Voluntary workload/pay reduction

[writingprof]

I have a basic question about pay cuts for faculty.  If faculty signed 2020-2021 contracts earlier in the year, on what legal basis is a university allowed to unilaterally reduce faculty salaries?  I can understand if they say, right now, "Get ready for a pay reduction on your 2021-2022 contracts."  But if the coming year's terms are already set, what can a school do?

At my own college, I see nothing in the contractual language or faculty handbook that would permit this.  Yet we hear rumblings of forthcoming reductions.  Really?  An institution with tens of millions of dollars in assets is going to unilaterally cheat me out of a few thousand? 

[Cheerful]

Frankly, we never should have relied so heavily on Chinese student money.

+1  Universities sold out, now they bear the consequences.

They also shouldn't have added numerous, unnecessary layers of student services staff and administrators. People with long, ridiculous titles such as:  Associate Vice Director and Chief Assistant to the Assistant Vice Provost, and Chief Cheerleader for Student Leadership and Involvement in Anything but Serious Study of Academic Subjects.  Some of the "work" of this staff could be done by faculty with appropriate stipends.

It didn't have to be this way.

[writingprof]

Frankly, we never should have relied so heavily on Chinese student money.

+1  Universities sold out, now they bear the consequences.

They also shouldn't have added numerous, unnecessary layers of student services staff and administrators. People with long, ridiculous titles such as:  Associate Vice Director and Chief Assistant to the Assistant Vice Provost, and Chief Cheerleader for Student Leadership and Involvement in Anything but Serious Study of Academic Subjects.  Some of the "work" of this staff could be done by faculty with appropriate stipends.

It didn't have to be this way.

Indeed. To be fair, though, much of the growth in the administrative sector has occurred in response to regulatory requirements. Nobody just decided that we all needed Title IX coordinators.

[mahagonny]

Frankly, we never should have relied so heavily on Chinese student money.

+1  Universities sold out, now they bear the consequences.

They also shouldn't have added numerous, unnecessary layers of student services staff and administrators. People with long, ridiculous titles such as:  Associate Vice Director and Chief Assistant to the Assistant Vice Provost, and Chief Cheerleader for Student Leadership and Involvement in Anything but Serious Study of Academic Subjects.  Some of the "work" of this staff could be done by faculty with appropriate stipends.

It didn't have to be this way.

Indeed. To be fair, though, much of the growth in the administrative sector has occurred in response to regulatory requirements. Nobody just decided that we all needed Title IX coordinators.

But where is the second tier of administrative positions? The temporary, part time positions staffed by people who want to give back to the community and therefore don't need money, while being considered unqualified by the legitimate administrators? You'd think this arrangement could have been tried given forty years of opportunity and the popularity of this arrangement and associated cost savings with  staffing of teaching sections.

[Parasaurolophus]

But where is the second tier of administrative positions? The temporary, part time positions staffed by people who want to give back to the community and therefore don't need money, while being considered unqualified by the legitimate administrators?

They're called 'presidents' and 'chancellors' and 'the board of governors'.

[dr_codex]

But where is the second tier of administrative positions? The temporary, part time positions staffed by people who want to give back to the community and therefore don't need money, while being considered unqualified by the legitimate administrators?

They're called 'presidents' and 'chancellors' and 'the board of governors'.

<spit take>

Well played.

[spork]

Frankly, we never should have relied so heavily on Chinese student money.

+1  Universities sold out, now they bear the consequences.

It's not just Chinese student money, it's the money of international students from anywhere. We only get a few dozen, but they subsidize an equal number of U.S. students who otherwise would not attend because their tuition discounts would not be large enough. There's a good chance that we will get zero international students in the fall. Another lost revenue stream.

They also shouldn't have added numerous, unnecessary layers of student services staff and administrators. People with long, ridiculous titles such as:  Associate Vice Director and Chief Assistant to the Assistant Vice Provost, and Chief Cheerleader for Student Leadership and Involvement in Anything but Serious Study of Academic Subjects.  Some of the "work" of this staff could be done by faculty with appropriate stipends.

It didn't have to be this way.

You are describing Student Affairs at my university, which has "student development," "student leadership," "student activities," and other offices, all headed by at least a "Director" and often an "Assistant Vice President." It reminds me of:

. . . . that anything tangential to the direct learning/teaching that happens between teacher and student will be exposed as tangential or even expendable.

At least, that's what I'm hoping. After completing my first week in this new reality, I've realized that I've spent the majority of my time on actual teaching. All those other things like superfluous meetings, public events, admin-busy-body activities created only to justify someone's frivolous job, extracurricular things that I get guilted into, etc. were all canceled because their delivery was face-to-face. And, you know what, it's starting to become obvious that all that stuff was unnecessary in the first place.

[Stockmann]

If your hours/pay is cut, my advice would be to focus your time and energy on those aspects of the job that will do the most for your CV, esp. if the cut is done in a dishonest way (e.g. your nominal workload does not actually decrease, unlike a proper furlough, or only academics are asked to make any sacrifices, or only the untenured).

The drive for perpetual growth to copy the neo-liberal market agenda (along with chronic underfunding) has caused this problem, not faculty salaries.

More government regulation isn't neo-liberal at all. States cutting back, yes, but more regulation isn't, including state government constraints on tuition.

[Hegemony]

I don't think "selling out" is an accurate representation of why universities have accepted Chinese students and Chinese money. At my place, every Chinese student who comes supports 4.5 in-state students. Meanwhile state contributions have dropped from over 50% to 6% of funding. Would it even be a responsible decision to say, "No, we don't want those Chinese students, and we will also turn down 4 in-state students for every Chinese student who might have come."

If the taxpayer doesn't want state universities to rely on funding from Chinese students, they should move state appropriations back to where they were for decades. But if they insist that universities find their own funding, they're going to find them wherever they can.

[pedanticromantic]

I don't think "selling out" is an accurate representation of why universities have accepted Chinese students and Chinese money. At my place, every Chinese student who comes supports 4.5 in-state students. Meanwhile state contributions have dropped from over 50% to 6% of funding. Would it even be a responsible decision to say, "No, we don't want those Chinese students, and we will also turn down 4 in-state students for every Chinese student who might have come."

If the taxpayer doesn't want state universities to rely on funding from Chinese students, they should move state appropriations back to where they were for decades. But if they insist that universities find their own funding, they're going to find them wherever they can.

Yes, we should have gone on strike and fought for funding for the last few decades, instead of packing our universities with foreign students as if that was ever going to end well. I never predicted a pandemic, but I did always wonder what would happen if the CCP decided to cut off its flow of people, students (and capital). Where I am, the vast majority of our international students are Chinese. Of course, regardless of the virus, China still might decide it doesn't want its young educated people leaving to often get a back-door immigration out of their country by studying abroad.   

[LeastSquares]

I have a basic question about pay cuts for faculty.  If faculty signed 2020-2021 contracts earlier in the year, on what legal basis is a university allowed to unilaterally reduce faculty salaries?  I can understand if they say, right now, "Get ready for a pay reduction on your 2021-2022 contracts."  But if the coming year's terms are already set, what can a school do?

At my own college, I see nothing in the contractual language or faculty handbook that would permit this.  Yet we hear rumblings of forthcoming reductions.  Really?  An institution with tens of millions of dollars in assets is going to unilaterally cheat me out of a few thousand?

I'll quote this for attention as I have had similar thoughts regarding my own situation.

I am an incoming new faculty member who just signed a contact this winter.  The contract includes a specific salary number, which was something I negotiated for. I had multiple job offers at the time I signed the contact, and very well might not have taken this job if I was going to be paid less than what the contract claims. It seems like deciding all of a sudden to lower my salary is a clear violation of the contract.

[TreadingLife]

I have a basic question about pay cuts for faculty.  If faculty signed 2020-2021 contracts earlier in the year, on what legal basis is a university allowed to unilaterally reduce faculty salaries?  I can understand if they say, right now, "Get ready for a pay reduction on your 2021-2022 contracts."  But if the coming year's terms are already set, what can a school do?

At my own college, I see nothing in the contractual language or faculty handbook that would permit this.  Yet we hear rumblings of forthcoming reductions.  Really?  An institution with tens of millions of dollars in assets is going to unilaterally cheat me out of a few thousand?

I'll quote this for attention as I have had similar thoughts regarding my own situation.

I am an incoming new faculty member who just signed a contact this winter.  The contract includes a specific salary number, which was something I negotiated for. I had multiple job offers at the time I signed the contact, and very well might not have taken this job if I was going to be paid less than what the contract claims. It seems like deciding all of a sudden to lower my salary is a clear violation of the contract.

I signed a contract in November 2008, with a fall 2009 start date. Over the summer of 2009, the TIAA CREF match was cut from 200% to 0%. Any scheduled salary increases were also cut (that didn't apply to me). I never thought to push back on the retirement cuts since they were applied universally and everyone was in the same boat. I'm not sure how much traction you would have either since the cuts are being applied universally.

May I be the first to welcome you to the "you got into academia at the wrong time" club. I'm not only the president, but I'm also a client.  (RIP Sy Sperling)

[the_walrus]

I have a basic question about pay cuts for faculty.  If faculty signed 2020-2021 contracts earlier in the year, on what legal basis is a university allowed to unilaterally reduce faculty salaries?  I can understand if they say, right now, "Get ready for a pay reduction on your 2021-2022 contracts."  But if the coming year's terms are already set, what can a school do?

At my own college, I see nothing in the contractual language or faculty handbook that would permit this.  Yet we hear rumblings of forthcoming reductions.  Really?  An institution with tens of millions of dollars in assets is going to unilaterally cheat me out of a few thousand?

I'll quote this for attention as I have had similar thoughts regarding my own situation.

I am an incoming new faculty member who just signed a contact this winter.  The contract includes a specific salary number, which was something I negotiated for. I had multiple job offers at the time I signed the contact, and very well might not have taken this job if I was going to be paid less than what the contract claims. It seems like deciding all of a sudden to lower my salary is a clear violation of the contract.

I signed a contract in November 2008, with a fall 2009 start date. Over the summer of 2009, the TIAA CREF match was cut from 200% to 0%. Any scheduled salary increases were also cut (that didn't apply to me). I never thought to push back on the retirement cuts since they were applied universally and everyone was in the same boat. I'm not sure how much traction you would have either since the cuts are being applied universally.

May I be the first to welcome you to the "you got into academia at the wrong time" club. I'm not only the president, but I'm also a client.  (RIP Sy Sperling)

Without looking at the contract, it's impossible to say, but it will surely allow for the university to do all manor of things inconsistent with the face of it (including laying you off) in the event of financial exigency.  What it allows absent that, I don't know, but the point that this illustrates is simply that there will be loopholes in it that allow them latitude in extraordinary circumstances.  So, I would be quite careful about marching in and accusing them of breach of contract, at least without getting some legal advice based on scrutiny of the letter and the law of the contract (not all of which you may have seen.  E.g., I signed an offer letter signing me up to the whatever terms were standard that have been negotiated between the university and the union, university bylaws, etc. etc. Those were never all sent with the offer letter.)

[Kron3007]

I have a basic question about pay cuts for faculty.  If faculty signed 2020-2021 contracts earlier in the year, on what legal basis is a university allowed to unilaterally reduce faculty salaries?  I can understand if they say, right now, "Get ready for a pay reduction on your 2021-2022 contracts."  But if the coming year's terms are already set, what can a school do?

At my own college, I see nothing in the contractual language or faculty handbook that would permit this.  Yet we hear rumblings of forthcoming reductions.  Really?  An institution with tens of millions of dollars in assets is going to unilaterally cheat me out of a few thousand?

I'll quote this for attention as I have had similar thoughts regarding my own situation.

I am an incoming new faculty member who just signed a contact this winter.  The contract includes a specific salary number, which was something I negotiated for. I had multiple job offers at the time I signed the contact, and very well might not have taken this job if I was going to be paid less than what the contract claims. It seems like deciding all of a sudden to lower my salary is a clear violation of the contract.

I signed a contract in November 2008, with a fall 2009 start date. Over the summer of 2009, the TIAA CREF match was cut from 200% to 0%. Any scheduled salary increases were also cut (that didn't apply to me). I never thought to push back on the retirement cuts since they were applied universally and everyone was in the same boat. I'm not sure how much traction you would have either since the cuts are being applied universally.

May I be the first to welcome you to the "you got into academia at the wrong time" club. I'm not only the president, but I'm also a client.  (RIP Sy Sperling)

I guess I'm a glass half full.type, because I think you got into academia just in time.  We have a hiring freeze, and given the economic impacts of this I don't see the job market beng great moving forward.  Academia seems like one of the better palces to be right now, but I guess that depends on the university.

[polly_mer]

I have a basic question about pay cuts for faculty.  If faculty signed 2020-2021 contracts earlier in the year, on what legal basis is a university allowed to unilaterally reduce faculty salaries?  I can understand if they say, right now, "Get ready for a pay reduction on your 2021-2022 contracts."  But if the coming year's terms are already set, what can a school do?

At my own college, I see nothing in the contractual language or faculty handbook that would permit this.  Yet we hear rumblings of forthcoming reductions.  Really?  An institution with tens of millions of dollars in assets is going to unilaterally cheat me out of a few thousand?

I'll quote this for attention as I have had similar thoughts regarding my own situation.

I am an incoming new faculty member who just signed a contact this winter.  The contract includes a specific salary number, which was something I negotiated for. I had multiple job offers at the time I signed the contact, and very well might not have taken this job if I was going to be paid less than what the contract claims. It seems like deciding all of a sudden to lower my salary is a clear violation of the contract.

Often academic letters of appointment (and non-academic similar documents) have a loophole that can be summarized as "God willing and the creek don't rise; check the faculty handbook for additional caveats". 

The 1-2 page letter of appointment itself is not really the contract; the nuts and bolts contract is the faculty handbook and, if applicable, the similar union document.

Consult a higher ed lawyer before you do something foolish like insist this is "clear violation of the contract" since you probably haven't yet read the contract.