Over 50 students and faculty gathered in Urban Plaza Square to protest Portland State’s inefficient management of funds, as well as to raise awareness about the decisions in campus-wide budget cuts affecting faculty, students and staff. Portland State University American Association of University Professors (PSU AAUP), Portland State University Faculty Association and social science students planned the June 8 event to last from 12–2 p.m., just outside the Rec Center where the Board of Trustees were meeting with the Finance & Administration Committee.
The budget cuts were a result of declining enrollment. As of May 30, upwards of 80 adjunct professors had reported notifications of contract non-renewals, according to PSU AAUP’s webpage titled “Deep Cuts Cause Chaos on Campus.” This is in addition to department-wide course reductions, particularly for summer classes.
The PSU AAUP, whose demands can be found on their website, are protesting the stress of the budget cuts on students, faculty and staff—causing, among other things, increasingly unsustainable workloads, difficulty with graduating on time, rescinded research opportunities and non-renewed contracts of adjunct faculty.
When asked to explain what happened in the June 8 Finance & Administration meeting with the Board of Trustees in relation to the management reserves, Amy Mulkerin—the Vice Provost for Academic Budget and Planning—said that in order to support the gap in the Education & General (E&G) budget, they had to allocate $20 million from the management reserve.
In recent years, the board has utilized the management reserve both to support that gap and for “planned strategic uses at the unit level.” Things have changed this year, however.
“We need to include those other planned uses in the E&G budget rather than reserves,” Mulkerin said.
Recorded livestreams and slideshows from board meetings can be found on the board’s website at www.pdx.edu/board.
Several participants shared their disappointment in the word that a $10 million start-up fund had been set aside for Incoming President Ann Cudd, as referenced on flyers distributed by the PSU AAUP.
“While it is up to [PSU] to decide how to allocate those funds, I don’t appreciate how they have this really huge price tag at the top while simultaneously cutting on the bottom,” said Sam Morehouse, a political science student. “If it’s such a high number that they need to be making cuts, then I think it’s too high.”
In an email from the Media Relations Manager at University Communications Katy Swordfisk, however, an official statement from the university denied such a fund exists.
“There has been no $10 million start up budget set aside for Incoming President Ann Cudd or any other purpose[…] we are adhering to all elements of the collective bargaining agreements PSU has in place with its unions,” the university said in the statement.
The statement also mentioned that the university is working to reduce current funding by 2% in light of its declining enrollment. Their current priorities are on increasing enrollment and seeking funding support.
“I know a lot of people who have had to extend their plans for graduation or come up with extra money because of the sudden cancellation of summer classes,” said Chris Hill, a political science master’s student. “People were already registered for the summer, had adjusted their work to align with their schedules, but are now panicking making new plans for the summer.”
Peggy Maxey, a political science MS/undergrad student, first became aware of the budget cuts upon finding out that her political theory professor Nathan Gies’ job was at-risk. Noting how much of an asset he was to both his students and the university, she started a petition called Save Dr. Gies in an effort to save his job.
“Dr. Gies was originally hired as a temporary replacement for the previous political theory professor who never came back,” Maxey said. “He has a PhD in political science with an expertise in political theory from Johns Hopkins. No other professor here specializes in political theory, so if we lost him, the department would suffer.”
Gies himself reported hearing rumors about the budget cuts, before learning on May 17 via his department chair Joshua Eastin that the futures of the position he was filling in for and that of political theory were uncertain.
“What was initially questioning my position for next year and beyond, turned out to be worse than I thought,” Gies said. “Political theory being in question raises concerns for our graduate, PAP and MPP programs as I feel they’re all interconnected.”
Political Science Department Chair Joshua Eastin explained that he feels strongly against the impact these reductions and limitations have had on his department.
“We had initially proposed offering eight summer courses, but the Dean’s office had whittled that down to five,” Eastin said. “Those were on the schedule, people were registering for them.”
That’s when the Board of Trustees made the decision to stop using the management reserve for specific usage at the unit level. “It eliminated our flexibility to fill these budgetary gaps and we were lucky to even be able to offer the one upper division class for this summer term,” Eastin said.
When asked about Gies’ situation, Eastin explained that he spoke to the Dean’s office to figure out how to come up with the money to find, pay and hire a new political theorist, “but in this budgetary environment, I just don’t think it’s going to be possible. So it’s been very demoralizing for us.”
He then went on to say that despite these challenges, he’s still optimistic about political science and their ability to offer courses that students rely on—but without a political theorist to support that component of their program, the department will be lacking in some capacity.
Apart from impacts in regards to course projections, PSU’s Viking Cheer Program joined the protest on June 8, as they were also majorly affected by the university-wide budget cuts.
According to their petition on Change.org—called Save Portland State University’s Cheer Program—Leah Thyne, the Associate Athletic Director, quietly sent them an email on June 2 stating that they “decided to pause the cheer program for the 2023-2024 season[…] based on a variety of factors, including budget constraints due to significant cuts to athletics.”
Their petition also states that the Viking Cheer Program has been the one to fundraise money each year to fund their transportation to and participation in competitions. They have also had to pay out of pocket for cheer shoes, camps, food and transportation to games.
The money allocated to them by PSU Athletics was put toward paying “some” coaching staff, with the rest being volunteers due to their minimal budget.
Ultimately, Gies said, the protested issue lies within the lack of transparency in the university’s decision-making process.
“Listen to the people who are affected and genuinely involve them in the process, rather than just announcing decisions to them, and then forcing all of us to scramble to figure out what that means for us,” Gies said. “We have an idea of shared governance… but things like this make it seem like that’s not happening.”
