With over 100 questions left to answer, Friday’s virtual furlough town hall meeting was well attended. Conversations varied from the proposed furlough model to enrollment.
The University of Idaho’s proposed furlough model is based on a specific number of hours an employee must take based on their base salary.
Jodi Walker, UI director of communications, said feedback on the plan is due back from Faculty Senate and Staff Council in early June. Any changes needing to be made would put the proposed furlough model in place before the start of next fiscal year, if approved.
Next Fiscal Year begins on July 1.
Trina Mahoney, assistant vice president for University Budget and Planning, said employees’ base salaries have been made available on VandalWeb.
“In terms of compensation that’s not included, your base salary does not include any potential summer session or any other temporary compensation changes,” Mahoney said. “Since those aren’t in your base salary or in your salary letter or agreement, they are not included in the furlough calculation.”
The proposed furlough model includes salary ranges from employees that make $27,830 per year to $281,882 per year. The plan asks employees to take a range of furlough hours from 24 hours to 91 hours.
The American Federation of Teachers Union has proposed a different plan and asked during Friday’s meeting if President C. Scott Green would support it.
AFT would like to see the furloughs of the 600 employees who make below $40,000 annually be resolved by putting an additional 2% furlough add-on to employees whose annual salaries are between $150,000 and $200,000 as well as a 4% furlough add-on to employees whose salaries are over $200,000, according to a letter sent to UI Administrators from AFT today after the meeting.
“I understand that there’s a feeling that perhaps 24 hours may be too much for our most vulnerable,” Green said. “But it’s important we believe that everybody has skin in the game.”
Green addressed the feedback and promised it would be looked into. Green said his own contributions to the furlough proposal are well above what AFT is recommending. According to previous reporting done by The Argonaut, Green’s salary is $420,000 per year.
While the proposed furlough model would require Green take 91 hours of furlough, Walker said he is taking 120 hours.
Under UI’s proposed furlough model President Green is required to take 91 hours of furlough (4.3% of his salary), but he is planning to take 120 hours of furlough (5.7% of his salary). If Green was to take what AFT is proposing, he would take 174 hours of furlough (8.3% of his salary).
AFT’s proposal would like to see employees whose annual salaries are over $200,000 take an additional 4% furlough add-on, which would explain the shift from 4.3% to 8.3%.
When asked if Green would take 174 hours under the AFT proposal, Walker said the proposal will be taken as feedback and all feedback is being considered. She added Green is taking 120 hours of furlough, “which is above the top end of the chart.”
Another topic of discussion was the status of enrollment. Green said while UI’s applicant and acceptance pool is up 10% from last year’s numbers, the university is still down 8.6% from committed students.
When asked if these numbers were specific to fall enrollment, Walker stated “This is 8.6% below where we were last year at this time.”
“Nothing will probably impact us more than where we end up on enrollment this fall,” Green said.
Green said UI has budgeted for enrollment to be flat, so an increase is not needed. This decision was made before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Enrollment numbers are updated on a weekly basis, Green said. And just like most universities, UI “started deep in hole,” when it came to enrollment numbers.
“We’ve actually been closing the gap every single week, but we’re still behind,” Green said. “So, this isn’t the time to let up. This is actually time to push down on the gas pedal and contact these students, and do everything we can,” Green said.
Alex Brizee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @alex_brizee