BY SUE RAMLO

They said they were sorry; they said that it was financial.  We were devastated when we got the emails or phone calls about meetings with an administrator concerning our future at the University of Akron (UA)–we were being fired. Our situation made national news because there are nearly one hundred of us full-time faculty, most of whom have tenure. And then they chose to punish us further.

What has been happening at the University of Akron (UA) has been in the news and in this blog including “The University of Akron Hit List: Who Are We?” “The University of Akron: Why We Cannot Just Move Along as if Nothing Happened Here,” and others. To summarize, the UA administration and Board of Trustees (BOT) declared force majeure, due to the pandemic, in late May. They claim that the pandemic has created a $65M problem despite at least a decade of public financial struggles. An outside financial analysis has come to quite a different conclusion about the university’s current financial situation and especially in relation to the pandemic. In the meantime, the chapter membership rejected a “last best offer” from the administration and now the situation regarding force majeure (FM) is in the hands of an arbitrator.

Although we were stressed during spring semester, our stress levels escalated once the rumors of a faculty cut-list emerged. Now that we have spent 5-6 weeks as the RIF list faculty, it has been even more stressful. We served the university for years, oftentimes decades.  We dutifully did all we could to help our students through an abrupt move to online classes in March. We were planning how to do our best this fall.  Now we are adrift in joblessness and sleeplessness, with anxiety buzzing in our ears. We wonder what will become of us, our programs, our students, our classes. Some had to decide if they were willing to return as adjuncts to teach their own classes for a fraction of their former pay and without benefits. In the meantime, the pandemic rages on and we wonder if this situation is the end of our academic careers.

At this juncture, the administration could have chosen to be understanding and kind to us given their attack on our livelihoods and futures. But they were not. They chose to further torture our daily lives through punitive means that I want to reveal here. I believe that hidden agendas cannot tolerate public exposure. This situation requires public exposure.

As I mentioned, the requests (email or phone call) for a meeting the day after the BOT’s approval to fire 96 unionized full-time faculty, let each of us know we were on the list. The reason given for our selection was simply “it was financial,” without any other due process or rationale. The day of our meetings, we received letters as well as a Q&A sheet from Human Resources. The only way to retain UA email addresses and library research access was to retire. Yet we would all retain dependent access to tuition fee remission within some criteria (already enrolled, must be enrolled continuously for four years). At least there was that much. But then there wasn’t. About 1.5 weeks before classes started, each of us on the RIF list with at least one dependent enrolled at Akron received an email–the administrators had rescinded the tuition waivers they had granted us earlier. Our UA email address, library access, and tuition remission were gone.

Yet the games continued, inducing further stress and making our lives unimaginably miserable. As the RIF list faculty began to apply for unemployment, we followed the instructions on the state’s website rather than the information we received from the administration. According to the state, unemployment could commence this summer based on our last day of official work, regardless of having insurance coverage until our official, illegitimate termination. Yet unemployment applications began to be rejected because the UA administration stated that our termination was 8/21/2020 even if we had no paycheck or work during the summer, outside our standard 9 month contracts (excluding library faculty on twelve-month contracts). More insult to injury. We also did not receive our COBRA health insurance information because the administration chose not to send it to COBRA until our termination date of 8/21/2020, leaving us uninsured during a pandemic!

So here we are with no currently active insurance, no income, potentially reduced unemployment, locked university email, lost access to research databases, and unexpected increased cost for our dependents to attend the university that has cast us aside.

In an interview on local radio, two days after the termination of 178 employees, President Gary Miller described the decision to fire UA employees, including ninety-six BUF, as tough and regrettable but something the board and administration had to do in order to preserve the university, all because of COVID-19. Yet it does not feel like Miller is experiencing regret.  And it is worth reminding readers that this all happened while the administration failed to prove force majeure and was not following the bargaining unit contract.

We were given no specific rationales for our selection for the RIF until more than a month after the board approved our dismissals. These rationales were received with no date and no author information with less than 48 hours left before our illegitimate terminations would take effect.

These mystery authors  appeared woefully uninformed about RIF faculty, our courses, and our programs. The misinformation and insulting rhetoric included in these rationales made it clear that terminations were not done with careful consideration for the future of students, the community, and the sustainability of the university. The rationales seem to be an afterthought with poor justification as to why each RIF member was eliminated and did nothing more than further rub salt in our wounds.

Thus, the question remains, why couldn’t the administration show us on the RIF some kindness and empathy?  Why are they so angry at us and does this have something to do with the truth behind our selection for termination? Actions speak louder than words.  We are forever grateful for the AAUP because they remain steadfast, as does our chapter, that no full-time faculty should be terminated at UA. Where is the shared sacrifice from the administration that has barely reduced their 6-figure salaries considering this supposed financial tragedy?

Guest blogger Sue Ramlo is professor of general technology in the department of engineering and science technology at the University of Akron.