Tag: temple* finances

Sign the Petition to Ensure Academic Integrity, Jobs and Adequate Support for Students in the Fall

To deal responsibly with this crisis, we are demanding that the administration demonstrate its priorities by investing in education, not austerity.  As  we move forward, we need to ensure that Temple University continues to provide the high quality of education our students expect, and that it invests in working conditions that we need and deserve. Our latest contract campaign proved that collective action is going to be the only way to move the administration to preserve the educational quality of Temple University.

Sign the petition to support TAUPs list of demands

What we’re Demanding:

  • Temple must use some of its $340 million + reserves to absorb at least part of the deficit.
  • No layoffs or furloughs for members of TAUP’s Bargaining Unit.
  • Support faculty who have gone above and beyond to support students through the spring semester by:
    • Providing one-year contract extensions for Non-Tenure Track faculty up for renewal in addition to the contractually required minimums.
    • Creating a priority pool in the Fall of 2020 and the Spring of 2021 for adjuncts who have taught this term, giving them the right of first refusal for available classes, with no loss of union eligibility for missed semesters in academic year 2020-21.
    • Maintaining course caps at 2019-20 levels.
    • Not cancelling course sections that reach 50% enrollment or are required by students’ majors or degree programs.

We also call on Temple to:

  • Compensate  faculty for the exceptional amount of labor involved in converting to online instruction this term.
  • Offer childcare/eldercare to faculty and staff who need it to perform their job during the pandemic.
  • Ensure that faculty retain intellectual property rights to the course materials they have created and put online.

In Solidarity,

Steve Newman, President

Leanne Finnigan, Vice President

Norma Corrales-Martin, Treasurer

2018-19 Update on Temple’s Finances and Priorities

Temple recently posted  its consolidated financial statement for fiscal year 2018-19.  As in other recent years, the statement shows growth in the last fiscal year in revenue from tuition, grants and contracts, and unrestricted net assets.  Liabilities were stable, and long term debts declined by 2.7%. If we remove patient care from our calculations, since the health system is not part of our bargaining unit, Temple cleared nearly $84 million in revenues over expenses overall (revenues for patient care last year were about $34 million over expenses). It continues to have in excess of $340 million in cash and cash equivalents.

We have tried to discuss Temple’s excellent fiscal situation at the table, but the administration has refused to engage in the conversation. We understand the need for fiscal prudence,  however, without a compelling alternative account of Temple’s finances, we can’t accept the administration’s refusal thus far to move further toward our reasonable proposals on wages and benefits. We cannot accept their insistence  on such large increases in healthcare costs. These proposals indicate the same ongoing disinvestment in faculty, librarians, and academic professionals that places Temple last among other public Research 1 Universities in the proportion of every dollar in tuition and fees they spend on instruction.  We are asking for a long-overdue and modest change in this number and the priorities it reflects.  Temple can do this. 

Like the administration, we want to settle this contract and will work hard to do so.  But as we try to understand their position, they must try to understand ours so that we can arrive at a fair settlement.

Our Two Cents: Funding the New Contract

As we have shown, Temple is last among public Research 1 universities in the cents on every dollar of tuition and fees it spends on instruction.  To fund all of our proposals for wages and benefits, all Temple needs to do is add to the instructional budget less than 2￠on every dollar it collects from tuition and fees. 

That is a very reasonable demand when the Board still seems ready to spend millions  each year to service the debt it would take on in the funding of a football stadium. There are no guarantees that this would be matched by the savings coming from no longer having to pay the Eagles. 

It is a very reasonable demand when we see that the salary pool for the administrators in our bargaining unit identified as “executive/administrative and managerial” has increased by 32% from 2013-2018*. (The number of administrators in this highest category alone has increased nearly 26% during that same period.)  This more than doubles the percentage increase in the TAUP full-time salary pool and more than quadruples the percentage increase in full-time hires.  

Among the many signs of financial health, Temple’s own audited financials reveal that it has amassed $350 million in cash and cash equivalents, an increase of $150 million since 2014:

It is unclear to what degree this money was amassed from one-time or recurrent expenses, and we believe the administration should offer an explanation for the source of these funds. However, since 63% of Temple’s revenue aside from patient care comes from tuition and fees (and patient care in FY 2018 cost slightly over $100 million than it brought in), we would not be surprised if much of it came from this recurrent source.   

It would take a very small redirection of funds to properly compensate the people who teach the courses, direct the dissertations, do the research, guide the students in the library, and advise them.  We do not believe that there would be a need to raise tuition or cut other sectors of the university, as the administration alleges. It would require a long-overdue shift in priorities.

 

*This data is drawn from the Stairs Report / Commonwealth Reporting Requirements.  The numbers above narrow the data to the colleges and schools represented by TAUP, including the Library, and other core academic offices: Temple University Press, and the Offices of the Provost, the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, and the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies.