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Faculty Union Fact Sheet

Page history last edited by Jeremy 15 years ago

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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