Editor’s Note: This is a submission from 11 UWO faculty and staff.
Chancellor Andrew Leavitt made a surprise announcement toward the end of summer: UW Oshkosh does not have enough money to pay all of its employees their full salary this year and 200 employees will lose their jobs.
You might not have heard this because the chancellor is talking up UWO as a great place to be. We agree with that, but as faculty and teaching staff with nearly 200 years of combined experience here, we fear that the chancellor is using this fiscal crisis to reshape UWO into something much worse for our students.
In addition to pay cuts and layoffs, the chancellor’s vision for the future includes higher teaching loads, which would have a profound effect on the quality of education. With this in mind, we have offered proposals that we hope the chancellor, along with students, faculty and staff, can rally around.
First, we want to preserve the distinctive, relationship-rich, research-informed education that UW Oshkosh students receive. That means opposing the chancellor’s across-the-board proposal that each faculty member should teach 33% more classes. Added teaching responsibilities almost inevitably mean less personal attention given to students, less mentoring, fewer research opportunities, a less expert faculty and many other adverse downstream effects. We also have no idea if increases in load for most faculty are to be temporary or permanent. Our faculty deserve to know; our students should, too.
Second, we want the chancellor to lay off a greater percentage of Dempsey Hall administrators than teachers. This makes sense because these administrators often make two to three times the salary of the instructional and university staff that are subject to layoffs. Data provided by the UW System show that the number of administrators at UWO increased significantly over the past 10 years, while the number of teachers has declined. The more teachers and frontline student-support jobs we can preserve, the better.
Third, we want to reinvigorate shared governance at UWO. Shared governance is a foundational principle of the UW System. System guidance says that “inclusiveness leads to better decision-making” and “effective policy development comes from early, active and wide collaboration and consultation.” We cannot successfully move forward by having top-down dictated solutions. We need genuine collaboration and cooperative agreements between administration, faculty, staff and students. Toward that end, we ask the chancellor to invite student government to be represented in his Cabinet, along with a Faculty Senate representative and staff representatives as well. Together we can make better decisions.
Everyone knows that this university will change profoundly in the next year. We also recognize that money does not grow on trees and there is much pain ahead. Indeed, we are already feeling it. We want and need a sustainable university, but that requires a strong commitment to educational excellence. Only that will effectively retain and attract students. Poor working conditions and low morale will not.
Written, in alphabetical order, by Mamadou Coulibaly, Jim Feldman, Ben Hallett, Marianne Johnson, Michelle Kuhl, Gabe Loiacono, Misty McPhee, Jeff Pickron, David Siemers, Stephanie Spehar and Paul Van Auken. They make the Executive Board of the United Faculty and Staff of Oshkosh, the local affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers of Wisconsin.
