AAUP's Response to Admin Propaganda
The university's statement on a 'Critical need for change' (see below)
contains a number of statements which are simply not true.
contains a number of statements which are simply not true.
To begin with, the university's 'operating results', based on administration's own statements concerning the financial state of the university in 2021-2022, have been 'projected' to be at various times to be either 12 million (opening statement on negotiations - June 2022), 20 million (current negotiations website) or 21.9 million dollars (Sept 2021 convocation). Statements from administration have indicated that administration staff reductions have save about 2 million per year, and combining colleges will save about 500,000 per year, so if the 20 million deficit number is accurate, they have reduced that to 17 million.
Though their PR statements rarely indicate the nature of the ‘deficit’, based on earlier projections by CFO Hartman, these appear to be projected cash deficits. It is worth noting that in the past administration’s ‘budget projections' have been extremely inaccurate. For example, CFO Hartman initially ‘projected’ a 17.5 million cash loss in fiscal year 2021, and Rider ultimately reported a 9.8 million loss according to slides shown at 2021 convocation.
While none of this financial information is good, administration’s PR statements concerning the actual state of Rider’s financial condition are and always have been questionable. We will rely on audited financial statements and IRS 990 financial data to evaluate the financial state of the university.
Contrary to administration’s proclamations, Rider's faculty 'compensation rates' (pay and benefits) are in-line (slightly below the median) with the 'peer institutions' using the peer institutions the university identified in previous negotiations. However, given that most of those peer institutions from the previous negotiations (Montclair, Monmouth, Fairleigh Dickinson) have performed significantly better than Rider university under Greg Dell'Omo's leadership, they would now like to change that sample to a set of hand-picked institutions several of which are struggling and are not even in our local geographic area.
As stated previously, Rider's problems are directly related to steep revenue declines under president Dell'Omo's leadership, declines which are not related to COVID or 'market trends'. These declines have been coupled with excessive spending (labeled as investments, but clearly bad investments since revenue has declined) thus leading to our current fiscal situation.
Faculty sacrifices have saved the university over 8 million per year in their annual budget. To suggest that faculty pay and benefits are ‘ahead of peer institutions’ and are related to Rider's current fiscal crisis is not correct.
Admin's Statement: "Critical Need for Change"
As with many private, independent not-for-profit colleges and universities across the country, Rider continues to face serious challenges that affect its competitiveness and the sustainability of its financial model. Over the last decade, the University’s unrestricted operating results went from essentially break-even in 2011 to a $20 million deficit in 2021.
The University is seeking to achieve savings in a variety of ways. This includes, but is not limited to, collective bargaining negotiations with the AAUP. In fact, the University is seeking the majority of its cost savings from outside of its negotiations with the AAUP. According to the University’s initial proposal, of the $20 million cost savings Rider is aiming to achieve, less than $7 million will be achieved through collective bargaining negotiations with the AAUP.
With Rider faculty compensation rates generally remaining ahead of regional peer institutions, through this proposal the University has been able to balance the need to achieve significant savings with the equally important priority of continuing to provide competitive compensation to AAUP bargaining unit members.
Under current conditions, the University does not believe it is feasible for Rider to maintain a cost of instruction higher than our peer institutions. The University has significantly and consistently increased the institutional investment in student financial aid over the past decade to provide an affordable tuition, at the expense of reducing net revenue. The savings the University hopes to achieve through proposed changes to salary structure