{"id":1921,"date":"2020-09-10T14:10:30","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T21:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2020-09-10T14:11:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T21:11:19","slug":"recast-update-on-faculty-furlough-process-2020-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/2020\/09\/recast-update-on-faculty-furlough-process-2020-21\/","title":{"rendered":"RECAST | Update on Faculty Furlough Process, 2020-21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sent:<\/strong> Thursday, September 10, 2020 1:12 PM
Subject:<\/strong> Update on Faculty Furlough Process, 2020-21 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear faculty colleagues \u2013  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to acknowledge the collective sacrifice we\u2019re making this year to address the college budget. Together, faculty, the deans, vice-provost and the provost have volunteered and agreed to take a 10% furlough during the academic year. This is a significant step toward fiscal health, which will save the college over $1.2M this academic year. We are doing our part to ensure Evergreen has sustainable future. We are joined by our staff colleagues, who are also taking furloughs, and adapting their work as a result of unfilled positions and staff layoffs at the college.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My sincere thanks go to the faculty and the UFE for recognizing\nour challenges and making some very difficult decisions. When the college and\nUFE negotiated this furlough, we agreed that it was important to minimize its\nimpacts on students. We didn\u2019t come to solutions quickly, nor without due\nconsideration. The Reduction in Force articles of our Collective Bargaining\nAgreement were, unfortunately, unsuitable to the task of maintaining a coherent\ncurriculum. We negotiated what we collectively agreed is a better way\nforward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, this will be a difficult year. We treasure our work,\nand it is hard to have less of it. We will be pained to see smaller paychecks.\nWe may find our morale depleted.  And we must continue to work together to\nfind good, collective solutions for ourselves and our students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Provost\u2019s office will share preliminary information with\nstudents via email sometime next week. We aim to minimize disruption to\nstudents. Your offering is one piece of a larger curricular puzzle. Students\nwill want to know both how your offering is changing, and what new options may\nbe in store. Please wait until we can give them the whole picture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below you will find important details on the faculty furlough.\nIf you have further questions, please contact FacultyFurlough@evergreen.edu,<\/a>\nwhich has been set up to help provide accurate, coordinated\nanswers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sincerely –  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trevor Speller <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trevor Speller, PhD – Curriculum Dean – he\/him
Library 2013 \u2013 360-867-6063
The Evergreen State College
2700 Evergreen Parkway\u00a0NW – Olympia, WA 98505<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DETAILS REGARDING 2020-21 FACULTY FURLOUGH<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FURLOUGHED FACULTY, PAY REDUCTIONS AND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2020-21 faculty furlough will apply to all full-time,\nregular faculty on 9-month contract and 12-month contracts. It does not apply\nto faculty with half-time contracts. Adjunct faculty previously contracted for\nfull-time employment will have their contracts adjusted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All full-time faculty affected by the furlough will see a 10%\nreduction in their pay beginning on September 25, 2020, and continuing\nthroughout the academic year.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The furlough comprises two elements: a mandatory furlough on\nSeptember 14, 15, and 16 for all affected faculty; and a further furlough of\neither teaching or other responsibilities, depending on your work at the\ncollege.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty can explore unemployment benefit options at esd.wa.gov.\nWe have received questions about the state\u2019s SharedWork program, which is an\noptional program for employers. Evergreen has applied for the state\u2019s\nSharedWork program for some staff. Currently, faculty are not included in the\nSharedWork program: we are exploring whether this is possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further explanation of the financial impacts of the furlough\nwill be provided in your annual salary letter. If you are unsure whether you\nare subject to the furlough, please contact FacultyFurlough@evergreen.edu<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CURRICULAR CHANGES<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the coming weeks, the curriculum deans will work closely\nwith CAT leaders, Path conveners, Graduate Program and NPP Directors, and the\nTacoma Dean to ensure we can maintain curricular coherence. Each of these\nleaders will be provided with a menu of possible options to forward to faculty,\nand asked to develop a furlough plan for their area. We will require written\nfurlough plans that account for each faculty member. Those plans will be\nreviewed by the curriculum deans prior to approval and catalog changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty should work directly with CAT leaders, Graduate Program\nand NPP Directors, and the Tacoma Dean to develop their area\u2019s furlough plan.\nOnce an area\u2019s furlough plan is complete, it will be forwarded to the\ncurriculum deans for approval. We expect approvals to begin in the last week of\nSeptember and conclude by the last week of October. We aim to complete updates\nto the winter academic catalog by November 15, and changes to the spring\ncatalog by February 1.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furloughs affecting the undergraduate curriculum, corresponding\nto a 25% reduction in teaching load for one quarter, will be mainly focused in\nspring, when we have fewest students, though there may be furloughs in winter\nquarter as well. We aim to minimize disruption for students and faculty. Our\ngraduate programs have different challenges, and their furloughs will be\nfocused differently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the reduction in teaching load, our students will see\na more diverse mixture of 16, 12, and 4-credit offerings in fall and winter. We\nwill need to coordinate our teaching so that students are able to have the\nability to combine offerings to study full-time if they wish. For every\nreduction from 16 to 12 credits, for instance, we need to make sure we have 4\ncredits of learning so that students can continue to progress to their\ndegrees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There may be significant changes to your teaching plans. Some\nfaculty will need to reduce their program credit in a given quarter; others may\nneed to redistribute workload; some will need to cancel their plans and teach\ndifferent offerings, including 4-credit courses. You may find yourself with\nless choice than usual. At the same time, students may find they have more\nchoice than usual. We trust that together we will find new, creative, and\nflexible ways to serve students this year.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FACULTY WITH ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Directors, library faculty, CAT leaders, faculty fellows, and\nother faculty with administrative responsibilities will be asked to track and approve\ntheir leave through their immediate supervisors. Supervisors will be reaching\nout to these faculty when they come back on contract. Those faculty will need\nto take twenty (20) days of furlough over the course of the academic year,\nincluding the 3 furlough days in September.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academic deans and the vice-provost will also need to take\ntwenty (20) days of furlough over the course of the academic year, and will\ntrack their furlough through the time and leave system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PROFESSIONAL LEAVES: SABBATICAL AND LEAVES WITHOUT PAY<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those faculty who have voluntarily elected to take a leave\nwithout pay in 2020-21 will not be subject to the furlough. Leave without pay\nrequests will continue to be considered by the deans and approved by the\nProvost through the regular mechanism outlined in the CBA. These requests can\nbe sent to the curriculum deans. Faculty on sabbatical in 2020-21 will be\nsubject to the furlough. Depending on the quarter of sabbatical and the quarter\nof furlough, sabbatical experience years may be credited back to the faculty\nmember. Questions about sabbaticals and leaves without pay can be sent to FacultyFurlough@evergreen.edu<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

POST-RETIREMENT CONTRACTS<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the terms of the MOU, we have deferred all\npost-retirement contracts for 2020-21. Faculty with questions about\npost-retirement contracts can contact FacultyFurlough@evergreen.edu<\/a>.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2020 1:12 PMSubject: Update on Faculty Furlough Process, 2020-21 Dear faculty colleagues \u2013   I\u2019d like to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2778,"featured_media":1715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1922,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions\/1922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ltc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}