Rutgers University freezes employee salaries in anticipation of N.J. budget cuts
Published: Thursday, June 10, 2010, 8:13 PM Updated: Thursday, June 10, 2010, 8:46 PM
Rutgers University will cancel scheduled pay raises and freeze the salaries of its 13,000 employees as it faces an "extreme fiscal crisis" brought on by state budget cuts, school officials said today.
The state university expects to save $30 million with the emergency across-the-board salary freeze on the New Brunswick, Newark and Camden campuses. But the surprise move — announced in a campus-wide e-mail — angered union officials who said they may go to court to force Rutgers to honor its contractual agreements.
"Our union colleagues are concerned," said Philip Furmanski, Rutgers’ executive vice president for academic affairs. "We are in a very, very difficult situation. One that is unprecedented."
New Jersey has been gradually reducing state funding to its public colleges and universities for more than a decade. This year, Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed budget calls for a 15 percent decrease in state aid to Rutgers.
The university needs to plug a nearly $96.6 million hole in its budget once the state funding cut, scheduled salary increases and other mandatory cost increases are added up, Furmanski said. By eliminating the employee salary increases, Rutgers may be able to avoid eliminating classes, laying off employees and other drastic measures. Campus officials said salary increases may be reinstated in the future if the budget picture improves.
Representatives from Rutgers’ dozen employee unions said they plan to meet with their lawyers to consider legal action to fight for their raises. Last year, many of the unions voluntarily signed agreements to defer their raises until this year to help keep the university out of the red.
"We’re outraged," said Adrienne Eaton, president of the Rutgers Council of the AAUP-AFT, the union that represents nearly 4,500 professors, teaching assistants, part-time lecturers and other employees.
"We entered into that (agreement) with good faith," said Eaton, a professor of labor studies and employment relations. "They understood that this coming year was going to be worse."
The plan calls for thousands of Rutgers employees who were scheduled to receive raises over the next few weeks will see their paychecks frozen. University officials said professors and members of the faculty — who already received a 2.75 percent deferred pay raise in January — were scheduled to receive another 2.75 percent raise on July 1.