TFA protest causes UTMB to back away from draconian cuts in the salaries of tenured professors
But work remains to be done to develop a reasonable compensation plan
Actions taken by the new TFA chapter at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have prompted the administration to back away from planned draconian cuts in the salaries of many tenured professors.
Based on information TFA has received, many faculty members who had been targeted for draconian cuts in their salaries have had their salaries restored by the administration in Memorandums of Appointments ("MOAs) issued today. However, some still have not had their salaries restored, while others have had their salaries only partially restored.
TFA Executive Director Dr. Charles Zucker said, "Our new leaders, working in conjunction with the state TFA, have brought considerable pressure to bear on the administration. Apparently President Stobo thought that he would get away with his egregious plan to slash salaries without a fight."
UTMB president John Stobo has imposed a compensation plan on the faculty that severely threatens its economic security and, hence, its academic freedom. Zucker said, "The plan, which UTMB is now backing away from, constitutes a bald-faced attempt on the part of Dr. Stobo and the UT System to decouple tenure and salary. In fact, both UT System Chancellor Mark G. Yudof and Executive Vice Chancellor Kenneth I. Shine have advanced the position in front of the UT System Faculty Advisory Council that there isn't any connection between tenure and salary. What does tenure mean when your salary can be reduced by as much as 50% or perhaps 'zeroed out' altogether?" Dr. Stobo has also called for the reduction of 1,300 full-time employee jobs among the Medical Branch's staff.
The UTMB plan was being implemented in ways that were arbitrary and capricious. Without any meaningful justification for its actions, UTMB had designated some departments for cuts while others remained untouched. Further, department chairmen within the affected departments had dramatically slashed the salaries of some faculty members without any regard for their performance, but left the salaries of others intact.
Although the planning for the new faculty compensation plan began some 18 months ago, administrators have justified their actions by pointing to the report and recommendations of the Navigant consulting group hired by UTMB to develop a "financial improvement plan." To date, President Stobo has refused to share the Navigant report with the faculty, though Navigant's top twenty recommendations have been made public by President Stobo. The report apparently contains a recommendation that UTMB must find a way to come up with $130 million in savings and additional income.
Based on information obtained through the Texas Public Information Act, UTMB has paid Navigant $1.8 million to date.
The new TFA chapter with the assistance of the state TFA challenged the faculty compensation plan by engaging in the following actions:
- Assisting individual faculty members with filing grievances asking that their salaries be restored pursuant to UTMB's procedures
- Filing Public Information Act requests regarding the compensation plan
- Creating a blog to provide information on developments at UTMB
- Contacting the offices of local legislators
TFA member advocate George Reamy said, "We need to hold their feet to the fire. First, some faculty members have not had their salaries restored. We will continue with the grievance process for those individuals. Second, TFA will continue to fight for a sensible faculty compensation plan that protects tenure and academic freedom, one modeled on the plan already in place at the UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center."
TFA's overarching goal is to see the UT M.D. Anderson salary compensation plan adopted for the Medical Branch. The M.D. Anderson plan locks in the salary of faculty members in their previous year as their base salary in future years. It sets a baseline beneath which a professor's salary cannot fall, thus providing the economic security cited in the 1940 Statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure.
Reamy added, "UTMB will lose many of its best and brightest faculty members over the next few years, causing a serious deterioration in the quality of the research enterprise and in patient care, unless UTMB approves a compensation plan modeled on M.D. Anderson's. After all, who will want to join the faculty at the Medical Branch once they understand that their salary can be reduced at any time for any reason? It's a plan that will squander the investment that the people of Texas have made in the Medical Branch for generations."
Zucker concluded, "President Stobo's compensation plan is a disaster for the people of Galveston, for the patients the Medical Branch serves and for the state of Texas. If UTMB at Galveston goes through with its plans, which includes laying off over a thousand UTMB employees, Galveston's economy will suffer a hemorrhage of massive proportions."
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