leave URL blank. Otherwise it is confusing with everyone being "Anonymous") Taking a strong stand AGAINST any pay raises, maybe even saying that faculty will not take raises if they are given to us, is not only the right thing to do but is also excellent PR. I think divide and rule issues deserve a separate post!

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  5. Why isn't the administration concerned about how bad it looks to the public to be handing out raises of any kind (2 percent, 1 percent, or 1/2 of 1 percent) to "meritorious" faculty during a such a difficult economic time period?

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  6. It makes absolutely no sense to give faculty a two percent raise while we are all expected to come up with more ways for cutting back in our units and Colleges. Faculty should refuse to take the 2 percent raise.

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  7. I agree with Fed Up. Faculty need to take a strong stand against 2 percent raises. It is the right thing to do and it's excellent PR. What about starting a petition to the President and the Regents?

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  8. So, faculty get a 2 percent raise, and then, their pay is cut through a furlough? From a purely economic standpoint, this is not rational. So much for running the university like a business...

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