On May 11, the United Academics Faculty of Color, Working Families and Pride Caucuses, sent a letter to Interim President Moffitt and Interim Provost Woodruff-Borden addressing the results of UO’s annual climate survey and the message from the UO that the bulk of the work will be put on faculty.
UO’s IDEAL climate survey is done annually to address what improvements need to be made for faculty, officers of administration, classified staff and graduate employees. According to former UO President Schill, the purpose of the survey is to foster a welcoming, inclusive and respectful working environment.
The survey contained statements ranging from, “I know what is expected of me at work,” to “Everyone at this institution is treated fairly regardless of ethnic background, race, gender, age, disability, class, sexuality, veteran status, nationality, religion or other identities not related to job performance.” All respondents rated on a one through five scale of whether they agreed with the statements.
The survey was done last spring when President Schill was still at UO. In a letter sent out on June 14 by Schill, it said 55% of employees participated in the survey.
Vice President of Diversity and Equity of the UA, Lynn Fujiwara, has worked at UO for 23 years and was a lead organizer in writing the letter sent to UO.
The letter addressed concerns from faculty about the ways in which the UO is addressing workplace issues such as employee engagement, equity and retention, among others.
It was written by caucuses that make up the UA such as the Pride Caucus, Working
Families Caucus and the Faculty of Color.
“There were a lot of different perspectives that were shared and crafted the various points that we were making, given people’s different kinds of experience that they’ve had on this campus over the years,” Fujiwara said.
Fujiwara said people were hesitant to do the survey because they believed that no change would come from it. She also said people found it emotional because they’ve been dealing with some of these issues for a very long time.
“We have been talking about the issues of climate, diversity, equity and things very rarely change,” Fujiwara said. She feels most of the work is put on the faculty to put into action.
She said UO did give a response to the letter, but it was a brief one at that thanking them for their concerns.
UO Spokesperson Kay Jarvis wrote in an email that UO did respond to the email and wrote that both the interim president and the provost recognized the critical work ahead. Jarvis also said that there is work ongoing at the institutional level that will be released soon.
“As for the next steps — that’s it. Some people have written me after receiving that administrative letter and said it was hurtful to receive a letter that gave no acknowledgment of the kinds of things that were said in the letter,” Fujiwara said.
A member of the UA Faculty of Color, Tara Fickle, is leaving the UO because of the issues she has faced in the workplace. She said that in order to make change, UO must address all issues rather than simply addressing a few.
Fickle said the issues are connected and need to be addressed in total. The issues range from recruitment, retention, partner accommodations, department hiring plans, accessibility, discrimination, climate, administrative culture and invisible or under-compensated labor.
Fickle wants to emphasize that the reason there is not much diversity at UO is not that the faculty of color do not want to live in Eugene, which is what many people claim, Fickle said. But rather, it is because of a lack of substantial action that addresses problems of inclusivity in the workplace and faculty retention — which are requests made in the letter.
“I am a departing faculty member who has numerous reasons to want to stay in Eugene, including close family in this region,” Fickle said. “Speaking from personal experience and what I have seen over my nine years here, the exodus of faculty of color cannot be explained away by UO’s location or, for that matter, by another false narrative.”
Fujiwara said the actions UA is taking now are nothing new.
“So now we’re creating strategic action plans,” she said, referencing the letter.
Several years ago, UA had to take the same steps, creating plans for how to address the climate in each department, Fujiwara said.
“But it doesn’t amount to much. It just requires more work as faculty. It requires faculty to engage in conversations in units that might be very challenging for them,” she said.
Fujiwara said this issue of a lack of foundational change comes from the UO.
“I think it’s really a matter of not wanting to make larger changes, larger institutional changes, that would have a much broader and more substantial impact on the culture,” she said.
