Report from IFS President Peter Gilkey to the State Board of Higher Education 5 March 2004

My grandfather used to tell the story of a poor farmer with a mule. To reduce costs, the farmer gradually reduced the amount he fed the animal. Alas, just when he got the animal trained to work without any food at all, it died! I am afraid that the State of Oregon may be a bit like that farmer. Budgets for post secondary education are constantly cut. Although every effort is made to protect the instructional core, the incremental damage that is done to the service and support functions is measurable and does degrade the quality offered. And class sizes grow a bit all the time. How could it be otherwise?

Complaining about faculty salaries has been a standard feature of IFS reports in the past. I am not going to do that. I shall however quote just some statistics to illustrate the point -- at the UO in 2002/3, total compensation for Full Professors was at 84% of parity with our comparators and at 83% for all ranks combined; similar statistics pertain at many of the other Universities. In relation to their comparators EOU is 13/13, OIT is 5/12, OSU is 7/8, PSU is 9/10, SOU is 11/13, UO is 9/9, and WOU is 7/13. Except for OIT and WOU, we are pretty much at the bottom of the list!

All state employees of Oregon have a salary freeze. This universality leads to a strong commonality of sacrifice - we are all in the same boat. However, the OUS faculty do wish the very real sacrifice that we are making for the common good to be recognized and acknowledged. And the real sacrifice that our institutions are making in terms of faculty lured away or not hired in the first instance should also be understood. It is necessary given our financial straits. We understand that. But at the same time, we are reminded of the farmer with the mule.

And the damage done to morale by the difficulties with the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) can hardly be overstated -- total compensation has been reduced by 7.6% for certain faculty members. And the uncertainty for new faculty members choosing between ORSRP and PERS can hardly be said to be a recruitment tool! A junior colleague in the math department at the UO asked me at lunch last week what was going to happen - and I had no idea -- he has to make an irrevocable decision soon. The document he received stated ``However, final rates for 2004 are under review, and may not be available at the time you must decide between the plans'' this is not helpful! I have just learned that the AOF fiiled a lawsuit in the matter yesterday. It is to be hoped real progress will be made in that area - and soon as we can not wait for a long term legislative fix!

On the other hand, all is not doom and gloom. Our student enrollments are up to historical highs - and comprised of very talented and hard working students who seek the transformation in their lives that only higher education can offer. And the governor, through his actions in reconstituting the State Board, has made a powerful commitment towards stopping the trend towards disinvestment in higher education -- the actions of the board provide real hope for the future in this regard. We the faculty of the Oregon University System offer you our support and help -- we are ready to go to work with these initiatives!

Peter B Gilkey President (2004) Inter Institutional Faculty Senate

• OSU, PSU, UO Salary Data
• EOU, SOU, WOU Salary Data
• OIT Salary Data

• 1) [In a response to a question as to what is the problem] Employer retirement contributions to a faculty member on PERS are made to two pots. One contribution, the smaller one, goes to PERS. The other contribution, the larger one, goes to DAS to pay off the 2,000,000,000 bond issue. At present, retirement contributions to a faculty member on ORP only match the smaller contribution to PERS. This is why the contribution rate is so slow.
• 2) [In a response to a question as to what could be done] I am not a lawyer. But there is a precedent based on Federal Grants and Contracts contributions to retirement that lumps the two contributions together and that would permit an equivalent contribution to be made to ORP participants. I believe that OUS has made a proposal to DAS and it is being reviewed by them now -- I don't know the details of that proposal. I know the folks in OUS are working hard on this.
• 3) [Summing up] We can't wait for a long term legislative fix, we have to move now. Faculty members have been told -- the good news is we have a salary freeze. The bad news is that some of us are taking a 7.6% cut in total compensation. Even in these post modern times where questions of fairness and equity have become irrelevant, it is very difficult to explain to faculty members on ORP that they have been screwed because of an accounting error.

Now bear in mind that I was not working from printed notes so my recollection of the exact wording may not be 100% correct. But this is pretty much what I said. And, I confess, I was giving an impassioned political speech with the final paragraph. And I think I got thru the message that this is a huge problem.