UC president emphasizes: No decisions on furloughs, pay cuts

by Dave Jones
June 12, 2009

UC President Mark G. Yudof, in an effort to ease anxiety around the UC system, emphasized this week that no decisions had been made regarding furloughs and pay cuts.

Yudof is on record saying he “just can’t imagine” how UC can solve its budget crisis without them. But, he told the UC system’s 10 chancellors in a memo this week: “Extensive consultations with faculty and staff” will be needed before executing such a plan.

Meanwhile, “I caution against communications implying that any such decisions have been made,” Yudof wrote in his June 9 memo to the chancellors.

Four days earlier, UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White told his campus in a written budget update that the UC system is “very likely” to enact a policy under which faculty and staff would take 16 furlough days, 13 of which would be holidays—meaning employees would get those days off but would not be paid for them.

In his own memo, Yudof said: “I want to emphasize that no final decisions have been made on this issue, and active discussions are still under way regarding the best structure by which to achieve furloughs or pay reductions.”

A spokesman for the Office of the President said more information is due for release next week—not an implementation plan but a briefing of the options that are on the table.

The UC Davis Academic Senate weighed in June 11 during a two-hour town hall meeting in the King Hall School of Law. More than 100 faculty members crowded into the moot courtroom, some of them sitting in the jury box and some standing at the back of the room.

“I guess this is why this place is overflowing, because the words ‘furlough’ and ‘pay cut’ are being used a lot,” said Professor Bob Powell, chair of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate.

Academic Senate staff members handed out Yudof’s June 9 memo before Powell opened the meeting just after noon. “From where we stand, this is the latest information,” Powell said, “and we have to take it at face value.”

However, even Powell, in a June 9 letter to the senate, referenced “one proposal (that) would target 16 furlough days in 2009-10, with 13 of these coming by converting paid holidays to unpaid holidays.”

Some faculty members said turning paid holidays into unpaid holidays is akin to having “invisible” furlough days.

David Simpson, professor of English, said the UC system may see this kind of a furlough plan as a way to minimize disruption to the campuses. But, he said, “I’m not sure that minimal disruption is a good idea. We need to make a statement to the public.”

After the meeting, he explained his reasoning: “If you tell the public that we can absorb all these cuts without consequences, then why should they care?”

One consequence many in the room seemed to fear the most: a lessening of UC’s quality, including a “brain drain” as young professors moved to greener pastures.

Brian Mulloney, a professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, said the state had broken its contract with UC, by giving the system less and less money to educate California’s children.

Perhaps one way to drive the point home, Mulloney said, is for the faculty to withhold instruction on the first day of the fall quarter.

“People will be outraged, but that’s good, because we’re in an outrageous situation,” he said.

Other professors suggested this approach could backfire, with one saying the public could view the faculty as “privileged jerks who are in no danger of losing their jobs.”

Simpson commented, after the meeting: “If the public values UC, one way to alert them to the crisis is to get some headlines.”

Several faculty members voiced support for UC’s “privatization,” or some version of the “Michigan model,” in which fees would go up (along with financial aid), and more out-of-state students would be welcomed. Other faculty members feared the impacts on accessibility and diversity.

Some senate members asked about the impact of furloughs on retirement calculations; for example, if your pay declines in your last year of employment, this might affect your retirement pay, which is based on the three-year period (36 consecutive months, anytime in your career) during which you earned the most money (your average salary during the three-year period).

Others asked if furloughs would be assigned differently, depending on whether a faculty member worked on a nine-month or 12-month arrangement.

“I think all of this is going to happen very quickly, Powell said, “but I think there are a lot of unanswered questions.”