Welcome back to Evergreen and to the largest proportional increase in our new-student enrollment in many years. Thanks to the hard work of faculty, staff and the Office of the President, Evergreen has halted its enrollment decline and is growing. Our academic structure and offerings, our outreach to incoming students and continued strategies to recruit and retain students all point to Evergreen being a college that students are eager to attend.

Many faculty have asked UFE leadership a big question: with growing student enrollment, and with the large number of Evergreen faculty who have now left the College due to the early buy-out and resignations, WILL THERE BE A REDUCTION IN FORCE IN 2023? WILL THERE BE FACULTY LAYOFFS?

Based on the terms of the Evergreen/UFE MOU, especially Sections 6, 7, and 8, UFE firmly believes the answer should be NO.

The MOU states that the college needs to achieve a projected increase of 500 FTE by Feb. 1, 2023, to avoid an involuntary reduction in force. The college could meet that requirement through projecting to enroll 500 additional student FTE, or the college could achieve that requirement through a combination of increased enrollment projection and voluntary reduction of faculty.

Here are the facts:

1. At a 25-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio, 20 faculty lines translates to a 500 student FTE shortfall. Twenty-eight regular faculty, representing 24 FTE, either resigned or took the faculty buy-out last spring and this fall (see this list). This is a substantial reduction in the size of the faculty. The reduction of 24 faculty lines through resignation or retirement has functioned as a “de facto” reduction in force, meeting the needs of the student enrollment shortfall projected at the time of the MOU’s signing.

2. In Spring of last year, the interim Provost made a public commitment to the Board of Trustees that PaCE projects 250 student FTE enrollment in Fall 2023. He put this commitment in writing in the PaCE Job Description and Appointment Process communique sent to faculty on April 11, 2022: “We are planning for a curriculum of 250 FTE with 11 faculty lines in fall 2023 growing to 500 FTE by in fall 2025.” That commitment of 250 students from PaCE is part of the MOU’s agreement about the college’s projected enrollment for Fall 2023. As PaCE is a start-up, the interim Provost is obligated to live up to these public commitments. Taken together, the 250 FTE projection for PaCE and the reduction of 24 faculty lines from other parts of the college have MORE THAN MET the enrollment and faculty reduction projections of the Fall 2021 MOU, especially as outlined in Sections 6, 7, and 8.

3. The recruitment initiative negotiated by the UFE in the MOU is bearing considerable enrollment success, as shown by the college’s press release of September 28. The interim Provost shared the numbers of positive enrollment growth this year on October 3, that students new to the college had grown from 572 FTE last year to ~682 FTE this year, a 19% increase. It was also shared that the college overall has grown from 2010 FTE last fall to ~2036 FTE this fall. This growth is due to the hard work of the Admissions staff bringing more students to the application process and the faculty recruiting initiative increasing the yield of admitted students—especially first-years, a group that saw the largest increase. Faculty, staff, administrators, and members of the Board of Trustees all joined in the teamwork of bringing new students to the college. This teamwork between the Office of the President, UFE, Student Services, and faculty and staff must continue with further work on recruitment and retention, including further faculty release time. Our united approach to Evergreen’s challenges is growing the college.

4. Section 6 of the MOU outlines work for the Curriculum Review Team this fall and winter to assess how Evergreen’s curriculum is serving “the College’s overall mission of interdisciplinary instruction and serving underserved communities.” The MOU language for the CRTeam curriculum review is about what Evergreen should offer; it is not solely a RIF review. The UFE supports the CRTeam’s focus on academic coherence and curricular offerings. This dynamic work on curricular planning would be undermined by proceeding with RIF discussions, especially in light of the data reported above.

In short, there are no grounds for a reduction of faculty under the terms of the MOU. The projected student deficit has been addressed and Evergreen is growing. We should be proud of the work being done to reach out to students by faculty and staff together. We must build on that success.

We are grateful for the many years of service provided by the faculty who have recently resigned or retired. They have contributed to the future of the current faculty who will be delivering education to students at Evergreen in the years to come.

Any further planning by the administration of a RIF after these faculty reductions and projected enrollment increases would be a major distraction to the work of continued growth through retention and recruiting. Proposing to reduce any bargaining unit across the college would be a major blow to campus morale and would undermine the energy and teamwork of staff and faculty that has begun to grow the College once again.

Jon Davies, Bargaining Chair

and the Stewards Council

United Faculty of Evergreen