Re: the July 7 article "Why I support UA President Robbins' campus plan."
Mr. Duval’s opinion of the UA pay cut plan reinforces the neoliberal argument of scarcity to enable inequitable decision-making hitting hard at the living wages of our most vulnerable academic labor force i.e. adjunct faculty, staff, and graduate students, which cuts across racial/gender lines. In his itemization of financial losses, he includes housing and athletics, which are self-sustaining auxiliary units, and projected decrease in fall enrollments. Yet, there is no proof of the latter, and thus, delaying implementation of these cuts until a transparent account of the projections is obtained allows time for decisions to center on reality, not worst-case scenarios. Ensuring that the other half of the institution aforementioned, in addition to faculty, do not incur unnecessary pay cuts or lose their jobs, which means no medical insurance, is precisely what ensures quality learning experiences for our students. This is the time to leverage the UA’s $805M in reserves to sustain operations for almost 6 months – if not now, when?
Raquel Givens
Southwest side
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
