RE: Impact on compensation due to COVID-19 response

Dear Chancellor Wilcox (and all),

We write to express our concern with the lack of clear, transparent communication from our campus leadership regarding the coming budgetary impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Faculty, students and staff are understandably anxious about how UCR intends to respond to the coming budgetary challenges, and how these developments will affect them. We write to call for a coherent and thoughtful response by campus leadership to the coming crisis, with particular attention to the following:

1. Transparency and shared governance:  All deliberations on cutbacks that affect compensation must be conducted with the utmost transparency. The Academic Senate and the UC-AFT must be consulted before any decisions are made, rather than presenting them as a fait accompli. Faculty cannot be kept in the dark about the administration’s plans for cutbacks—this only foments a general climate of anxiety and mistrust. Non-Senate faculty and librarians who may be affected should also be included in decision-making processes.

2. A graduated approach: Any cutbacks must begin with the most privileged members of our community, while protecting the most vulnerable ones. Therefore, we urge that such cutbacks be instituted in a graduated manner, starting with the salaries of the highest-paid administrators. RFA is deeply concerned about graduate students, staff, lecturers and Assistant Professors whose livelihoods may be at stake.  Research has repeatedly shown that COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted already-marginalized communities, exacerbating socio-economic and health disparities.  UCR must do its best not to contribute to these ever-widening gaps.

3. Furloughs rather than salary cuts: RFA will oppose any faculty salary cuts beyond the reversal of the promised 3% increase.  Should any further measures be necessary, RFA will consider supporting the possibility of furloughs, provided any decision to change compensation is made after extensive consultation with the Academic Senate.

4. A clear, transparent and safe plan for re-opening the campus: Most health experts agree that the COVID-19 virus will not disappear anytime soon, and a vaccine could take years to be mass-produced and widely-available. In the interim, many faculty, students and staff with underlying health conditions (and those who live with immuno-compromised family members) are deeply concerned about the campus re-opening, without fully addressing the health and safety risks presented by the ongoing presence of the virus. UCR’s campus leadership must employ all of its medical and health expertise to come up with a safe, effective and scientifically-sound strategy for re-opening the campus while minimizing health risks.

RFA can offer assistance in implementing a plan for re-opening that entails safe ways to hold classes, while monitoring the health and safeguarding the privacy of all those who work, live and study at UCR. We look forward to a productive conversation with you at our upcoming Zoom meeting, and an ongoing collaboration to meet this challenging moment.

Sincerely,

The Board of the RFA