BY FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENTS AT US JESUIT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

We, the faculty, staff and students of Jesuit Colleges and Universities from throughout the United States, are concerned by the rash of austerity-driven layoffs, firings and program eliminations occurring and under consideration by Jesuit institutions across the United States. These measures are particularly troubling in light of the Jesuit charism of cura personalis. This principle implies a commitment to the nurturing and care of the spirit, intellect and body of the students and workers who make up these great institutions. Measures that eliminate or undermine disciplines core to the liberal arts and that fire workers in the midst of a global pandemic imply a commitment to the bottom line, not to the people that make up our colleges and universities.

Among the actions underway, decided without meaningful input from faculty and staff, are:

1. Drastic cuts to staff and faculty (including tenured faculty)
2. Changes to the employee handbook that weaken or eliminate tenure protections
3. Furloughs and pay reductions for faculty and staff
4. Elimination of retirement benefits for faculty and staff
5. Consolidation or elimination of entire academic programs
6. Targeted cuts aimed at the social science and humanities disciplines that form the core of Jesuit education.
7. The establishment of contracts with for-profit universities to provide general education credits at AJCU (Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities) institutions.

These proposals, among many others, illustrate how far our administrators have fallen from the Ignatian mission. They have lost their commitment to education in pursuit of an abstract notion of institutional prosperity. They increasingly see our schools not as institutions of higher learning, but as holding companies with a tuition revenue stream. When a school retreats from its mission to educate, what remains?

In response to this crisis we demand the following:

1. A commitment to the preservation of jobs. A moratorium on job and pay cuts (including furloughs), of all frontline staff and faculty including contract workers. Further, our commitment to cura personalis requires a protection and expansion of health benefits to help employees cope with pandemic effects.
To sacrifice faculty and staff in this moment of economic crisis is to violate our Jesuit identity, and all other avenues for fiscal solvency should be pursued before resorting to layoffs. This includes, but is not limited to, use of fungible endowment money and sale of off-campus real estate assets. Should cuts and pay decreases be necessary, they should begin with the top-line administrators most able to manage the hardship.
2. A renewed commitment to shared faculty and staff governance. The retreat from the educational mission in the higher education sector is endemic, and only meaningful faculty governance will ensure that Jesuit Colleges and Universities remain focused on their raison d’etre. Maintaining such a focus requires elected bodies of faculty and staff with access to confidential information and a substantial if not equal say over budget decisions. This should include granting faculty access to all budget documents including, but not limited to, revenue models, enrollment estimates, capital projects, and salary information for top administrators.
3. A commitment to transparent budget and program evaluation processes to ensure that AJCU schools do not needlessly shed the core academic programs that make Jesuit education so uniquely nurturing and rich. There can be no meaningful shared governance where asymmetry of information prevails. A budget is a moral document and strives for justice above all, subordinating more traditional budgeting priorities. Justice requires that we attend to both a fair distribution of resources and a fair process in determining that distribution.
4. A commitment to a fair and democratic process for unionization for all academic workers and staff who wish to pursue it. As Pope Francis (SJ) recently lamented, “[T]here seems to be no place for popular movements that unite the unemployed, temporary and informal workers, and many others who do not easily find a place in existing structures.” For too long, universities and colleges have relied upon contingent faculty and graduate student workers who deserve job security and a voice in employment bargaining.
5. Faculty and staff discretion over their work environment during the COVID-19 crisis. Ignatian values require that faculty and staff should not have to endanger their health and lives and those of their families for financial considerations of the institution. All faculty and staff should have the option to work remotely until pandemic conditions cease.

We write with the wellbeing and intellectual development of our students foremost in our mind. We write to underscore the value of our faculties. We write to support our staff upon whom our institutions daily depend. We write in defense of our beloved vocation as educators. We write to further the educational mission of our institutions. We are proud of our sacred tradition, and we take this action in consonance with it — to realize the values of Jesuit pedagogy in the lives of those who serve the Ignatian Mission.

Sincerely,

Boston College Graduate Employee Union – UAW (BCGEU-UAW)
Canisius College AAUP
John Carroll University AAUP
College of the Holy Cross AAUP
Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) at Loyola University Chicago
Fairfield University Faculty Welfare Committee, AAUP
Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees – AFT 06440
Marquette Academic Workers Union
Marquette University AAUP
Latin American Student Organization (L.A.S.O.) at Loyola University Chicago
Loyola Graduate Workers’ Union (LGWU)
Loyola Marymount University AAUP
Loyola University Chicago AAUP
Loyola University Chicago Black Graduate Student Alliance
Loyola University Chicago Faculty Forward
Loyola University Chicago National Lawyers Guild Chapter
Loyola University Chicago Sunrise Movement
Regis University Chapter of AAUP
Social Workers of Color Alliance of Loyola University Chicago
Student Environmental Alliance at Loyola University Chicago
Students for Reproductive Justice at Loyola University Chicago
Teamsters Local 727
University of San Francisco Faculty Association (USFFA, AFT Local 4269)
University of San Francisco Part Time Faculty Association
White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL) Chapter at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
Xavier University AAUP

Sign the petition and read the full list of signatories here.