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The University of Vermont campus erupted with the sounds of car horns Thursday as faculty and students drove around the school in protest of spending cuts proposed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic’s financial fallout.
Cardboard placards taped to cars demanded the university “CHOP FROM THE TOP” and “Open the Books!” A few dozen participated in the protest, which started at the Staples Plaza in South Burlington and concluded near the Engelsby House, the UVM president’s residence on Williams Street in Burlington.
“What we are getting from the administration is an unwillingness to include faculty in conversations and planning, and a rejection of our reasonable requests to work together to address the challenges facing our community,” said Julie Roberts, a professor of linguistics and the president of United Academics, UVM’s faculty union.
University officials have proposed a series of belt-tightening measures to contend with lost revenues and an uncertain enrollment picture in the fall. And in an open letter to the university community released Monday, UVM President Suresh Garimella implied there were more cuts to come.
Reductions include cuts in pay for certain senior administrators. Garimella, for example, whose total annual compensation tops $600,000 a year, has voluntarily given up a month’s salary. But the faculty union argues those reductions are nothing compared to what the worst-paid among them are being told they will need to sacrifice.
“There are layers and layers of administrators who make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year who are taking tiny, symbolic cuts that are nowhere near what the lowest paid faculty are shouldering,” said Sarah Alexander, an associate professor of English.
According to the union, at least 72 lecturers – full-time, non-tenure-track faculty – will see their pay cut by 25% as their course loads are reduced by a quarter, per the plans put forward by administrators. Lecturers make an average of $65,411 a year, according to the university. Many part-time faculty could not be rehired at all.
Brad Bauerly, a lecturer in UVM’s political science department, has been told he’ll teach three-quarters of his typical course load next semester. He said that’s despite the fact that his courses usually wind up waitlisted.
“It’s just obviously going to hurt academic quality – and that’s something they keep saying in all their statements they’re not willing to sacrifice,” he said.
The protest comes a day before the university’s board of trustees is next set to meet. The faculty union and administration officials are also sitting down tomorrow to bargain over their next contract.
“We’re honking today so that they know how we feel tomorrow,” said Cobalt Tolbert, a UVM junior studying philosophy.
“I’m an in-stater. I can’t afford to go elsewhere when my programs get cut, or when they’re in jeopardy,” he added.
Walter Keady, a master’s student in UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resource, came to the protest with a Democratic Socialists of America banner draped over his white sedan. He called cuts “the wrong way to go about a crisis.”
“When everyone’s private life is very unequal, it makes all the more sense to have robust, strong public institutions, like education,” he said.
A statement released Thursday by UVM spokesperson Jeff Wakefield characterized the cuts as a reaction to “demand projections in different academic disciplines,” and emphasized that lecturers would be able to retain full benefits.
“If demand for certain courses increases, then appointments for some lecturers may increase to a full teaching load,” Wakefield wrote.
