Layoffs cause commotion at School of Public Health

By Christina Jenkins
Daily Bruin Contributor

The layoffs of six staff members in the School of Public Health
have sparked an outcry from the Faculty Executive Committee and
prompted the former employees to file grievances that their layoffs
were unfounded.

A few students and faculty, upset that administrators either did
not actively seek or disregarded their input in the matter, met
with the laid-off employees and a representative from the
University Professional and Technical Employees union Friday.

In a Feb. 1 notice to the faculty, SPH Dean Linda Rosenstock
attributed the layoffs and the reassigning of two staff members to
other departments to budget constraints, noting that the school is
suffering from a $600,000 operating deficit.

The notice stated Rosenstock had received input from the FEC,
the decision-making faculty body, regarding the layoffs, but FEC
members said the decision amounted to a complete disregard for the
faculty.

“The faculty determined certain positions not be cut, and
those were the positions that were cut,” said faculty member
Robert Schiestl. “The most experienced managers in the school
were (laid off). It’s a complete loss of experience in the
school.”

The FEC responded in a Feb. 4 statement that it was
“shocked at some of the inexplicable decisions which wiped
out mid-level management.”

In a resolution drafted Feb. 12, the faculty passed a proposal
to rescind some or all of the layoffs by a 60-11 vote.

Diane Porter, associate dean of administration, has not
responded to the resolution and said she does not know if her
office intends to.

The former employees ““ with experience in the school
ranging from 3.5 to 27 years ““ have filed grievances in the
past week, claiming they were laid off without respect to
seniority, which is standard policy. They also said they received
no warning before being laid off.

Under certain circumstances like this ““ Porter would not
specify such circumstances ““ the school would make an
exception to the policy to respect seniority in layoffs, the
associate dean said.

Cliff Fried, vice president of UPTE, said Rosenstock never
proposed alternatives to layoffs, such as scheduling employees to
work fewer hours.

But such reductions would not have accrued the same savings that
layoffs would have, Porter said. The laid-off positions were
permanently eliminated, and the work will now be done by the
dean’s office and by remaining employees who weren’t
laid off, Porter said.

The two students at Friday’s UPTE meeting said they are
upset that Rosenstock did not ask for their input before the
layoffs.

“(The dean’s office) didn’t even plan to meet
with students until we asked for it,” said third-year
doctoral student Anita Yuan, adding that the Public Health Student
Association was not contacted until they submitted a letter to
Rosenstock.

Students were not necessarily involved because this was the
business of the school, Porter said.

“However, since the layoffs, they were immediately
informed,” she said.

Responding to concerns that student services will suffer as a
result of the layoffs, Porter said that to the best of her
knowledge, there has been no decrease in services, and no workers
employed in student services were laid off.