University administrators faced a worried and sometimes angry crowd on Wednesday when they held a town hall-style meeting addressing upcoming furlough days for classified and unclassified staff.
President Richard Lariviere, Senior Vice President and Provost Jim Bean, Vice President of Finance and Administration Frances Dyke and General Counsel Melinda Grier comprised the panel, which mainly fielded questions on the furlough days, as well as ballot measures 66 and 67.
Before the question-and-answer session, Lariviere addressed the audience:
“Our goal will be to protect the people who allow us to perform our mission, which is the people who are here today and the people they represent who cannot be here,” Lariviere said, referring to the University classified and unclassified staff.
He said those who are not affected by furloughs may view the issue as a “curiosity,” but for those who will be furloughed it is a “source of fear and anxiety and doubt.”
“We will find a way, if we can, to make people affected by this contract whole this fiscal year,” Lariviere said. “We are going to do our damnedest to make you whole. The only constraints on our imagination are the terms of the law and the terms of the contract.”
The Service Employees International Union Local 503, which represents University classified staff, nearly went on strike over furlough days earlier this summer during contract negotiations with the Oregon University System. The two eventually hammered out an agreement, which dropped the number of furlough days from 24 to 8-16 over the next two years.
State employees are also facing 10 furlough days over the next two years.
The reception from the audience, which included a large group of SEIU members, was less than enthusiastic.
University Senate Vice President Nathan Tublitz said he has received more than 150 e-mails from concerned faculty and staff about the furloughs. He floated several ideas for off-setting the furlough days, such as setting up a fund for those affected.
“People who don’t have to take furlough have a responsibility to help those who do,” Tublitz said. “We’re a family, and we all have to work together to make this place the best we can.”
The administrators said they are considering several options to compensate furloughed staff.
Also discussed were upcoming ballot measures 66 and 67, which were another source of concern for the crowd, and some asked if the outcome would affect the furlough days. But, Grier said, “Even if 66 and 67 pass, the contract is still in place.”
In the end, the administrators could offer little more than cold comfort to the audience.
“We had every interest in protecting the classified staff,” Bean said. “It just didn’t work out.”
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