Attachment: UT/UT-AAUP(COL) Negotiations – Article 19 UT Proposal (12/10/21)
Matt Schroeder, Executive VP of Finance, gave an informative presentation at the Faculty Senate on Tuesday, November 1, 2022, on the University of Toledo (UT) enrollment and finances. The presentation went for over 2 hours until about 6:45p.m. Matt took and answered many questions on enrollment and finances.
UT finances are healthy as Matt has regularly reported to the Board of Trustees (BOT) for the past three fiscal years. UT has over $450 million in cash and securities with $200 million in the Foundation and over $250 million for day-to-day operations. It was reported to the BOT last June that UT cash-on-hand is the highest in over a decade. UT currently has over 100 days of operating cash. However, Matt expects this cash to be eaten down as we move into Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025 because of expected enrollment declines.
Matt presented slides showing that enrollment has substantially declined at UT over the past 10 years, especially the last three years. Wright State, Akron, and UT have the highest enrollment declines in Ohio. Because of enrollment decline, Wright State terminated over 125 faculty in 2021 and 2022. Akron terminated over 100.
Matt stated to the Senate that UT was built for much higher enrollments and is now overbuilt for its current low enrollment. He stated that based on enrollment, UT should have 300 fewer faculty.
Some Senators pointed out to Matt that this is 50% of the 600 UT-AAUP faculty. Matt replied that he believes we have 1000 faculty, which includes the Medical College faculty, part-time faculty, and visiting faculty. Matt made it clear that he is not advocating for the termination of 300 faculty, but we are overbuilt. President Postel has also said we are overbuilt, but he also does not advocate terminating faculty. The Huron report also says we are overbuilt.
Nonetheless, the Postel Administration is thinking of a Reduction-in-Force (RIF). Last December 10, 2021, the Postel Administration proposed to the Law faculty a RIF policy based on budget and enrollment to replace our current Financial Emergency Article 19 in the T/TT CBA. This proposal was rejected by the Law faculty. However, the Postel Administration has made it clear a RIF policy will be presented during negotiations to the T/TT faculty. At the start of negotiations on March 3, 2022, the UT-AAUP was told it would be forthcoming.
A copy of the RIF Article 19 proposal to the Law faculty is posted on the UT-AAUP website (utaaup.com). This RIF would allow a reduction in faculty based on budget and enrollment. The current Article 19 in the T/TT CBA is based on financial emergency, not budget or enrollment. Because UT finances are healthy, the Postel Administration cannot plead financial emergency. The Administration told Law School negotiators it needs the new RIF policy for flexibility. If a new RIF policy is proposed and accepted by the UT-AAUP members, it will also apply to the Law School faculty.
The Wright State CBA has a RIF based on enrollment. As noted above, the full-time faculty workforce at Wright State was downsized by over 125 full-time faculty (20%) in 2021 and 2022. Most of the cuts have been in Arts & Letters.
Also as noted above, there were over 100 faculty terminations at Akron. These cuts were based on a Force Majeure clause in the Akron CBA. This clause appears in other CBAs in Ohio, but not in the Wright State or our UT CBAs. COVID was the Force Majeure at Akron.
The RIF at Wright State and Akron included many tenured faculty. An AAUP Vice President was terminated at Akron. The primary RIF focus at both schools was Arts & Letters, but there were also significant cuts in Law, Engineering, Business, and the Sciences.
There have been RIFs at other Ohio schools including Youngstown, Ohio University, and Miami. Ohio University and Miami (Ohio) faculty are not unionized, but Miami is currently organizing an AAUP bargaining unit.
As stated above, the UT finances are strong making it difficult for the Postel Administration to declare a financial emergency under our current Article 19. Article 27 of the Lecturer CBA incorporates Article 19 of the T/TT CBA.
T/TT faculty are only about 14.3% ($60 million) and Lecturers 2.4% ($10 million) of the General Fund (Academic) Budget of $420 million. The part-time faculty cost is about $5 million or 1.2%. Faculty represent only about 17% of the budget, but bring in all of the academic revenue. Administrators do not generate revenue.
The Huron Report suggests there should be administrative cuts. If and when there need to be cuts, let’s first look at the Administration and non-academic units. Let’s review Athletics with a budget of over $33 million and an annual loss of over $25 million. Let’s review cuts in a bloated Administration that is over 50% of the budget. Let’s look at cuts in HR, Legal Affairs, and Student Affairs. Let’s also look at the high administrative pay and bonuses.
Faculty are not the cost drivers in the budget – we are the revenue producers.
UT-AAUP Executive Board