FACT SHEET #1 FOR SFAI COMMUNITY 2.26.09
Nine tenured faculty have been laid off from SFAI in violation of many stated regulations
in the contract between SFAI and the faculty. SFAI’s stated reason was “financial
exigency.”
These actions attack the very foundations of the unique and appealing culture that
has drawn bright and adventurous students to SFAI throughout its history.
None of the following obligatory actions was taken before the layoffs even though the
contract signed by the SFAI President requires that they take place BEFORE laying off
any tenured faculty during financial exigency:
- consulting Faculty Senate – NOT done
- offered alternative positions to affected faculty – NOT done
- providing training, financial and other support to facilitate placement in another
position - NOT done
- No freeze was placed on hiring and use of NEW faculty
- Lower seniority faculty were not laid off before those with higher seniority
- Discontinuing or eliminating an academic program - NOT done
These layoffs:
- Laid off faculty who teach courses that are required for a major, for graduation,
and part of a required sequence of courses
- retaliated against faculty for their protected union activities
- discriminated against faculty on the basis of gender, age, and disability
- retaliated against faculty for their free exercise of academic freedom, inquiries,
opinions, and expressions about academic matters
- created a hostile educational environment characterized by harassment
- create a serious and irresolvable distortion of the academic curriculum
ALL OF THE ABOVE ACTIONS VIOLATE THE Collective Bargaining Agreement
between SFAI and the Tenured Faculty and violate labor law.
A Few Examples of overspending that contributed to the financial problems:
1. $200K residential down payment loan to the President; $100,000 and all interest
was “forgiven” on this loan (wiped out this debt to the Pres.) on Jan. 9, 2009 while
faculty (and staff) were still on unpaid furlough for one month from mid December to
mid January & following cessation of SFAI’s contributions to faculty pensions.
This information was provided in the June 30, 2007 audit of SFAI by Weworski &
Associates, CPAs of San Diego.
2. Egregious raises for administrators in the face of only one 1.5% raise for faculty
in over 4 years (cost of living increased an average of 3.5% per year during this time)
These salaries are from the Institute’s latest Federal IRS Form 990 tax reports 2006-2007 and
include compensation and expense accounts but not other benefits. All non-profit organizations (SFAI) are required by Federal law to provide these 990 forms to any member of the public requesting them, as non-profits are publicly supported and tax exempt.
NAME SALARY INCREASE OVER PRIOR YEAR
a. Pres. Bratton $333,308 (28% increase over prior year =+ $77,475)
b. Dean Enwezor $219,000 (15% increase over prior year =+$28,750) (114% more than previous Dean earned)
c. VP/Finance $204,352 (7.4% increase over prior year=+$14,163)
d. Grad Dean Green $149,786 (25% increase over prior year =+$28,994)
By comparison, 77% of SFAI’s tenured faculty salaries are so low that they qualify for
housing subsidies from the City of San Francisco.
3. Excessive international travel expenses by administrators that included limousine
transportation to and from every domestic and international airport.
4. Excessive use of executive search firms because of extremely frequent turnover
(firing and hiring) of staff resulting in destabilization of educational environment.
The laid off faculty:
Charles Boone – 13 years service at SFAI
Stephanie Ellis - 11 years service
Stacy Garfinkel_ 10 years service
Robert Johnson – 29 years service
Pat Klein – 25 years service
Jon Lang - 16 years service
Janis Crystal Lipzin – 31 years service
Suzanne Olmsted – 17 years service
John Rapko 12 years service
<This document was supplied directly to J. Menzies by the SFAI Faculty Union on Thursday, February 26, 2009, in response to a request for information regarding the layoff proceedings and some of the financial mismanagement that led up to the Institute's current financial problems and preceded these layoffs. Permission was given from the Union to post this information on this webpage for public consumption. Nothing here has been altered from the original document, save minimal reformatting for clarity on this webpage. For any questions, please contact the administrator of this page.>
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