Dear colleague,
The Board of Governors is meeting in person in Camden on Wednesday, October 6, and we’re going to be there to send a message, with an outdoor speakout and picket before some people go in to address the BoG. We’re urging everyone who can to come out—we’ll gather in front of Campus Center’s main entrance (326 Penn St.) at 11:30 a.m. Click here to tell us you’ll be there—we need to know who’s coming.
Camden members will be making signs for the speakout this Wednesday, September 29, in the Campus Center lounge area during the free period from 11:20 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
We have a lot to say to the Governors:
- Since the Board chose to meet in Camden, they can rescind the punitive financial restrictions imposed on Rutgers Camden, where departments need approval from the central administration to spend money. Camden’s supposed $30 million deficit (a product of the unfair RCM budget system) is used to justify the restrictions, but that’s less than half the size of the athletics program’s losses in a single year.
- The administration is only this week releasing initial decision letters for the first applicants to the faculty pay equity program (nearly half of whom are from Camden). By the time the BoG meets, we’ll all be able to judge for ourselves whether the process is fair.
- Rutgers needs to put health and safety first. That means providing free weekly testing for anyone on campus, so vaccinated people with asymptomatic breakthrough infections don’t spread the Delta variant to their families and communities—and fixing the HVAC problems in many of our buildings.
- Thanks to the Daily Targum and NorthJersey.com, we know the athletics program’s deficits and debts are even worse than we already knew—and management is sitting on over half of the federal and state COVID relief funds they got. Students, their parents, faculty, and staff deserve transparency and accountability about these issues—and an honest discussion about how to turn upside-down priorities the right side up.
This is our university. The Board of Governors needs to get our message. So please come to Camden on Wednesday, October 6, at 11:30 a.m., and we’ll make sure they hear us. Click here to tell us that you’re coming. We hope those of you in Newark and New Brunswick will come out to stand with our Camden colleagues (the campus is particularly accessible for those who live in and around Philadelphia).
We’ll start out with a speakout and picket in front of Campus Center to welcome the Governors when they arrive. Those of you who sign up to speak at the meeting will go inside at 1 p.m. If you decide you want to speak at the BoG, contact jchaffin@rutgersaaup.org; he can help you with the convoluted process for signing up.
And Camden members: come to the sign-making this Wednesday, September 29, at 11:20 a.m. in Campus Center.
In solidarity,
Becky and Todd
Rebecca Givan, President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Todd Wolfson, General Vice President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
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