The Faculty Senate voted Monday to oppose the passage of changes to the Arizona Board of Regents policies involving the possible release of faculty, without more time for significant study.
The Arizona Board of Regents is currently considering a request that could allow administrators’ contracts to be terminated within 90 days if universities are presented with severe budget constraints.J.C Mutchler, associate professor of history and member of the Faculty Senate, spoke at the meeting last night regarding Arizona State University’s request to the Regents for an exception to the contracts of school administrators.
“”ASU is asking for an exception as administrators sign their new contracts. There will be a clause in there for a 90 day lay off notice if there are budget constraints in the coming year,”” he said. “”Which I think we can probably count on having.””
Mutchler said a faculty member would have “”no appeal”” to the board’s decision, and that an administrator could be laid off with a 90 day notice.
Currently, ASU is the only university that has said it plans on using the proposed exception, but each university’s administration will be able to make their own decision if they want to use it, Mutchler said.
Along with administrators, both tenure and non-tenure eligible faculty members are in danger of being released under this new reorganization.
“”Tenure eligible and non-tenure eligible are pretty much treated the same,”” said Mutchler. “”They’re letting these folks go much easier than they do now.””
Mutchler said the Human Resources Committee of the board of regents has decided that the issue will be up for a vote at the March regents meeting,
“”We should all have more time to look at this,”” said Mutchler.
President Robert Shelton also spoke at the meeting about how the budget situation continues to look challenging for the UA.
“”We want to demonstrate the severe pain and impact that this will have, not just to us at the university, but to the future of the state of Arizona,”” he said.
As the university continues to deal with reduced revenues, Shelton said he wanted to assure students and their families about their role in the cuts.
“”We know we can’t replace all these cuts on the backs of students and their families,”” he said. “”Nevertheless it is important to look for revenues and we continue to encourage that.””
He also discussed the federal government’s current $700 billion recovery act and how that money will affect Arizona’s state budget.
“”There will be sizeable monies coming in to the state through the governor,”” he said. “”We are first in communication to ensure that she is prepared to request those monies, she understands the importance of that.””
Shelton stressed the importance of generating more revenue to solve not only the immediate but the long-term crisis as well.
“”One of the most important things we can all do as we deal with these very difficult times is, as they say, ‘hang together’ so we don’t ‘hang separately,'””
