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Faculty and staff unions urge trustees: seek alternatives to layoffs as budget uncertainty grows
Summary
Union representatives for staff and faculty told trustees layoffs of lowest‑paid employees would not be a viable solution and urged transparency on budget projections. Faculty raised concerns about a planned reduction in instructional faculty positions from 89 to 55 and provided several data questions for trustees.
Representatives from classified staff and faculty unions urged the Western Oregon University Board of Trustees on Feb. 25 to seek budget solutions other than layoffs of lower‑paid employees, and they asked trustees to press campus leadership for clearer budget projections and collaborative planning.
Jackson Stally of SEIU (representing staff) told trustees "WOU works because we do," and said the campus cannot balance its budget "on the backs of classified staff again." He pressed trustees to ask how much money was saved by prior layoffs once rehiring and training costs were included and urged administrators to seek "true savings, not nominal ones."
Melanie Landon Hayes, president of the Western Oregon University Federation of Teachers (WOUFT), and communications officer Stuart Baker described faculty concerns about proposed reductions to non‑tenure track instructional positions. Faculty said a proposal to move from 89 non‑tenure‑track positions this year to 55 instructional faculty positions next academic year was announced without clear criteria for selection. The union representatives said those faculty teach core and general‑education courses and voiced concern that cuts could force some programs to stop offering classes and prevent students from graduating.
Union members also presented questions collected from faculty, including a calculation they said shows non‑tenure track faculty produced $11,400,000 in tuition in 2023–24 while costing $7,100,000 in wages and benefits (generating "over $4,000,000 in excess revenue," per the submitted calculation). They asked trustees for clarity on the administration's projection that reserves could be exhausted in four years (a $3.5 million annual deficit figure) versus a finance report that showed a $266,000 deficit for 2023–24. The unions asked whether other cost reductions have been explored, how WOU Salem's finances are handled, whether ROI metrics are used for administrative positions, and how raises negotiated in collective bargaining are accounted for in budgeting.
Both unions said they appreciated recent improvements in communication from campus leadership but urged continued collaboration and transparency. No board votes or formal actions were recorded in the transcript on these topics.
