After months of co-worker to co-worker organizing, AAUP Bucknell has delivered a cost-of-living-adjustment petition to Vice President Nicole Whitehead, Vice President Dan Hungerford, President Bravman, and Chair of the Board of Trustees Annie Drapeau. In addition to email delivery, a group of AAUP Bucknell members delivered the petition with all 670 signatures to VP Whitehead and General Counsel Riley in lieu of VP Hungerford who was away from the office.
It was the first time that Bucknell coworkers spoke with a majority voice. Even though a majority of faculty and staff called for a 7.8% raise (YTD inflation + 5%), administration had already announced paltry “raises” just 0.2% above inflation of 2.8%. The administration continues to underinvest in the people who make the university run.
Here is AAUP Bucknell’s response to an email from Hungerford and Whitehead dodging our call for a real raise.
Dear Vice President Hungerford and Vice President Whitehead,
On behalf of the majority of Bucknell employees who signed AAUP Bucknell’s petition calling for a raise that would address years of wage suppression, we write to express our disappointment at the lack of solidarity and leadership you have demonstrated in your response to our petition ‘Ray for Fair Pay! CPI+5% for All Employees!
You speak of Bucknell as if it were something other than the people who work here. For at least the last five years, you and your predecessors have underinvested in the people who are the university. In doing so, you and your predecessors have weakened the institution, paradoxically, in the name of long term institutional strength. If the university is the work of the people who in many cases give decades of their lives in service to its mission, underinvesting in us is underinvesting in the institution. Bucknell is not a collection of buildings, books, and beds. Bucknell is we the workers who serve our students, their parents, and our local, national, and international communities.
Your response does not address or acknowledge the problems faced by workers at this university. You simply repeat the position you have already taken. It is also troubling that you continue to emphasize “total compensation” given the recent decision to cut retiree health insurance benefits, especially for the longest serving employees. During our petition campaign, we heard many stories about low-wage, full-time employees of the University who take second jobs just to make ends meet. Offering them professional development workshops through BUILD will not help them support their families. A real raise would. As Jason Garner, one of our facilities coworkers, states “I signed this petition not because a chance at extra wages will uplift Bucknell’s lower end staff to new heights in life, but—at the bare minimum—these people who devote their life to the health and safety of the University deserve whatever it can give them to make life just a little easier.”
In the name of the working people who make up the institution we all care about, we ask that you reconsider your response and offer a serious path forward on wages.
On behalf of AAUP Bucknell,
Sue Ellen Henry, President
Emma Banks, Vice President
Bret Leraul, Secretary-Treasurer
(cc: Annie Drapeau, Chair of the Board of Trustees; John Bravman, President of the University; all faculty and staff employees of the University).