January 13, 2019
To: WSU President Cheryl Schrader Dear President Schrader,
The California Conference of the American Association of University Professors (CA-AAUP), representing over 1700 university faculty in California, is gravely concerned about WSU’s unilateral imposition of a contract on full-time teaching faculty represented by AAUP-WSU. The unilateral imposition was based on a 2017 Fact Finder report that painted a hyperbolically bleak picture of the state of the university which was rejected by 97.5% of WSU faculty.
An analysis of publicly available financial data confirms that all of WSU’s budget problems are self-created and due to bad management of resources by the Board of Trustees. In addition, compensation and benefits of the full-time teaching faculty constitute 17% of the university’s budget. So, spending on faculty lines has clearly not created the budget problems and those problems cannot be solved in any significant way by a punitive contract with faculty.
Your faculty has shown a willingness to share in carrying a part of the burden the Board of Trustees and your administration have created by offering a menu of permanent and short- term financial concessions. You have chosen to ignore them and have now imposed a contract that shows no appreciation for your faculty and only displays a desire to unload the burden of administrative and Board mistakes on them, using the mess you and the Board of Trustees have created as a justification.
We strongly invite you to rescind your irresponsible decision and invite AAUP-WSU back to the table of negotiation.
Sincerely, Claudio Fogu
President CA-AAUP
Jesse Drew (VP for University of California)
Steve Filling (California Faculty Association South)
Antonio Gallo California Faculty Association South)
Katie Graham (VP for California Community Colleges)
Rosalinda Quintanar (VP for California State Univerity)
Alex Zukas (VP for Private Universities and Colleges)
American Association of University Professors 