 "Photo: Joel Kutaka")
Failure to settle the faculty contract at the University of Hawai‘i is adding to the pain felt by students from continuing cuts to the university’s budget.
The faculty overwhelmingly rejected the UH administration’s “last, best and final offer” of a 5 percent pay cut combined with a payroll lag and increased health costs. The university is facing as much as $76 million in budget cuts this fiscal year (FY), and another $78 million must be cut next fiscal year.
Negotiations between the University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly (the faculty union) and UH administration continue, but there is a great deal of uncertainty for students, faculty and administrators about what lies ahead.
Combining faculty and staff pay cuts, tuition increases and other efforts to raise money would still leave the university $16 million short, said UH President M.R.C. Greenwood last month.
“I have no more revenues to take care of any shortfall,” said Kathleen Cutshaw, vice chancellor for administration, finance and operations.
Cutshaw said this means the administration would need to look within the faculty and schools to take care of shortfalls, because it is within their jurisdiction to make those determinations.
“We would figure out exactly what is that shortfall and go back out to the teachers and faculty to see where to cut,” she said.
To prepare themselves for what they could anticipate as a result of the UHPA vote, students need to understand what the issues are, what the UH Mānoa administration offer included, and how the offer impacts the larger university budget issues.
UHPA said it was concerned about possible cuts in faculty and programs that would affect the quality of education at UH.
The budget cuts are affecting student services as well as programs in which students are currently seeking degrees.
PROGRAM STOPPAGE
Representatives of the Graduate Student Organization (GSO) and the ASUH met with Chancellor Hinshaw, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Reed Dasenbrock and Vice Chancellor for Students Francisco Hernandez at an ASUH meeting on Sept. 29 to discuss the recommendations for consolidation of resources, budget cuts and a perception of why there seemed to be a lack of student involvement in the budget and prioritization process.
Morey Hubin, treasurer for the GSO, gave an example of the speech pathology program currently undergoing consolidation and cuts. He said that the program is reducing applications and that continuing students could have some currently available classes reduced or phased out.
According to the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders’ (CSD) Web site, the Bachelor of Science degree program “is on administrative stoppage and new undergraduate admissions after summer of 2009 are not accepted.”
A Honolulu Star-Bulletin article by Helen Altonn reported in March that the speech pathology and audiology program received about $219,800 per semester from the Department of Education (DOE) through an agreement between the DOE and the CSD.
Dorothy Craven, the interim chair for CSD, said the program had received the funding from DOE for 10 years but also receives general funds from the state. She said although the DOE funding ended in June, the program is still receiving general funds from the state through the John A. Burns School of Medicine.
“We’re trying to find a way to maintain the program in light of all the cuts,” Craven said.
The program received accreditation for 2007 to 2012 but is short of funds due to the loss of DOE funding, she said.
Although the graduate student program is continuing, the bachelor’s program is on “stop out” for two years. The program cannot accept anyone into the bachelor’s program effective Fall 2010 to 2012.
The CSD is working with current bachelor-track students to complete their program, Craven said, and the university would make the determination as to whether to continue the program in 2012.
Craven explained that in order to become a licensed, accredited speech pathologist, an individual must have at least a master’s degree.
“The bachelor’s degree is a feeder for the graduate program,” Craven said. “We don’t just serve Hawai‘i. We have students from Guam, Japan, Hong Kong, all over. We are the only program, really, in the Pacific Basin.”
Hubin said, “We want to make sure that the way (UH administration is) handling speech pathology doesn’t become sort of the norm.”
IMPACT ON STUDENTS
UH administration and the UHPA continue to stress that priorities for each are students and minimizing the impact of the budget and contract negotiations. But cuts to programs, services and faculty impact students the greatest in terms of the availability of funding and classes and the quality of education.
Hubin said graduate students could feel immediate effects in terms of reduced scholarship dollars; the decreased ability of resources such as reduced access to faculty and the effects of condensing programs; and decreased graduate programs that lead to a doctorate degree.
Francisco Hernandez said that whether the faculty accepted the contract or not, everyone would be affected by the amount of general funds available to the university.
“There would be less money available to the university, and that could lead to more budget cuts,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez stressed that there would have to be either fewer services or fewer students. Student services have been cut approximately 10 percent from previous budget cuts.
Also, the issue of retrenchment – reduction or cutting – of faculty has generated a contested debate between the UHPA and UH administration.
Hubin said that whether the UHPA accepted or rejected the contract offer, the most significant effect of budget cuts would be on the value UH Mānoa provides; UH could ultimately be seen as an institution whose degrees do not mean much.
“It’s easy to cut programs, but it’s difficult to bring them up to par if programs are deteriorated,” Hubin said.
In a Sept. 28 letter to the UH community, Greenwood said, “At this point, if the targeted salary savings are achieved, the university does not anticipate any retrenchment of tenured or tenure-track faculty for budgetary reasons in either FY 2010 or FY 2011.”
A question remains as to whether this leaves open a possibility for non-tenured or non-tenure track faculty to be retrenched, and whether retrenchment of tenured or tenure track faculty is likely if targeted salary savings are not achieved.
looking ahead
If the faculty rejection of the contract were to lead to a strike, those eligible for graduation this semester could be heavily affected.
This subject personally affects senior Matthew Prellberg, chairman of external affairs for ASUH. He said he was concerned that if there were a strike, students would not be able to graduate at the end of the semester.
“I would hope that there would be a system in place, if there were a strike, to see us through,” Prellberg said.
He also said he believes cuts are inevitable, but he hopes that services that wind up being cut would have minimum impact on students’ lives and their ability to graduate.
Cutshaw also addressed what a possible strike by faculty could mean for classes.
“There are lots of options that we would go through before we actually cancelled a class,” Cutshaw said. “Our mission is teaching.”
She discussed options in lieu of cancelling classes, such as increasing class sizes and teaching loads.
“There’s no negative impact this semester,” Cutshaw said. “We’re able to offer all of the classes this semester.”
Notices about meetings and updates about the budget are generally posted on the UH Mānoa Web site. Students can also contact their student representatives for additional information regarding upcoming briefings and for additional information about the status of the UHPA contract and the university’s budget situation.
