Last week the Mercury received a tip that about half of the student employees were being laid off at Portland State University’s Office of Information Technology (OIT). (Update: 4:50 pm Scott Gallagher PSU communications said the number of laid off students was 34 out of 175, 12 of whom he said have found other work).Under the cuts, student hours would be significantly sliced, from 2,200 hours per week to 1,100 hours per week. In turn, say the student workers, the cuts would affect vital IT services like computer lab hours for students. The lay offs follow the decision last June by the Oregon legislature to cut state support for the Oregon universities by 11 percent.
It would be nice to know exactly how the cuts are affecting students, but we may never know because Portland State administrators have ordered students to stop talking to media.
Following up on the layoffs lead, I contacted the OIT human resources department. The next morning, OIT manager Mark Walker emailed a curt note to OIT student workers:
Just making sure the obvious is stated. No one employed by OIT, including student workers, should be talking to anyone at from any media (e.g. Vanguard, Mercury, Willamette Week).
mw
Telling students not talk to the media violates PSU’s community relations policies. On its community relations page, PSU clearly states its policy about students talking to the media: “Faculty and staff may be contacted by members of the media directly to comment on a topic, situation, or policy at the University.” The stated policy does add the suggestion: “It’s a good idea to contact the Office of University Communications prior to responding to reporters.” Walker apparently interpreted this rather liberally.
Walker declined to comment for this post. But Scott Gallagher from PSU Communications says Walker was out of line in telling his students not to talk to the media. “He [Walker] works in OIT and he is not a communications expert. And he probably shouldn’t have sent out a email like that without checking with us first.”
Gallagher said it is not PSU’s policy to tell students not to talk directly to the media, although they prefer them talking to the communications department first. Walker isn’t being reprimanded for his action, but Gallagher says, “He will be reminded not to send an email without checking with someone from communications first.”
Gallagher confirmed the layoffs, but was unable to specify how many student jobs would be cut. (Update: 4:50 pm Gallagher said the number of laid off students was 34 out of 175, 12 of whom he said have found other work). The cuts are justified, says Gallagher, because many computer labs were underutilized.
But an OIT student worker, who asked the Mercury not mention his name for fear of retaliation, said the OIT cuts will hit the student body a lot harder than administrators let on. Having unstaffed labs will particularly affect low-income students who don’t have computers at home, says the worker.
The layoffs were announced just before Christmas, and getting the message half way through the school year means students will have to look for work while attending classes. Some student workers who had their hours cut, he said, are applying for food stamps. “But we shouldn’t have to apply for food stamps as student employees. Last year, tuition went up 9 percent where did the money go?”
PLEASE SOURCE OR ATTRIBUTE THAT LAST QUOTE. AKA JOURNALISM 101. WAS IT GALLAGHER? THAT’S THE ONLY PERSON DROPPING QUOTES IN THIS ARTICLE, BUT I’M PRETTY SURE HE DIDN’T START TALKING ABOUT FOOD STAMPS.
It’s actually pretty clear that it came from the anonymous student worker.
Welcome to the world, kids.
Looks like Occupy might have a few extra applicants for those non-paid internships.
@DENIS: I DISAGREE, IT’S NOT CLEAR. IF IT WAS CLEAR, I WOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN CONFUSED. SINCE WE ALL KNOW THAT BLOG POSTS GET TURNED INTO PRINTED STORIES, THIS IS THE TIME TO GET THAT EDITING STUFF DONE.
The layoffs were announced just before Christmas, and getting the message half way through the school year means students will have to look for work while attending classes.
But an OIT student worker, who asked the Mercury not mention his name for fear of retaliation, said the OIT cuts will hit the student body a lot harder than administrators let on; having unstaffed labs will particularly affect low-income students who don’t have computers at home. Some student workers who had their hours cut, he said, are applying for food stamps. “But we shouldn’t have to apply for food stamps as student employees. Last year, tuition went up 9 percent where did the money go?”
I THINK IT WAS HAVING THAT SENTENCE ABOUT CHRISTMAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PARAGRAPHS THAT THREW ME OFF (GRANTED I’M A LAZY INATTENTIVE READER), MY REARRANGEMENT IS A BIT UNWIELDY, BUT OVERALL I THINK CLEARER.
The money went into the pockets of lazy, absentee administrative staff. PSU has an admin staff proportionally much larger than any OUS school (719 admin, only 587 support). The University has grossly mismanaged its resources and failed to prioritize, continuing to dole out enormous salaries and raises to administrators, many of whom show up perhaps only 20 hours a week, while continuing to put pressure on classified staff, faculty and student workers.
My assumption is that, with PSU having narrowly skirted a potential strike only months ago from classified staff, and having faced tough negotiations with faculty as well, they’ve decided to take it out on those who are more or less defenseless (ie, without a union). Cutting OIT staff, particularly now with the university shifting over to Windows 7 and Google, is going to be a disaster. But, hey, at least a bunch of slovenly, career bureaucrats will continue to rake in the dough, the perks, and the catered retreats.
@OVIDIUS: WHAT IS A ‘CLASSIFIED’ STAFF?
Graham, low-wage union administrative and faculty support. Classified OUS staff would included receptionists, nurses, technical support, janitorial staff, clerks, assistants, etc. Essentially any full time staff you would deal with face-to-face as a student.
Every new paragraph should make clear who is speaking within it. If statements are combined across a wide chronological period that should be mentioned by the reporter.
Also the more coverage you give me on this matter the better.
Ovidus is spot-on with his/her commentary here. I was a student worker at PSU for three years, and many of my friends were/are classified staff in various positions around the school.
There is a hugely disproportionate bloat of money in the hands of administrators who add little to nothing to the university.
All of their salary information is public domain, and can be found on the PSU library website under Resources > Vikat (PSU Only Catalog). Keyword search for “unclassified employee list” for professors and administrative people, or “classified employee list” for your regular, full-time folks.
Note that the president of PSU makes just under $30k…. per month.
Speaking without first consulting miniluv is doubleplusungood.
My husband works for PSU’s OIT as a student. They not only fired quite a few employees, but drastically cut hours for the workers who got to keep their jobs.
I also have been using the labs to print homework since my own printer died, and they changed the opening time for the main lab I use (which is always packed) without notice, which caused me to be late for class. This certainly doesn’t make me have much faith in any of the promised services PSU offers.
I think that last quote was very clearly attributed to the anonymous OIT student worker.
Administrators are not represented by any bargaining unit and very frequently get the short end of the stick. Ask any administrator you know, “When was your last raise?” You may be surprised at their answer.
I know at least 8 people who got laid off, including all of the CAV’s student workers.
@PDXDood But the administrators have salaries well into the six-figure range. They don’t get raises because they don’t need them. Nevermind the reason this is happening is because the administration isn’t actually doing their job. Meanwhile the student workers, many of whom do advanced technical jobs that would pay $20-30/hour in the private sector, are capped at $10/hour (comparison: OR minimum wage is $8.80/hour), 32 hours/week, 132 hours per monthly pay period. Why? Because any more and they’d be considered FTEs and the state would then need to pay them at more than double the hourly rate.
I hope that this will cause more transparency within the university community, SHAME ON YOU OIT!!!
How is it that administrative staff got raises and student workers didn’t? And, several student workers totally lost their jobs or had their hours decreased by dramatically—according this article. I wonder, as a taxpayer that contributes to the public funding of PSU, how this behavior contributes to the education of our young people. College costs are rising—PSU has apparently found a way to cut their budget—just get rid of some student workers, cut their hours to intolerable levels, and eliminate their chance of higher education. Out of sight, out of mind, solution found?
@Graham, Ovidious does not appear to understand what “Classified” means since many of those people do come in contact with students. The term “Classified” simply refers to those at the University who are represented by SEIU 503. “Unclassified” Employees are not protected by a Union and are used by administrators as tools to manage union employees. If a Unclassified employee cannot get the amount of work out of the classified employees in a given work area, the University can fire them with much more ease than a Union employee. It’s a sick relationship made worse by emotionally unhealthy people who lack boundaries and don’t give a fuck about students.
As one of the student workers who was laid off, I can definitely say that no layoffs were mentioned at Christmas – we were informed of drastic hour reductions, but no layoffs were mentioned. The first time layoffs were mentioned was in an email sent 02/08/12 – and I was laid off the very next day on 02/09/12. I am also NOT one of the “12” who have since gotten other employment – I was offered Work Study in order to return to my old job, but I need actual income, not a reduction in loan debt. I never received an email not to talk to the media, but then, maybe that’s because I was already let go.
What is unclear to me is this: PSU must have seen this coming. You don’t just wake up one day and say “Well gee golly, I think I should lay off a bunch of students.” Someone should ask them how long they were planning these layoffs and why did they not give the students the same courtesy that they would expect from students- a two week notice!
@datatron5k – while I have no firsthand knowledge, there’s been talk that someone in the higher-up chain of command in charge of the finances was also let go. I’ve heard rumor and scuttlebutt that either someone was really incompetent at budgeting, or else was cooking the books. But again, you’ll never hear that “officially” I bet. I suspect that may also be why some folks WERE told not to talk to the media – because eventually questions would be asked like this.
The claims made by the University Communications office are inconsistent with the facts. Yes, state support was cut by 11%, but tuition increased by 9% while total enrollment and out-of-state enrollment also both increased, hence the 2/19 Oregonian headline, “Record enrollments give Oregon universities big reserve accounts.”
Even if we accept that these layoffs are simply the result of budget cuts, the timing does not make sense. Why retain on so many supposedly superfluous employees for one term followed by a huge reduction? Why not reduce staffing to a sustainable level at the beginning of the year and stay there?
As a student, I’d like to know where these underutilized computer labs are, because every time I go into NH 96 or ML 115 I find myself waiting in line. If they are underutilized, why was ML 115 expanded so much this summer? If this is all about underutized computer labs, why so many layoffs in an area like AV, which is completely unrelated to labs?
The claim that layoffs were announced before Christmas is highly dubious. During much of fall term, OIT had active job postings for many student positions, including desktop support technicians, classroom audiovisual technicians, audiovisual event technicians, and yes, even computer lab attendants. New postings were made by OIT as recently as early January for desktop replacement technicians and desktop replacement coordinators. Why was OIT hiring new employees before and after they claim the layoffs happened, especially if the layoffs resulted from budget cuts they had known about months earlier?
@19: I was giving a practical definition of what a classified employee is. It’s my understanding that unclassified = admin, classified = support. That’s the definition used by the state and SEIU in bargaining. The pay raises of unclassified staff have not been frozen throughout this period of feigned shared sacrifice. Some admins received raises as large as 12% in 2010, when all classified staff had been enduring a seemingly endless (and still not over) pay freeze.
I apologize if I don’t sound sympathetic to the plight of administrative workers, but a salary raise from $135,000 to $150,000 per annum, while classified staff eke out maybe in the range of $30,000-35,000 and endure endless pay freezes and benefits cuts, and while faculty is grossly under-appreciated and under-payed, and while student workers are essentially being treated as disposable chattel… well, it really doesn’t tug at the heart strings.
Anyone who goes to PSU knows why administrative bloat is a problem. The school is a nightmare of bureaucracy and mismanagement. U of O realized they had a bloat problem and have been addressing it for some time — PSU is in denial. It hurts students, it hurts faculty, it hurts their employees.
Computer labs are usually have 2 techs when one is really only needed. For the most part terminals are really needed, not full blown computer workstations which are more costly to purchase, to maintain and to run (power) The students there are also forced to pay for other student groups and fees that are not wanted by many. So much for student empowerment when the students are not allowed to make the choice on their own!
@25: Computer labs at PSU do not have two OIT personnel. From my understanding, they have student workers doing reception, stocking, and basic troubleshooting, but these students are staffed by their respective departments, not OIT.
This article has some of the worst grammar and locution I’ve ever seen, even in an alt-weekly.
> 2,200 hours per week to 1,100 hours per week
Those are some long weeks!
And the quote in the last paragraph? WTF? Not only is there no attribution, it doesn’t make any sense!
Is somebody actually getting paid to write this?
27, your snarkiness regarding grammar can’t make up for the fact that 2,200 hours/week for 127 student workers comes out to about 17.32 hours/worker/week, pretty part time if you ask me.
Not sure where you’re getting 127 workers, but the 2200 hours figure was pre-layoffs. The new numbers, per the article, are 1100 hours divided among 141 workers, for a whopping average of 7.8 hours per week.
So many comments—including criticism of grammar, usage, and numbers. Can we please get to the actual problem and its cause? Let’s try “show me the money” instead of criticizing rhetoric! Where did it go? Why? Who got it? As a taxpayer, I want to know how management got raises for incompetence and why students are losing the livelihood/jobs they depend on while facing tuition increases. Who is responsible for the accounting? Forget the petty stuff and find those responsible for the mismanagement. Locate where blame the belongs and investigate how jobs and hours can be restored to needy students.
@30 clues here http://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/q16pq/financially_insolvent_portland_state_university/c3twv4v
PSU Unclassified Employee List as of December 2011, including pay details.
http://digital.lib.pdx.edu/resources/psu_u…
PSU Classified Employee List as of December 2011, including pay details.
http://digital.lib.pdx.edu/resources/psu_c…
OIT Annual Achievment Report 2011, including organizational chart.
http://www.oit.pdx.edu/files/oit_aar_2011.pdf
Former employee of PSU OIT here, I am still in contact with folks. I have worked in IT since the mid-90’s and have been “online” since the 80s. It is what I know. Working with OIT, I was dumbfounded. I have worked with Intel, Red Bull, MS, and as a consultant for many small businesses. My experience at PSU was the most abysmal I have ever had. Not just with OIT, but I will keep my post on that topic.
Ovidius is spot on, though a few corrections. Labs could have two attendants and they do work for OIT. OIT is the umbrella dept. for many sub groups:
USS – helpdesk/technical support. They manage lab machines and support staff, faculty and student machines. Gamer types and former student workers that needed jobs. Training and experience in IT prior to USS? Questionable.
ITS – A/V in classrooms, VCRs, overhead projectors, that stuff. For some reason they also manage (managed?) the lab attendant kids. These students sit on Facebook and clear paper jams. Why they’re not under helpdesk, I never understood. Other unis do it with great success. (FWIW, this is the team Mark Walker is on)
CIS – Server infrastructure people. I worked with these folks the most. Typical IT nerds. Watch the IT Crowd or read Dilbert. That’s these guys.
NTS – Telephony and networking services.
And there are a couple of dev teams, one for admin and one for educational needs as I recall.
I have been told the layoffs were almost all in USS/ITS. Not surprising, since due to increasing demand and no money for staff, they decided to hire a ton of student employees to cover the gap. And they sat around writing dept. documentation (some of this work probably should have been done by management, yeah? But no, hire students!)
Accounting was crap and so far at least one head rolled late last year. This is where the current “crisis” largely comes from.
USS management is horrid, myopic and clueless. Staff is overworked and incredibly underpaid (In the private sector, the level of responsibility 1 staffer has would fall to 3 people. All for ~35k/year and no raises). While their hearts may be in the right place and they want to do good work, they’re also way over their head and over complicate things. These are students turn staffers and people that have been simply been there for a long time.
Some staff in USS was openly hostile to other OIT departments. They would tell the other teams how to do their job better (despite having no skills or experience with IT above helpdesk). Top management in the dept. is heavy handed and incompetent. Thus the attitude of the staff. I personally witnessed emotional abuse (lashing out at staff/student workers) from the director, who I feel has no right being in the position. He is completely unqualified to lead and manage a technical department.
USS is in charge of far more projects (or were when I was there, thus my familiarity with them), than they can handle. They’re constantly behind. Servers were wearing out or obsolete (typical IT hardware cycle is 5 years) before projects were even close to completion. Their management has little understanding of the resources required to complete the projects and keeps taking on more. The idea is simple: Take on whatever folks ask to make them happy. Deliver shit. Nada. Zip. 4-6 week response time, remember?
Outreach to the campus community was crap. Customer expectations were only ever set as “We’ll get on that right away.” With the budget issues, that doesn’t cut it. You need to be frank and, potentially, reduce services. Around campus, USS (User Support Services) was referred to as the “helpless desk” and “Useless Support Services”.
I cannot speak to ITS in as much depth, save that they suffer from some of the same key problems. Management that has been there forever, resists change and is rife with nepotism and lack of core skills to do the job.
I felt that a lot of the people wanted to do good work. The thing is, they’re horribly understaffed and lack strong leadership. USS is running a helpdesk the way they were run in the late-90s. There are few self-service options, users are offered little education, processes are non-existent, staff is overwhelmed and … well management eats it bad. Morale throughout OIT was in the toilet.
I have mixed feelings. This is a public institution and I feel Portland benefits from having it. However, given my experience there, I cannot help but feel it is a blight. I am not about changing things just to show progress, on the contrary, I take the “it works, don’t muck it up” approach. Large chunks of OIT simply do not work.
Update on this story: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/cu…