Vermont Business Magazine After a five-month contract bargaining process, the Vermont State College Faculty Federation (the union representing faculty at the Vermont State Colleges) and the administration of the VSC System have reached impasse in our negotiations.
According to the union, the administration proposed numerous cuts to the existing faculty contract, including an effective pay cut over the life of the contract as well as reductions to benefits. The administration also made a number of proposals aimed at substantially altering work expectations and increasing workload, weakening the job security of VSC faculty, and requiring faculty to teach on campuses hours away from the campus on which they were hired to teach.
The administration has stated that the VSC system is struggling financially. Faculty and student support staff have borne the burden of this budget mismanagement, while no positions in the Chancellor’s office have been cut. According to Linda Olson, Castleton faculty member and Vice President of education for AFT-VT) “While 35 faculty members and student support staff lost their jobs, had reductions in their jobs or were incentivized to retire at Castleton University due to a budget shortfall, administrative positions have increased at the central office.” Faculty and staff have been told to expect more VSC layoffs in December.
The union’s analysis of VSC’s budget shows that administrative spending within the system is more than twice as high as administrative spending at institutions that the VSC identifies as its peers. Over the past five years, median executive salaries in the VSC have risen by nearly 9%, while median faculty salaries have failed to keep pace with inflation. From 2015-2018, the amount of the budget devoted to instruction has declined by nearly 5%, while the amount devoted to administration has increased by more than 16%.
“We do not believe that these spending priorities are in the best interest of our students or our institutions,” stated Lisa Cline, President of the VSC Faculty Federation. “As faculty of the VSC, we want to ensure that our colleges remain a source of high-quality, affordable higher education for Vermonters. We know that education is a pathway to a better life and increased earning potential. The opportunity to be part of the transformation that education offers is a significant part of what attracted many of us to VSC in the first place. We strongly believe the VSC should prioritize instruction and direct support for students.”
The primary mission of the VSC—providing affordable, high quality public higher education—requires spending on instruction, including faculty compensation to attract and retain skilled faculty. Further, part of the stated vision of the VSC is to “be recognized as a great place to work, in terms of what it offers employees”. The faculty union is calling on the VSC administration to recommit to this mission and vision by supporting faculty with a fair and reasonable contract. Faculty are the core of our institutions; our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions.
Source:Vermont State College Faculty Federation 8.18.2018