Members of the Oberlin Faculty have condemned the College’s proposed two percent salary increase cap and are calling for the Board of Trustees to hear their concerns.

“The General Faculty would like to invite the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees,and any other members of the Board they would like to include to discuss the current budgetary crisis with it and with all Oberlin College employees at the Board’s March meeting,” read the general faculty’s Feb. 24 resolution.
The invitation was declined by the Board of Trustees.

Last Tuesday, at a General Faculty meeting where the main focus of discussion was the present financial situation of the College, some members of the faculty expressed their desire to meet with the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees during their visit to the College this coming week. They released a motion proposed by Politics Professor Marc Blecher inviting the Executive Committee to an open discussion. However, the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees responded in a letter to President Nancy Dye and in the letter he declined the invitation and explained the reasoning behind their decision.

“There are already in place a number of channels for good communication between the Board and the community as the Board carries out its fundamental responsibilities as the College’s governing body,” the letter said.

Secretary of the College Bob Haslun said that the faculty should look to other means to address their careers.

“There are other channels through which issues like this should be addressed. This is not the way,” he said. “I know there are many people who don’t think that it’s right for the Trustees to come to Faculty meetings.”

“The board feels that that is not appropriate governance,” Dye said. “Normally you don’t have the board meeting with a group of people who work at the institution for the purposes of discussing things like this.”

According to Haslun, the motion was proposed a little after 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening and by that time several faculty members had already left and there were only about 35 members present.

“Had it been suggested a little before that, I don’t think it would’ve been passed,” he added.

The topic, which inflamed the desire for direct contact between the faculty members and the Executive Committee, concerns the faculty salaries for the upcoming year. Because of the College’s financial difficulties, the faculty has been offered a pool of salary increases of two percent for the next year. This is well below what has been offered over the last few years and barely covers cost of living increases. At the same time the board said it can no longer cover the cost of healthcare due to rising costs.

Therefore, several faculty members have complained that their real income actually goes down because they have to cover most of their health expenses. For some of them, especially some of the junior faculty members who have families to take care of, this might prove to be a serious issue.

One junior faculty member stood up and said that he might actually have to leave and go do something else since he will not be able to make a living in Oberlin.

“It has only happened once,” Blecher said. “In 1994, also because of a budget crisis.

“What we know is that the College is in a budgetary crisis and it will last for at least another year or two. This is not just the faculty whining for more money but also about the College being able to recruit and keep the best faculty,” he added.

Blecher proposed the motion that was later on sent to the board. However, some faculty members felt that direct communication between the Executive Committee and the faculty would mean that the middle role of the president and the faculty members, who are part of board committees and usually carry out the conversation between the two parties, would be unfairly circumvented.