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Union Report: The Priorities We Need for the Rutgers We Deserve

May 5, 2022

Dear colleague,

As we organize for our demands in our next contract, we’re sure to hear the same refrain we always hear from the administration: Rutgers doesn’t have the money.

But a newly published report from our union’s University Budget and Priorities Committee shows that Rutgers does have the money—and plenty of it—to implement “The Priorities We Need for the Rutgers We Deserve.” Read the report by clicking here. For a printable version, click here.

The report is a response to President Holloway’s speech about Rutgers finances to the University Senate earlier this semester. The Budget Committee offers their analysis of our university’s financial situation and puts forward a different set of priorities for Rutgers. Here are their takeaways:

  • With enrollment stable, state funding restored, an unprecedented flow of COVID relief funding, and a booming endowment, Rutgers’ supposed “fiscal emergency” is long over (and it wasn’t really an emergency to begin with).
  • The sacrifices demanded of us during the pandemic weren’t shared equally.
  • President Holloway’s stress on the unique importance of athletics overstates their importance. The athletics budget shouldn’t be three times bigger than the library budget.
  • The flood of money that the administration takes from academic units under the Rutgers budget system comes back, if at all, in trickles.
  • The administration’s unilateral decision to discontinue a central program for grad funding harms our academic mission.
  • Buildings and stadiums are not the core assets of our ­university. People are. Their work must be supported and rewarded fairly.

Now that the semester is drawing to a close, we hope you’ll make some time to read this important union report (you can click here for a printable version). We have a fight ahead of us next fall and beyond to win our demands. We all need to know the facts about Rutgers finances, so we can make the case for #TheRutgersWeDeserve.

Lastly, the Budget Committee report proves beyond a doubt that the administration could afford what our grads have been fighting for: a central commitment to funding extensions for every graduate student who needs one. Please join a “Grade-In for Guaranteed Grad Funding” at Winants Hall on Monday, May 9, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. We’ll meet at Somerset and College at 10:45 a.m. and walk into Winants together. Click here to RSVP if you can participate or if you can stop by and show your support.

In solidarity,
Becky and Todd

Rebecca Givan, President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Todd Wolfson, General Vice President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT

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