r/udel • u/corporatesellout1 • 3d ago
RTC by Summer 2027, now voluntary retirement incentive for staff
Feels like a mini 2020 all over again, but in reverse!
Instead of shrinking staff with retirement incentive plus hiring + travel freezes, furloughs, and reduced retirement matching, now we're doing it by forcing them to come back to campus, placing more financial burden on staff who shouldered the work of the early pandemic. No thoughts given to whether these staff actually need to be in person for the critical functions of their job or if we're just arbitrarily bringing them back to make it appear as if we're a "community-minded" campus and pick up some extra bucks from parking passes. It's pretty clear where staff fits in this "community." We're the trash compactor for Assanis' financial mismanagement of the university.
There are plenty of staff who have an hour or more commute one way or were forced out of housing near campus with the influx of students admitted trying to make up the budget difference. Coupled with a "cost of living" adjustment that doesn't even make up for inflation, this is a sincere slap in the face. Just look at the Pulse Survey presentation (9:09-21:30). This was mostly before the return to campus announcement.
UD had an opportunity to expand online learning, develop whole degree programs, diversify funding streams, partner with the state, and transform as an institution and we've sadly gone back to the same tired ways of the before times, expecting that to carry us forward.
5
u/TwoHugeCats 2d ago
UD is a cesspool. It may be a decent place to be a student but working there sucks. Especially if you’re staff because then you just get shit on by the faculty. I have friends and family who have worked there and every single one has horror stories. Multiple horror stories. Best employer in Delaware, my ass.
4
u/Working-Tax2692 2d ago
I mean I thought Harker really took the cake for financial mismanagement…. Looking at building x, with no large donors before they broke ground.
5
u/corporatesellout1 2d ago
Do you mean ISLL? Assanis was Building X.
Related note: "Working tax" is exactly how all of this feels.
3
u/Working-Tax2692 2d ago
Sorry that’s my bad, yes the Harker ISE building, that had the infamous non-compliant nanofab facility.
4
u/corporatesellout1 2d ago
Proof of what an actual "public Ivy" can do as opposed to just a self professed one.
https://hr.utexas.edu/current/compensation/commuter-subsidy-program
-2
u/Grand-Necessary7646 2d ago
Who forced staff out of housing near campus due to students in order to make up a budget difference? The university?
Who expands online degree programs? Who develops whole degree programs? The provost. Who became president? Who stops the overspending by departments on the educational side? The provost. Assanis spent money but the history of Provosts have done you no favor.
2
u/corporatesellout1 2d ago edited 2d ago
Friend, these are arguments. They're perspectives based on logic and evidence, just as your leading questions are.
When you admit a large influx of students as UD has in the last 10 years AND macroeconomic forces also work consistently on the cost of housing, home prices and rents rise. The average home price in Newark is in the high $300k to low $400k range. Rents are up $700 per month on average for a 3 BR home to just under $3k. This is literally all Googlable.
When you offer symbolic "cost of living increases" that get chewed up by inflation, unnecessarily strip away a benefit that also reduces financial burden, and then announce that you're incentivizing your aging staff to retire, what message does that send?
Reducing an almost $40m deficit under Assanis' watch to "he spent money" and then blaming the then Provost and now President feels kind of like a red herring.
TLDR, per my original argument -- President Carlson is balancing the budget on the backs of unrepresented professional staff.
15
u/emuleemt 2d ago
It's truly astonishing how horribly they're handling things. Someone(s) mismanaged things from the top (repeatedly), but now we all need to pull together for the sake of the community and future of UD? It's so disingenuous and tone deaf.