On October 9th, President Fuchs announced that the University of Florida would be reopening in the spring and launching in-person “safe” face to face learning. Fuchs insisted that students have guided this decision, but in reality politics and greed are the only things guiding this decision. Moreover, Fuchs continues on to say that the only way the University can retain full funding and the jobs of its employees is by reopening. This is a false choice.
According to the University of Florida’s 2018-2019 financial report “The University of Florida has a strong and diverse revenue base which serves to protect the University from over-reliance on one source of revenue”. A sizable 39% of the university’s funding came from non-operating revenues in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. These non-operating revenues “are not generated by the university’s primary, ongoing operations”. These non-operating revenues are just one of the many sources of funding that UF could potentially use to prevent furloughs. Therefore, UF funding should not be used as the excuse for a spring campus reopening and medical science could then dictate the timetable of a safe reopening for all.
Besides non-operating revenues, the salaries of the top four highest paid administrators amount to almost three million dollars, putting an enormous burden on UF’s payroll. Instead of resorting to furloughing faculty and staff in the middle of a pandemic, the budget can easily be balanced by furloughing those who make the most and do not have direct contact with student instruction. President Fuchs earns $926,000 and is the highest paid president amongst Florida state public universities. The next highest UF salaries are paid to CFO Christopher Cowen who makes $700,000, Vice President of Development and Alumni Affairs Tom Mitchell with a salary of $614,000 and COO Charlie Lane with a salary of $500,000, just to mention a few. To give some context, assistant librarians make $60,000, adjunct professors make $43,000, administrative assistants make $39,000, custodians make $21,540, teaching assistants make $21,573 and lab techs make $13/hr.
It would not be imprudent to say that the ones that should be getting furloughed or receiving any type of pay cuts should be those at the top. They have not suffered the economic consequences nor the risks of working throughout this pandemic like UF’s workers who make the University run. The custodians, maintenance workers, cafeteria workers, librarians, IT staff, instructors and many more who may be subject to furloughs; yet they are the employees who make the UF campus function. Our campus’s operation is dependent on these very essential people, not President Fuchs. This is why we need to fight for UF’s hardworking employees and cut the outrageous salaries of the highest paid at UF. Furlough Fuchs first and fight for the working class!
Cristina Cabada Sidawi, UF Student and Coordinator at the Alachua County Labor Coalition.