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Rutgers University's administration has lost faculty's trust and respect

Few New Jersey residents probably know that Rutgers University and the American Association of University Professors are involved in a nasty fight with uncertain outcomes for the university.

The immediate backdrop is the economic crisis and the state’s deepening financial difficulties. Rutgers is a state school, and the state’s economic woes have also affected the university.

On July 22, Rutgers’ president, Richard McCormick, and its executive vice president for academic affairs, Philip Furmanski, informed the university that “the Rutgers Board of Governors approved … an austerity budget predicated on drastic cuts in our state appropriation. … One action we took to help bring our budget into balance, minimize damage to our critical programs and services and save jobs, was to freeze all salaries.”

What probably riled the AAUP more than the salary freeze was that McCormick and Furmanski also said that “some of the unions are issuing public statements that are simply not factually correct,” effectively accusing the AAUP of lying.

AAUP President Adrienne Eaton and four of her colleagues fired off a strongly worded response on July 27, in which they accused the university administration of violating memoranda of agreement signed with the AAUP in 2009.

To McCormick and Furmanski’s claim that “the unions are charging us with hiding our great ‘wealth,’ ” Eaton retorted: “Then show us the books.”

Who’s right and who’s wrong?

The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter, since the administration has lost the trust of its own professors, who routinely perceive it as incompetent, venal and corrupt.

July 27, 2010 – AAUP-AFT Faculty/TA Response Position

The union’s role is to advocate while protecting the institution of Rutgers University. But let us not confuse the institution for its management. It is precisely that distinction which calls upon us to post this response to defend our contract. An attack on the faculty, such as the McCormick/Furmanski July 22 memo, must be corrected, so that we all preserve our system of shared governance and academic freedom itself.

Read the faculty response here.

Politicker NJ Op-Ed: Disjointed Rutgers Still Bests Governor in Union Bust

Citing potential legal fallout from cultivating a controlled substance, Rutgers management backtracked away from a request to be the state's exclusive pot grower, according to Governor Chris Christie. The snafu left Christie questioning the university's decision-making process, but Rutgers President McCormick has hardly been indecisive in attacking university unions.

Governor Christie has dominated headlines by battling with the large public unions, but McCormick has gone several steps further than the Governor in freezing contracted raises while leveraging the ugly threat of layoffs. During last year’s election, candidate Christie promised to quash 2009 state worker deals that deferred raises to save the state money. Once in office, the new Governor quickly reversed his position in March by admitting “I was wrong” and acknowledging that last year’s deferral deals were legally-binding.

The state made good with its unionized workforce paying raises in July while Rutgers management unilaterally decided to negate agreements modeled on the state deals. In this respect Rutgers management stands alone as the only entity in the state to break last year’s deferral agreements.

Read the full article at Disjointed Rutgers Still Bests Governor in Union Bust
Nat Bender, August 2, 2010

Rutgers report finds compensation for N.J. private, public workers is roughly equal

A report released today challenges the perception that New Jersey public workers are better paid than their private sector counterparts.

Taking into account hours worked, wages and benefits, Professor Jeffrey H. Keefe of the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations found that total compensation for private and public sector workers in the Garden State is about equal.

“New Jersey public employees, both state and local government employees, are not overpaid, but neither are they under compensated,” wrote Keefe in the report for the Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C.

New Jersey’s public sector workers, both for state and local governments, make an average of $56,694 annually, while private sector workers make $61,252.

Download the full report at http://aftrutgers.org/downloads/BriefingPaper270_final.pdf
Read full story at Rutgers report finds compensation for N.J. private, public workers is roughly equal

Ledger Quotes Eaton on Weak Buyout Response

“I think the numbers are considerably lower than they were expecting,” said Adrienne Eaton, president of the Rutgers chapter of the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers, the faculty union.

For many professors, a buyout offer of a year’s salary or more wasn’t tempting enough to give up their jobs while the economy is still struggling, said Eaton, a professor of labor studies and employment relations.

“It wasn’t particularly generous,” Eaton said.

-from One-year salary buyout offer is not enough for most eligible Rutgers University professors

Friday, July 09, 2010, 8:45 PM, Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger

Rutgers officials, employee unions to face off at hearing over salary freeze

Thursday, June 24, 2010, 9:53 PM, Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
NEW BRUNSWICK — Rutgers University and its employee unions are headed to Trenton for a showdown over the school’s decision to freeze all employees’ salaries to help close its budget gap.

The Public Employment Relations Commission today ordered the two sides to face off at hearing on July 7.

Several Rutgers unions, including the group representing campus professors, filed charges accusing the state university of unfair labor practices for denying employees their scheduled raises. The unions asked the commission, the state agency that mediates public employee disputes, for an expedited hearing.

"Short of honoring the original agreements, expedited arbitration is the most efficient way to vindicate the workers’ rights," said Bennet Zurofsky, an attorney representing the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers.

Union protests for salary increases

Daily Targum, By Chris Zawistowski, Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

With more than 250 protesters chanting “Open the doors! Open the books!” outside Winants Hall on the College Avenue campus, the University’s Board of Governors met Wednesday for their annual reorganizational meeting.

Protesters representing the University’s three major labor unions rallied against the recent decision to cancel pay raises and freeze the salaries of their 13,000 system-wide employees.

Lucye Millerand, Union of Rutgers Administrators–American Federation of Teachers president, said the wage freeze breaks an agreement brokered last year for more than 10,000 unionized staff and faculty who agreed to defer their 2009 contract raises.

“I don’t think that this is really about the money,” Millerand said. “I think this is Old Queens [wanting] to maximize their freedom to treat employees as they see fit and to just instill fear, uncertainty and doubt, and I don’t think that’s an effective way to motivate people.”

Call for Respect at Rutgers BOG Recap

Rutgers unions rally at June 22 BOG meeting
See photos.

Media Coverage:

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Rutgers University employees protest holds on pay raises Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Call for Respect at Rutgers

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