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Feast & Famine at The University of Toledo
(A tale of two classes at UT)
by Dr. Linda M. Rouillard, UT-AAUP Executive Board
The end of each academic year is always a busy time; but at The University of Toledo, this is often the beginning of the annual administrative shenanigans. This year, administrative antics targeted department secretaries who are being terminated to pay for "budget shortfalls" even as President Jacobs is to receive a $150,000 longevity bonus on June 30, and just as former UT president Dan Johnson is returning to UT for a $200,000 position. Among the other highlights of our FY 2011-2012 budget, the Dean of Engineering's salary has been adjusted from $234,000 to $290,000 under a five year contract. The Main Campus has a new Associate Vice President for Development at a salary of $150,000 and the Law School's Interim Dean has been named Dean with a salary increase from $213,811 to $280,000. President Jacobs has insisted that FY 2011-2012 budget cost cuts must come from personnel, but not from deans, vice presidents, and returning former presidents.
From January 3, 2011 to June 3, 2011, over 100 positions were eliminated. Many secretarial and staff positions have been eliminated especially in the former College of Arts & Sciences and in the College of Business & Innovation. Secretaries whose positions have been terminated include the sole secretary in the Department of Foreign Languages with over 50 faculty and over 3000 students. The entire College of Business & Innovation has only two secretaries for over 90 faculty and over 3300 students. In the library, the dedicated staff person responsible for class scheduling in the thriving information literacy instruction program was also inexplicably targeted for termination, even as plans exist for expanding the library's teaching role on campus. In a recent Presidential Perspectives interview with Larry Burns, President Jacobs addressed staff, students, and faculty saying "UT needs your loyalty." It is unfortunate that staff, students and faculty who believe in UT's mission and in its potential to build lives, careers and futures, cannot depend on loyalty in return from the Jacobs Administration. Instead, the work of our academic programs is being complicated and even jeopardized by unnecessary terminations of dedicated and skilled members of our institution.
The Blade reported that Trustee Carroll Ashley "was concerned UT could risk losing good administrators by not granting them salary increases." UT should also be concerned about losing experienced and valuable staff members. UT should be concerned about faculty whose workloads have increased due to lack of secretarial support. And UT should be very, very concerned about students who have lost important student-centered resources. It's not hard for President Jacobs to decline a pay raise when he earns over $392,000 per year and is receiving an annual $150,000 bonus. But it takes truly dedicated professionals to do the work our secretaries and other staff do for a small fraction of the salary and benefits of one dean or vice president.
There is both feast and famine at The University of Toledo, feast at the top of the food chain and famine at the bottom. We need real cost cutting at UT, starting at the top of the UT organizational chart.
Governor Kasich - where are you?
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