Dive Brief:
- Portland State University agreed to reinstate 10 non-tenure-track faculty members it laid off last year, though the institution’s president argued that officials still believe the reductions “were necessary and appropriate.”
- The decision follows a November ruling from an independent arbitrator that ordered the public university to reinstate the laid-off employees and concluded that the administrators had violated their collective bargaining agreement.
- However, Portland State President Ann Cudd said in Tuesday’s announcement that the university still must close a $35 million deficit over the next two years. “These reinstatements do not change that reality,” Cudd added.
Dive Insight:
University officials originally announced the layoffs in December 2024, notifying 17 non-tenure-track faculty members that they would be let go in June. At the time, officials said the changes were due to “changes in their departments’ programmatic and curricular needs.”
The announcement came as part of a larger effort to trim $18 million from the university’s budget by the end of the last fiscal year. Portland State also revamped administrative and academic structures and sent retirement offers to employees to plug the budget hole, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
In May, the executive committee of the American Association of University Professors’ Portland State chapter approved sending grievances from 10 laid-off faculty members to arbitration. The other seven did not contest their layoffs.
On Tuesday, Cudd pushed back on the arbitrator’s findings, asserting the layoffs were conducted in “good-faith” and complied with the employees’ collective bargaining agreement.
“Nonetheless, we’ve decided the best step forward for our campus at this time is to comply with the arbitrator’s order,” Cudd said.
A university spokesperson said in an email Thursday that details about the “timeline and back pay are under negotiation.”
The university has been attempting to remedy a budget shortfall following steep enrollment declines.
Portland State enrolled 19,951 students in fall 2024, down 21.2% from five years earlier. Along with the resulting decrease in tuition revenue, the university receives less money from the state because appropriations are partly based on the number of degrees and credentials it confers to Oregon residents.
According to the arbitrator’s findings, the driving force behind the layoffs was Portland State’s budget shortfall at the time. Because of that, the university was obligated to follow a “lengthy process” that includes declaring financial exigency.
But the university instead said curricular changes had driven the reductions — a reason that requires a less intensive process for layoffs. But the arbitrator said even if that had been the proper avenue, the university hadn't followed the necessary steps to lay faculty off under that process either.
Moreover, the arbitrator found the university “redistributed” work performed by the laid-off faculty members.
For instance, the university offered some of the laid-off employees adjunct positions to teach the same courses they previously taught full time — but generally without benefits or the same level of pay. It also hired other adjunct faculty to cover their previous courses.
“This has reduced the employment cost to the university for the same, or expanded courses, to be taught,” the arbitrator said.
Portland State initially refused to reinstate the faculty members, arguing that the arbitrator’s decision exceeded her authority, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Portland State employees had been pushing the university to comply with the order, with over 260 signing a petition for the laid-off faculty members’ reinstatement as of this week.
Recently, Portland State’s trustee board recently approved a plan to reduce spending by $35 million over the next two years through changes to academic programs, faculty composition and administrative structures.
