OT-AAUP Email To The Provost, July 1st 2020

On July 1st 2020, OT-AAUP President Dr. Sean St.Clair sent an email to Oregon Tech’s Provost concerning our administration’s proposed changes to the stipend-release model. In the interest of transparency, you can read the full text of that message below:

Dear Provost Mott;

It has come to our attention that you are planning to make significant changes to the Workload Guidelines and end the current practice of providing release time or a stipend to faculty who serve as program directors and/or provide other academic functions as described in the Academic Release Time & Stipend Model dated 5/10/2013. These are changes in working conditions for the members of our bargaining unit. Since workload is a mandatory subject of bargaining, the changes you are proposing may only be made through the bargaining process.

We therefore insist that, should you wish to make this change to faculty workload and working conditions, you do so through the normal bargaining process, and that you immediately cease the unilateral implementation of changes to both the Workload Guidelines and the Academic Release Time & Stipend Model. Additionally, we request that anyone to whom these policies have been sent be informed that they are merely proposals and have not been adopted but will be addressed at the bargaining table. On the advice of our chapter counsel, we will file an Unfair Labor Practice complaint if you persist in implementing these changes.

We request that you respond by the end of business on July 10, 2020 confirming that you will not implement these policies.

Sean St.Clair on behalf of Oregon Tech AAUP Executive Committee