University of Arizona delays furlough plans for 2nd time
University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins announced a second delay in the university’s furlough plan in an email late Tuesday, hours before the furloughs were supposed to take effect.
Now, the program, which would affect most of the university’s 15,000 employees, is scheduled to begin Aug. 10, the memo said. “You may not always agree with a decision — especially ones that impact you, which I respect — but please understand that it comes from a place of deep concern for you and a strong sense of my responsibility for all people at the University of Arizona,” Robbins said in the email.
The change came after UA’s General Assembly, which comprises about 42% of all faculty, voted late last week to officially recommend delaying the start of the program to Sept. 7 and a letter from the Committee of Eleven, a group of representatives of the general faculty, urging Robbins to consider their recommendation. Robbins first announced the university’s plan to furlough employees as an effort to mitigate COVID-19related financial loss in an email April 17. It was originally slated to start on May 11 and last through June 30, 2021.
But, in response to initial concerns from faculty and staff about “the program’s flexibility, complexity, and immediacy,” Robbins updated and delayed the plan to take effect on July 1.
The new delay will cost the university about $4 million, Robbins said. But the delay will provide the university time to “have meaningful and transparent discussions regarding the trade-offs we must consider for all faculty and staff who will be impacted,” he added.
Eliminating the furlough and furlough-based salary programs now slated for August is not an option, though. The university cannot recover additional losses should the program not move forward, Robbins said in the letter.
With the recent surges in COVID-19 cases in Arizona in mind, Robbins said the university needs to prepare for “ongoing adjustments to university operations,” which could exacerbate the university’s already “severe” financial challenges.
“We cannot hope away COVID-19 and its financially devastating effects,” Robbins said. “We need to protect all of our colleagues as much as possible by sharing this burden now.”