Members of the University of Oregon faculty union — United Academics — planned to meet with UO President Michael Gottfredson Wednesday morning in Johnson Hall to discuss their proposal of a 3.5 percent salary increase, but instead was given an impromptu meeting with UO Senior Vice Provost Doug Blandy and UO General Counsel Randy Geller.
The union has requested a pay increase for faculty since September of 2012. The plan Wednesday was to hand deliver a letter to Gottfredson, but were unable to secure a meeting with him. Salary rates at UO and Oregon State University are among the lowest in the nation.
According to Association of American University Professors Research and Public Policy Director John Curtis, low faculty salaries can have a negative impact on students’ education.
“There’s competition with universities in the private sector but also universities in other states that would be offering higher salaries,” Curtis said. “It means students are probably less likely to be exposed to higher levels of academic experience.”
While Curtis said the education UO and OSU offer is valuable, the low salaries cause problems.
“It’s not that faculty are not highly qualified and dedicated, it’s that they’re not getting the support from their universities that they need,” he said.
“We’re all volunteers, and we’re stretching our time thin,” said Michael Dreiling, sociology professor and prominent member of the United Academics union.
Dreiling and the other 1,900 members of United Academics believe that all their time spent is worthwhile, especially since this will be the first pay increase for most of them since 2008.
They believe the UO administration is slow to make a deal as a negotiating tactic to get United Academics more impatient – and hopefully less resilient.
“We’re not dragging our feet. We want this to be done right the first time around,” said Barbara Altmann, the vice provost for Academic Affairs and a French professor. “This will be our first contract with any union, for the University of Oregon. We want our first contract to be more right than fast.”
United Academics consists entirely of volunteering members. Both time and money is running against the group, leading the union to try and deal directly with Gottfredson by sending him a letter detailing their plans.
“It’s important for our representatives to work with theirs, and not to be jumping to different personnel,” Altmann said. “The president signs off on everything that the administration does, but as far as the fine details and collecting the data, he doesn’t have the time to deal with that. That’s why it’s important for the representatives of both sides to meet with each other, because that’s how work gets done.”