Budget Crisis Q&A for Faculty Congress

This is partially true and partially not true. Yes, some faculty members will lose their jobs. With this big of a budget crisis, that is inevitable. But will it be 53? No, not specifically.

This number was used as an example presented by VCAA Kris when she was speaking to faculty . . . and it very quickly became the rumor of the day. Well, maybe even the rumor of the week! It was not intended to become a “set in stone” number. It was just used as an example. Plus, the number would apply to all positions within Academic Affairs that may be lost—not just faculty.

Reorganization is definitely one of the approaches that administration might take to meet the budget cut requirements. So, it is very possible.

Several faculty members have voiced the following scenario:

Move the COBE into the CAS as a department. Then change the name of CAS accordingly.

Move the CAFNRM into the CNHS as a department. No name change necessary.

Move the DKICP into the CNHS as a school/department. No name change necessary. This scenario would eliminate three dean positions; however, it might not have the financial impact expected, as the three deans would resume their faculty positions, which adds three more faculty members, albeit at a lower salary.

This move would help with the budget cuts on the Administration side though.

Chris Frueh, who chaired the ad hoc Faculty Congress Reorganization Committee several years ago, recently shared the committee’s plan and recommendations with Chancellor Bonnie. This plan included at least one of the above changes. The ad hoc committee put a lot of work into coming up with reorganization scenarios that faculty could live with. Maybe this will help the administration with their decision-making task. (Faculty Congress thanks you, Chris, for taking the initiative to provide the documents to the administration.)

According to our administrators, we will know which programs may be impacted in November. Our administrators are submitting their budget cut proposal to the Board of Regents (BOR) in December. We will have an opportunity to see the proposal before they share it with the BOR (or hear anything about program cuts and reductions on the news).

It is very likely that cuts and reductions will be presented at the program or unit level without specificity (naming names). That will most likely come in January, after BOR approval of the overall budget-cut plan.

So far, casual hires and lecturers have not been rehired.

When first quarter figures are calculated, they can be shared. Figuring this out now would be difficult.

So, please, stand by.

Update: The Union and the Board of Regents (BOR) have come to an agreement on the retirement incentive program. Once the agreement is written up, it will be shared. So, stand by!

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First of all, this is not an early retirement incentive program because it will apply only to faculty members who are eligible for retirement.

The retirement incentive plan is still being negotiated as of this writing (10.22.20). The plan has already gone back and forth between the System administration and UHPA. According to the UHPA website, It is now being reviewed by the UHPA. Negotiations Committee (chaired by Karla Hayashi). Their last update was posted on October 5 at the following URL: https://www.uhpa.org/contract-negotiations/update-on-uh-faculty-retirement-incentives/.

Since the retirement incentive plan will impact faculty members who are eligible for retirement between December 15, 2020 and June 30, 2021, we should hear something soon. Keep your fingers crossed for those who are awaiting the news.

One perceived snag in the negotiations is that the governor is not helping with the plan, financially. He will not grant additional years of service as an incentive to retire. So, any plan that is put into place must be funded by the UH System. And that is problematic, considering the budget crisis we are all experiencing.

You are referring to retrenchment. The short answer is, “Maybe.”

You can move to another position that opens up at UH Hilo, if you are qualified for it. And, of course, if other retrenched faculty members are also qualified for and want the vacant position, seniority reigns, based upon years and then rank.

Retrenchment is spelled out in detail (and in more proper language and legal terms) in ARTICLE XVI, RETRENCHMENT of the 2017-2021 UHPA-BOR Contract.

To read the Article, click the link below.

https://www.uhpa.org/contracts/2017-2021-uhpa-bor-contract/article-xvi-retrenchment/

Yes.

1. Yes.
2. Yes, specific.
3. Not necessarily. It depends upon the number of retirements and possible other factors.
4. Notifications begin January 21 and may continue over 45 days.
5. If you are a non-tenured faculty member, you have 4 months. If you are a tenured faculty member, you have 12 months.

According to the UHPA contract, you get 12 months from the time you are notified, if you are a tenured faculty member. If you are not tenured yet, you get 4 months.

If you are tenured and told you are being let go in January, you technically can remain employed with UH Hilo an entire calendar year; however, that doesn’t really align well with the terms. So, there will have to be some agreed-upon adjustments to the UHPA contract to consider this timing issue.

Further, there will be some retirements, some “bumping” others for positions, program teach outs, and the like, so it will be a while before all of this is worked out. This type of situation is new to everyone--faculty, staff, admin, UHPA, the BOR--so we will have to wait and see.

Employee Assistance Program

One means of support that the University of Hawai’i system provides is the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). This program offers professional counseling services. For more information about the EAP, please, access the following link:

https://hilo.hawaii.edu/uhh/hr/documents/EAPFlyer.pdf

As of this writing, we are waiting to hear if there are other means of support being provided for faculty and staff who are let go. So, check back later for more information.

So far, the Faculty Congress members have written two motions related to the budget crisis and provided them to the UH Hilo administrative team.

One motion asks for full disclosure and sharing of all information upon which the admin team’s budget decisions have been made. This provides faculty and staff with an option of discussing with the admin team anything that is unclear, misunderstood, or, possibly, miscalculated.

The other motion asks that the admin team’s proposal be shared and discussed with Faculty Congress before presenting it to the Board of Regents. (And the admin has already agreed to let UH Hilo faculty and staff know of what cost-savings changes the team is recommending prior to sharing their proposal with the Board of Regents, so this is not really an issue.)

The other portion of the motion asks that they not go forward with their proposal until they have Faculty Congress support. Of course, this is something that the admin can completely ignore; however, we think that, as painful as it might be, we should be able to come to an agreement with the admin that their proposal is reasonable and what needs to be done, if that is the case.

The Faculty Congress has also voted to form an ad hoc Budget Crisis Committee, headed up by Steve Herman, to look at ways of slicing and dicing the budget other than the pro-rata manner that is now being used. If anyone would like to help Steve and his small committee of faculty members with this task, please, let him know.

Question sent to the admin and the UHPA for response.

(I am sending this to the admin and to the UHPA for a response/clarification; however, I think the retrenchment portion of the contract makes it clear that non-tenured faculty members get a 4-month notice and tenured faculty members get a 12-month notice.)

Question sent to the admin and the UHPA for response.

(I am sending this to the admin and to the UHPA for a response/clarification; however, I think that this deals with contract renewal, not retrenchment. And it is true, if you do not have your contract renewed due to not achieving tenure in the prescribed amount of time, you do get to stay on for 12 more months, while you seek another position. I have seen this happen twice, and both times, the faculty members left right away and did not stay another year.)

Question sent to the admin and the UHPA for response.

(I am sending this to the admin and to the UHPA for a response/clarification; however, I think that this deals with contract renewal, not retrenchment. And it is true, if you do not have your contract renewed due to not achieving tenure in the prescribed amount of time, you do get to stay on for 12 more months, while you seek another position. I have seen this happen twice, and both times, the faculty members left right away and did not stay another year.)

Question sent to the admin for response. We can expect a response early next week.

Yes, of course; however, these are not motions, they are resolutions. The first two have been passed. The third one is still in process.

They clearly affirm that ours is a shared governance system, not a top-down system. They clearly affirm that faculty “own” the curriculum and that removal of any faculty member has an impact upon curriculum and its delivery, so faculty should have an active part in any and all decisions made that impact curriculum.

1. Resolution Reasserting Mānoa Faculty Senate Oversight of All Academic Programs: https://www.hawaii.edu/uhmfs/issues/resolution-reasserting-manoa-faculty-senate-oversight-of-all-academic-programs/

2. Resolution Censuring the Mānoa Chief Executive Officer (President Lassner) Over Failure to Conduct Meaningful Faculty Consultation in the Reorganization Process: https://www.hawaii.edu/uhmfs/issues/resolution-censuring-the-manoa-chief-executive-officer-president-lassner-over-failure-to-conduct-meaningful-faculty-consultation-in-the-reorganization-process/

3. Resolution Censuring the Mānoa Provost Over Failure to Conduct Meaningful Faculty Consultation in the Reorganization Process: https://www.hawaii.edu/uhmfs/issues/resolution-censuring-the-manoa-provost-over-failure-to-conduct-meaningful-faculty-consultation-in-the-reorganization-process/