This is an interesting observation made by a commenter on the TexasJustice.org message board. The commenter does not say if UTMB or TDJC hired these people back, assuming what he or she says is accurate.
Hell almost all of our staff is going to High Security, what the hell, why get rid of our staff who is great, and send us someone elese. Yeah i already know, they fired them, then rehired them at a lower pay, some at a lower title, and then put them on a different unit, some a lot farther to drive to. We are getting high security staff, goree staff, huntsville staff, and one from el paso. lol.
I was surprised to learn that the University of Texas Medical Branch is second only to M.D. Anderson, albeit a distant second, in terms of total revenue. This is the university constantly complaining to the Legislature about how poor it is. Of course, the university would come back with the idea that it has expenses to match its relatively large revenue, but let us not forget that during the 2008 reduction in force, UTMB staff was lining up for $3 million in bonuses.
Judging from this excerpt, whether UTMB or UT admits they did anything wrong or not, it appears the regents have tried to strengthen faculty involvement during a reduction in force. The problem is that UT had a policy in place back in 2008, and it simply was not followed. We'll see if these changes are followed next time around. (I'll try to find the changes on the UT website and post them later.) I also worry about "faculty" involvement. The UTMB RIF Appeals Committee was stacked with management personnel who also had a faculty appointment. Even UTMB Pres. David Callender has a faculty appointment in the Otolaryngology Department.
A UT System advisory panel recommended enhancing the role of faculty members in a financial exigency, and last month the Board of Regents approved amendments to its rules reinforcing the importance of faculty involvement.
As the full TWU Faculty Senate resolution reveals, TWU doesn't even have a policy on how to handle financial exigency. That, gentle readers, spells nothing but trouble as the recent "no confidence" vote amply illustrates. (See the story in the Zemanta box below.) Even having a policy doesn't guarantee fair treatment. UTMB was supposed to follow UT's policy, but the faculty senate was still ignored and faculty suffered accordingly. Click on the highlighted text to view the full resolution. An excerpt:
RESOLVED, that the Faculty Senate of TWU requests the Board of Regents to ensure: that a Financial Planning Committee (“FPC”) be constituted to meet regularly to share information and provide transparency about possible budget cuts and ramifications, and to consider alternative strategies to meet such challenges without further contraction of courses and programs, or reduction of faculty compensation;
that the FPC includes significant faculty representation, including the Speaker of the Faculty Senate and four other faculty members elected by the Senate, as well as the Provost, the Vice President of Finance and Administration, and one representative each from the Dean’s Council and Council of Chairs
The following snippets are taken from the UT Faculty Advisory Council's October 2009 minutes, which were just posted in the last couple of days. The minutes say that the regents have learned from the University of Texas Medical Branch's reduction in force, which makes me a bit jumpy since the AAUP is considering censuring UTMB and UT over their mishandling of that RIF, one done with stacked committees and complete disregard for faculty governance.
Excerpts from the minutes:
MD Anderson: Reduction in force, -10% of budgets, do not meet
definition of Financial Exigency. Chancellor has appointed a Task Force
to review this issue.
MD Anderson: financial health of institution has helped to weather the
downturn-research monies have been rerouted. Non-revenue generating is
a new definition of research. [Reamy note: This seems to be a bit contradictory, given the first excerpt.]
UTMB: A lot of distress that faculty have been rifted over the last
year. How much influence does faculty have? Crime issues have
increased. Nursing faculty shortage and legislature demands to increase
graduates.
Issue before BOR Financial Exigency. Learn from UTMB situation. He
wants to see those lessons be used to refine the Regent’s Rules. Three
months from now we may have a preliminary report.
This list, taken from faculty advisory council minutes, ought to scare the faculty, upset over the prospect of layoffs after the football coach got a $2 million raise, into submission:
He [UT Austin's Powers] then sited [sic] examples that he has been dealing with on a day-to-day basis:
“Let’s
sell the field lab and forget the work that goes on there. Let’s get
out of the business of graduate student housing. Let’s support research
only if it would be designed to lead to a product that could be sold
commercially. Let’s cut our teaching budgets by putting a few of our
stars on video, and then having them teach all of the students,
including stars from other campuses on video to teach our students.
Let’s separate the teaching function from the research and scholarship
functions so we don’t have to have a large faculty that’s made up of
people who are relative to other universities highly paid because
they’re stars in the research field. Let’s freeze tuition, and just
keep the costs down and not worry about the quality of the University.
Let’s fund all the universities in our state at the same level. Why
pursue the kind of research that goes on here? I could on with more of
them.”
President Powers said these have been difficult issues that he has dealt with and that,
Just for grins, I wandered over to the UT Austin faculty council's site and took a gander at its December 14, 2009, minutes. As reported in the media, these people are facing more faculty cuts and were downright upset by their football coach's $2 million raise. There's an interesting give and take between President Powers and the faculty. It's worth a read. An excerpt from the minutes:
Chair Staiger called upon Chair Elect Dean Niekirk
(electrical and computer engineering) to read a previously distributed
resolution from the Faculty Council Executive Committee. Chair Elect
Niekirk read the following resolution on behalf of the Faculty Council
Executive Committee:
We
appreciate the contributions of the athletic staff and, especially, the
student-athletes, to the community of the University of Texas at
Austin. However, at a time when students are facing a deteriorating
academic environment in the form of declining class offerings and
increasing class sizes, and lecturers, teaching assistants, and staff
are facing job terminations, we believe a permanent raise of $2 million
(a sum greater than the entire career earnings of a typical university
employee) offered to any member of the university community is unseemly
and inappropriate.
Less money from endowments and Governor Perry's request for institutions to cut budgets by 5% has got UT Austin looking at cutting the squad--again. An excerpt from a 2/4/2010 story in the Houston Chronicle titled "Leader warns of More Layoffs at UT-Austin":
The president of the University of Texas at Austin warned on Thursday that more layoffs are coming at the flagship campus.
Bill Powers, joined by the presidents of other UT System schools, briefed regents as they met in Dallas on cost-cutting efforts now under way.
I haven't looked at UT Austin's finances--yet, but from my experience at UTMB, I do know that one has to be wary when any UT component starts telling people it's financially squeezed and has to make cuts. For instance, administrators will talk about "operating deficits" (essentially business revenue minus business expenses with state money NOT factored into the equation) and then they'll drop the "operating" adjective and talk about "the deficit," leading people to believe the bottom line is in the red. UTMB did just that long before Hurricane Ike struck. For instance, it was swimming in black ink when administrators cut over 300 people and about 1,000 positions back in 2006, all the while screaming about a deficit. I can't help but notice the term "margin" in the story. That would be short for "operating margin."
Yes, I understand that endowments are down and demands to cut budgets are up. They are real issues with which administrators will have to deal. UT Austin faculty and staff had better start grabbing annual financial statements, operating budgets, and the like before it's too late to influence the direction its very well-compensated leadership takes.
In a story titled "UTMB Sees a Reversal of Fortune" in the 12/25/09 on-line edition of the Houston Chronicle, a UTMB spokeswoman says that, eventually, UTMB will have about 1,000 more employees than it did before Hurricane Ike struck. Please see the excerpt below:
Although the UT
Board of Regents authorized 3,800 layoffs, UTMB officials announced
that about 3,000 jobs would be cut. The actual number turned out to be
about 2,400, but it was widely interpreted as a step toward dismantling
Texas' oldest medical school. The Legislature forced the regents to
reverse policy, a stunning change of fortune that is slowly beginning
to benefit the local economy.
UTMB has already
filled more than half of the jobs left vacant by the layoffs and
eventually will have nearly 1,000 more employees than before the storm,
said Cindy Stanton, UTMB director of recruitment services.
First, please allow me to point out that the utterly false 2,400 number keeps turning up as a fact. Here is an e-mail from UTMB President Callender that says he was getting set to cut about 3,000 the DAY BEFORE he began wielding the knife. Because of this particular e-mail's historical importance, I'm including the complete text rather than simply an excerpt:
From: UTMB Broadcast Account Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:57:02 -0600 Conversation: A Special Message from the President I realize that no amount of forewarning will make this message any easier for the UTMB community to receive. Tomorrow,
we will begin giving notice to approximately 3,000 faculty and staff
whose positions are part of the reduction in force authorized by the
University of Texas System Board of Regents
[http://www.utsystem.edu/News/2008/BOR-Statement-UTMB-11-12-08.html].
We expect to complete the process Monday, November 24. As you
know, the damage the campus sustained in the wake of Ike has caused us
to suspend or reduce a number of clinical programs, significantly
diminishing our ability to generate revenue. This painful but
necessary next step will reduce the workforce to the number needed to
support an initial hospital configuration of 200 beds and to protect
and preserve our education and research missions. It will affect
individuals in every area and at every level of the organization,
including agency and contract personnel and those who work overtime. Senior
leadership and managers have given considerable thought to the type of
work needed to ensure UTMB’s success during this challenging recovery
and transition period. They have identified the combination of skills
needed to perform those critical tasks. And, when the number of
positions exceeded the volume of available work, they based individual
staffing decisions on criteria such as skill set, performance and
service orientation. Classified employees will receive 60
days’ notice with full salary and benefits, consistent with UTMB’s
practice. Administrative and Professional employees will receive a
minimum of 60 days’ notice with full salary and benefits. Non-tenured
faculty will receive six months’ notice with full salary and benefits,
and tenured and tenure-track faculty will receive notice with full
salary and benefits through August 31, 2009, the end of the fiscal
year. Managers will make every effort to talk face-to-face
with employees whose positions are affected. In the event this isn’t
possible, managers will notify them via email, phone or letter. We
remain committed to doing everything we can to support those affected
by this decision and will continue to provide access to the full range
of job search resources – including job fairs; employment, financial
and personal counseling; and classes on effective resume writing and
interviewing – at our island and mainland help centers
[http://www.utmb.edu/utmbemployeehelpcenter]. Classified and A&P
employees will receive preference for open UTMB positions for up to
one year from the date of their notice. UT System officials have asked
that these employees receive priority consideration for positions at
other UT institutions, and numerous area employers have expressed an
active interest in interviewing and hiring UTMB employees. We also
continue to explore options for employees who may be eligible for
retirement. The loss of so many dedicated professionals
will be felt throughout the institution. I thank you all for serving
UTMB so well for so many years, and for working tirelessly since
Hurricane Ike to protect and preserve our core missions. I have faith
that the spirit that has characterized UTMB for more than 100 years
will help this great institution achieve the promise of a bright
future. Dr. David L. Callender
UTMB President
From the above e-mail, it is clear that UTMB officials had a precise idea of how many jobs they were going to cut the day before they started handing out pink slips: 3,000, not 2,450, a number that has acquired the status of unchallenged, anointed fact now. What I figure happened is that revisionist administrators decided not to count those they "encouraged" to retire or those who left for other reasons, never came back after the hurricane, etc; however, if a reporter were to pin them down and ask about the number of positions thrown overboard rather than people, I believe that number would shoot right back up to 3,000 or so.
Now, having scratched that irritating, historical itch, I'll turn my attention to the 127 RIF'd faculty, particularly tenured, RIF'd faculty, who have a much stronger claim to their old jobs than those RIF'd without tenure. If UTMB is not only hiring to its former strength but also hiring an additional 1,000 people eventually, it is reasonable to assume that some of those will be faculty. Will RIF'd faculty be reemployed by UTMB? Although I have heard that a RIF'd faculty member here and there got his or her job back, I expect all but a handful to be left out in the cold. Why? President Callender announced at a town meeting on March 26, 2009, that he had no plans to bring any of them back. I believe him. So do the unemployed faculty. Indeed, even as administrators were booting faculty out the door, they were hiring new faculty, as the The Scientist article titled "Texas School Hired While Firing" so pointedly highlighted. Hurricane Ike was simply the excuse for an attack on tenure and faculty members who had incurred the disfavor of their chairs or other administrators.
Despite the rosy picture painted by the Houston Chronicle, all this hiring holds out very little hope for RIF'd faculty.
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