The faculty union at Rowan University is up in arms over the administration's plan to lay off 18 faculty and staff. Like the eight other public institutions in the New Jersey system, Rowan must deal with a 5 percent cut from its budget to help the state address a $2.8 billion budget shortfall. Unlike the other institutions, however, Rowan's president is the only one who is sacrificing people to make the cuts.

"The question I ask," says Nick Yovnello, president of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals/AFT, is "Why is the richest of the nine institutions the only one resorting to layoffs? The others have said they'll get through the cuts with no major traumas."

Rowan University, formerly called Glassboro State College, began the decade with a gift of $100 million from the donor for whom the college was renamed. It is in the midst of a $250 million building boom. Just weeks prior to the president's layoff announcement, the Rowan board approved a new contract that included a salary hike for the president and granted generous bonuses to some administrators.

Despite problems with the state's funding picture, no one was expecting Rowan president Donald Farish's announcement that the university would shut down four well-established institutes (including the thriving Glassboro Center for the Arts) and fire long-term employees. In doing so, the administration skirted both its normal academic governance process and the union contract.

"The university made cutting jobs a priority, instead of working with campus groups to set priorities. We could have helped frame the questions. And [the administration] violated a clause in the contract that requires consultation with the union," says Rowan CNJSCL chapter chair Nick Diobilda. "We've filed a grievance. We want answers as to how they determined [the people] to cut." The union also wants to ensure that the university follows the contract's specified procedures for recalling terminated employees.

Mostly the faculty want to understand why the university is departing from its past practice of consultation. "Morale is very low because of this," says Yovnello.

Spirits dipped again April 4, when Farish announced 19 percent tuition hikes. [Barbara McKenna / AFT On Campus]