A protest is planned today at Flagstaff City Hall over large-scale job cuts and contract "non-renewals" at Northern Arizona University related to ongoing budget shortfalls and dropping enrollment, worsened by the coronavirus pandemic's impact on the economy. Hundreds of non-tenure faculty, lecturers and other staff were reportedly eliminated last week. Some were long-time university employees.
NAU President Rita Cheng has said university-wide pay cuts and furloughs are planned between 5 and 10%. Cheng and her executive team will take a 10% pay cut and salaries will be reduced for senior administration. She says she expects contracts to be issued this fall to 95% of faculty.
Protest organizers say they want NAU to share exactly how many faculty jobs will be cut and how they arrived at that number. They are also asking for no semester-only contracts, among other things.
The protest is Wednesday, 05/27/20, from 2-3 p.m. at Flagstaff City Hall. Attendees are asked to wear face maskas and observe social distancing guidelines advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The University Union of Northern Arizona has also collected more than 1,100 signatures for a petition called, One Thing at at Time: Stop Layoffs at NAU. It calls for creative, short-term measures to NAU's budget problem instead of large-scale job cuts.
