Letter to the editor: contract negotiations, a bridge ready to collapse
Oakland University Associate Professor of English Andrea Knutson.
I’m a member of Oakland University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and while our bargaining team undergoes contract negotiations (happening now during a temporary extension of our contract), I want to record how this impacts me, and by extension, possibly, other faculty, who are watching as OU slashes and burns its relationship with us.
Below is Oakland University’s mission and vision statement:
Oakland University Mission Statement:
Oakland University cultivates the full potential of a diverse and inclusive community. As a public doctoral institution, we impact Michigan and the world through education, research, scholarship, and creative activity.
Oakland University Vision Statement:
Oakland University will unlock the potential of individuals and leave a lasting impact on the world through the transformative power of education and research.
Fourteen years ago I was excited to begin my career at Oakland University. I had just gotten my Ph.D. and was looking forward to teaching in the Midwest, continuing my research, and joining with a community to make important decisions about how best to prepare our students to become educated, ethical problem solvers and innovators⎯to play my part in our collective pursuit of educational excellence.
My time at Oakland University is, however, also marked by the anniversary of the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis that killed 13 people in 2007. I was vacationing in Vermont, getting ready for a big move to Michigan, when I found myself fearing that a friend or family member was on that bridge.
Since I’ve been at Oakland University, faculty have lost something in our contract negotiations: Oakland University chips away at our health care, faculty governance, and salary every chance they get, and it’s getting harder and harder to have respect for an institution that so methodically destroys not only our livelihoods, but our morale. We lose something every time. Faculty are always the losers. We have gotten used to losing. This year, however, negotiations are gearing up to be a bridge collapse. Here is OU’s mission and vision statement again:
Oakland University Mission Statement:
Oakland University cultivates the full potential of a diverse and inclusive community. As a public doctoral institution, we impact Michigan and the world through education, research, scholarship, and creative activity.
Oakland University Vision Statement:
Oakland University will unlock the potential of individuals and leave a lasting impact on the world through the transformative power of education and research.
These are nice sentiments, but OU will not be able to recruit or retain the faculty they want to meet the goals in these statements if they have their way in the current bargaining. Let’s assume Oakland University wants to impact the world with the transformative power of excellent teaching, research, and community engagement. Here’s what’s happening at the bargaining table right now, according to OU’s economic proposal. Let me begin by saying that Oakland University’s bar for faculty salary is already too low. OU does not pay their faculty a competitive salary. Because of this the primary means by which we are able to recruit and retain excellent faculty is the way that our retirement benefits work. Our retirement package helps to make up for the ways that we are underpaid. My salary is $71, 049.00, and my salary is actually below the average salary for Oakland University faculty.
Several contracts ago, our bargaining team gambled and in good faith agreed to meet one of OU’s demands, which was to cease their contributions to faculty health care costs after they retire in exchange for a retirement package that meant OU would contribute 16% of our salary to our retirement fund. This means that in a roundabout way my base salary is increased monthly by $2,635.00 because of the total compensation received in my retirement benefits. This translates, oddly, to a “salary” of $82, 416.00.
Currently, in OU’s economic proposal, my retirement percentage would drop from 16% to 11% and I would lose⎯in what is an enormous pay cut⎯$3,552.00 per year. This, apparently, is OU’s response to a contract extension for one year, which happened because of the pandemic and which was essentially a pay cut because it froze our salaries while we incurred the costs of expanded WIFI packages, software, computer upgrades, childcare costs etc., to serve our students and Oakland University. I am happy to hustle for my students in an emergency to learn online pedagogies, to learn educational platform uses, to adjust my personal space, work countless hours, reach out to countless people, and help my students adjust mentally and emotionally to their new realities. We did this because we trusted Oakland to do the right thing and recognize our sacrifices when we bargained a new contract. Instead, we’re being punished.
“Let them eat cake”: OU’s Administrative Bloat Steals from Faculty
Oakland’s president, Ora Pescovitz, makes $483,171.00 and receives 17% retirement benefits, which equals an additional $82,139.00 for her (more than my entire base salary), which brings her monetary benefit to a total of $565, 310.00. In addition, Oakland University’s current 8 Vice Presidents receive a total compensation of $1,837,633.00, which is roughly the equivalent of the $1,855,850.00 the AAUP requested for our entire full-time faculty salary increase of 3.5% for a cost of living adjustment and the loss of a salary increase over the last 5 years. Also, the new Chief of Staff position OU added this year will cost $215,000.00 plus $34,400.00 for benefits for a total compensation of $249,400.00 Just eliminating this one position would pay for the entire faculty research budget.
This bridge is collapsing. Oakland University has proven over and over in the fourteen years I’ve been here that they’re willing to sacrifice the very faculty they need to fulfill OU’s mission and vision. They want educators? They want researchers? They want us to make this university run during a pandemic? I know what I do is important to my students, their families, and their communities. I know the “impact” I have on students. What will Oakland University have left after they’ve taken so much they’ve burned their bridges? This relationship will be broken, and the unfair and unjust treatment of their faculty will have repercussions. What we want most from our leaders is vision, transparency, and accountability, t hese are slipping away from our campus.
Oakland University doesn’t seem to understand that faculty aren’t the only ones on this bridge. Students are on this bridge. Students’ families are on this bridge. When OU dehumanizes their faculty, they dehumanize their students. Students can’t afford another tuition hike to pay for another administrator and faculty can only lose so much before there’s nothing left. I wonder: what will OU use to replace the bridges they’ve burned?
This letter to the editor was submitted by Andrea Knutson. Letters to the editor can be submitted to [email protected].
Richard Dement • Aug 19, 2021 at 8:31 PM
OMG I just found out that OU offered $500 and a one year contract to staff!!! After everything the staff did for OU last year! It’s appalling! Now OU is trying to offer $500 to the faculty! Even Domino’s pizza is offering $1000 sign on bonus. Buffalo Wild Wings down my road is offering $400! What’s wrong with OU?? The administration is really telling the faculty to eat cake when they are sipping cocktails in sunset terrace and hiring chief of staff positions to deal with the press when the faculty and students are suffering! We have amazing faculty, recognize and treat them with dignity and give them a fair wage for the work they do to support our students! Our students are getting top jobs and successful, creative change makers because of the faculty not the administration or Ora. We spent $80,000 on bio buttons for goodness sake. Let’s try to remember that the students deserve a faculty that is treated fairly so they can go on and motivated to become teachers to the next generation of students.
Jeremy Johnson • Aug 19, 2021 at 6:09 PM
I am vehemently disappointed to see this is how OU treats the AAUP and it’s members. This story rhymes with the kind of treatment student workers are constantly subjected to. OU has proved it does not value its workers enough to provide adequate pay, benefits, and resources and everyone should be appalled. Even if you do not work for OU in any capacity, you directly benefit from professors having the compensation and materials they need to be successful if you are a student. All of the OU community benefits from OU paying their workforce adequately as the work every worker does improves the campus environment, access to learning opportunities, and the overall college experience.
This story should make everyone upset. OU needs to learn how to treat all of its workers and stop prioritizing profits over the needs of the people that allow the university to exist.
Trudy Truthiness • Aug 19, 2021 at 4:02 PM
Additional food for thought: Robert (Bobby) Schostak, newly appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees, along with billionaire Dick DeVos and former MIGOP Chairman Ron Weiser, were the primary architects of the so-called right to work legislation that was enacted by the Michigan legislature in a lame-duck session in December 2012. It’s easy to see that OU leadership is trying to erode union membership.
Nigel Motgomery • Aug 18, 2021 at 11:22 AM
So what does the Chief of Staff do? Why do we need a Chief of Staff? Why is Oakland hiring more and more administrators? These Admin jobs are redundant and almost always conducted by the staff who get paid peanuts and are treated with disrespect. Every single faculty member came through for OU and supported our students and pulled the university through an ongoing pandemic. Spent out of pocket money and juggled family finances to do this. These are the same faculty that spent 12 years working towards getting their PhD’s while working on campus minimum wage jobs and incurring student debt to give our OU students a high class quality education, publishing, working on research while juggling their service duties that got Oakland to a R2 status and now Oakland is treating them like their contributions are of zero value. Our faculty are dedicated, caring and valuable. Don’t let Oakland Admin treat them like a box of disposable N95 masks.
Mary E.Craig • Aug 17, 2021 at 5:01 PM
Yes, listen up students! I’m a special instructor ( teaching role that is job secure and equivalent to tenure ) in biology and echo the sentiments of Andrea Knutson – and when I heard about the sub-par contract finalized for our support staff I was greatly disheartened. These people are doing all the work behind the scenes for us to effectively run; whether we are online or in person. All faculty and staff at OU have had to work double time during the pandemic and especially during the shift from face-to-face to online. We accepted no increase in our salaries in recognition that we need to keep student costs low.
I believe all faculty and staff at Oakland University recognize that the university as a whole was facing unknown hardships during the pandemic – and that we face an uncertain future due to declining enrollment trends driven by population dynamics but more importantly by the value our society places on higher education. From my interactions with students it is clear to me that they, and their parents, value the opportunity to attain higher education – and that Oakland is doing a fantastic job at providing them with quality education and exceptional research experiences. Their continued enrollment doesn’t change the fact that many of our students, and their families, are struggling to afford attendance. I have often been asked by students why faculty don’t care about them and keep hiking tuition. I reply to them, it’s not the faculty. We understand their situation – it’s the Board of Trustees (BOT) that make financial decisions. Students are surprised to learn that the faculty have no control over cost of tuition or creation of higher level administrative positions and administrative salaries. So be careful who you vote for when you’re voting for BOT or Regent members! In all honesty, it is not just the BOT. The university president and BOT, with input from associated administrators, make financial decisions for OU.
As a university community we are de facto public servants. Many of us could make better money in the private sector but we’ve chosen to be academics instead. I can’t speak for everyone but I firmly believe that most of us are academics because we are more interested in the future; the knowledge we impart to you, our students, and our contributions to research bodies are more valuable than gold! But that does not diminish our need to be able to support ourselves now and through retirement.
So students, we’re on a burning bridge together…
As a public institute OU receives money from the state and federal government to subsidize our operations. These funds are provided to offset tuition cost for students, operation and maintenance of our facilities, and faculty/staff salaries and benefits. The 35 million Covid funds were over and above all other funding we received and exclusive to last year (time will tell for this year!). We did improve our infrastructure to enable more e-learning, and had laptop lending/gifting/upgrading programs, and provided more mental health support. This doesn’t ring 35 million to me – and moreover, it seems reasonable to believe that some these funds could be (could have been for OU staff who finalized their contracts earlier) used by the BOT/president to bolster salaries/benefits that were sacrificed and neglected last year. Reasonable because in other workforce sectors federal funds were allocated for pay/salaries. A $500 gift to our staff members will not make up for the their losses in salary and benefits. It’s too little too late – and we are talking about future losses for the length of that contract.
While I remain hopeful that the university (OU BOT and President) and American Association of University Professors (AAAUP) can hammer out a faculty contract that recognizes the full contributions of OU faculty I am not certain it can be done before the start of classes. In short (hah!), the administration cut faculty members salaries and benefits at the bargaining table – and this after covid and a salary freeze, and prior to that cost of living increases were taken away! Faculty members went to school too and we have student loan debts, families, etc. We simply cannot afford to allow further erosion of our rights and salaries. There is no simple solution – especially when standing on a burning bridge. So FYI come September, we could be teaching face -to-face or meeting in a virtual sphere – or swimming.! If the faculty contract isn’t resolved by then my best advice is to bring a float to the first day of class!
Trudy Truthiness • Aug 17, 2021 at 10:58 AM
The union staff just completed contract negotiations. The negotiators were treated with complete derision. Instead of a raise, we are being given a $500 “bonus” (which, after taxes, amounts to around half that much) and doesn’t match inflation, add to our base salary, or social security earnings. We were told that we are “lucky to have jobs.” Our economic proposal wasn’t even considered. The university told us what we would be receiving in our 1-year contract, take it or leave it, which is not bargaining in good faith.
Even though we are told that contractually, we can’t work from home, we have spent the last 17 months doing just that, many of us using our personal devices and computers. Additionally, the university has received $35 MILLION in CARES Act Emergency Grants (institutional, not for student support). This is where the “bonus” comes from, not from the university budget. And yes, more and more “leadership” positions without adding clerical positions so more and more work piled on support staff.
Dr. Pescovitz sends regular, warm-hearted, fireside chat videos to the campus that contradict the reality of the distant, unsympathetic, obliquitous leader she is. Her typical response to pleas for discussion about the prevalent HR issues at OU is to by dispatch the very same HR agent to represent her interests. When I started dating, my dad said, “Watch how s/he treats the help, and you’ll know how you’ll be treated.” Students, pay attention!
Jeni De La O • Aug 17, 2021 at 10:49 AM
If Professor Knutson is shocked at what OU did to Faculty, wait until she hears what OU did to support staff in this round of negotiations.