TO: - The College of New Jersey



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BUDGET CUTS CAUSING HIGHER EDUCATION LAYOFFS!

June, 2006

Dear Colleague:

On June 12th higher education union leaders and I met with Governor Corzine and Jane Oates, Executive Director of the NJ Commission on Higher Education, to discuss the 2007 budget and potential layoffs at The College of New Jersey. We were encouraged by this meeting. However, it may be difficult to get the Legislature to vote favorably for any restoration on our behalf due to the existent controversies about the State budget. Based on the proposed 2007 budget cuts in higher education, some colleges and universities are taking drastic cost reduction measures to implement one week unpaid layoffs of all employees before the final budget is even adopted.

The College of New Jersey’s Board of Trustees passed a Resolution Authorizing the President to Notify all Staff and Faculty of the Potential for an Unpaid, One Week Closure of the College. The Board proposed that the one week closure would occur from January 2 through January 8, 2007. The resolution contains a so-called fiscal rationale for this action and the Board used the word “potential” to soften the blow to TCNJ employees. The Union must take action now, before any such plan can be put into motion. Therefore, it is with great urgency that I ask you to assist the Union leadership in its efforts to stop The College of New Jersey from violating our negotiated Agreement.

The College administration claims to be properly implementing the layoff clause (Article XLI) of our contract but in our opinion, it has not acted according to the provisions of our Agreement. Moreover, William Paterson University is considering following TCNJ’s lead to close down its campus, using only a slight variation in its proposal language. Let me be perfectly clear that, in our opinion, taking this course of action does not satisfy the Agreement requirements. In addition, I fear that the other institutions may mimic the College of New Jersey.

The Council is demanding total compliance with the terms of our negotiated Agreement. Here is what we are doing presently: We are meeting with legislative leaders and individual members of the legislature on this critical matter. We are coordinating our actions with other campus unions and we will demand a fully documented financial disclosure from each college and university attempting layoffs. We will request that the NJ Dept of Treasury and the NJ Legislative Office of SCI join us in pursuing a comprehensive audit of the institutions’ expenditures over the past five years and a total budget review of fiscal year 2007. AFT National is prepared to send us accountants who have experience in conducting such audits.

The Council shall insist that the institutions exhaust all other remedies to alleviate the expected budget shortfalls before resorting to taking action against our personnel. We are asking you to support them in order save jobs and protect your income.

Other items we will demand from the Governor and Legislature include:

• The sale of all assets that are not directly related to educational programming, e.g., houses, parcels of land, interest in securities held in foundations, institutions, etc.

• Recommend the suspension of all current building programs and costs associated with future building programs. The institutions have been playing “monopoly” with the operating budgets and have been over-leveraging institutional debt. Any construction should be undertaken only with the full support of the Governor and Legislature (capital financing).

• Urge the Governor and the Legislature to support the expansion of the operational budget to handle the increased infrastructure and financing of new buildings. Currently, the institutions are financing expansion by over taxing students (tuition and fee hikes), by undercutting institutional programming by increasing class sizes and over reliance on adjunct faculty (while at the same time refusing to support living wages for adjunct faculty).

• Insist that there be no new hires during this crisis.

Once the Governor and the Legislature act on our demands, then and only then can we consider entering into discussions about layoffs according to our contract language.

You are a vital component in the fight to protect yours and your colleagues’ jobs, salaries and benefits. You must add your voice to the fight! Without you, we cannot win.

Please go to the Council’s website at to send a message to your elected representative. You can send the message as is or modify it as you see fit. And, please, take the extra step of calling your legislative representatives or pay them a visit at their district or legislative offices. Talk to the leaders of your Local about organizing such visits. The time to do this is right now. The Legislature must pass and fund the Governor’s budget with restoration of salary increases and the benefits package for higher education.

If we are successful in getting the budget restorations, contact your legislator and ask him or her to support real accountability of the colleges and university administrations and Boards of Trustees. The fight does not end in June. We will be facing a similar budget crisis in 2007, which is also a contract negotiation year. Neither you nor I need a crystal ball to realize that pensions, health benefits and salaries will be central issues at the bargaining table, in the press and in the Legislature.

Please demonstrate your resolve now. It lays the groundwork for making your case during the next budget and contract negotiations.

In Solidarity,

Nicholas Yovnello, President

P.S. Anyone can use the Council’s website to send a message to the Legislature. Please enlist your friends and relatives in this campaign.

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