Budget Deficit Measures Spark Angry Reactions: AUC Community Offers Alternative Solutions
By: Ahmed El Sebaie and Hana Afifi
Around 30 angry workers gathered in front of the Administration Building last Tuesday threatening to go on strike if AUC applies overtime reduction, one of the possible measures proposed by the university last week to overcome a $9.7 million forecast budget deficit.
Workers demanded a clarification from the administration on overtime measures after they were informed by their direct supervisors that the overtime cap has been implemented.
However, Hisham Abdel Aziz, associate vice president for facilities and operations, informed workers gathering in front of the Administration Building that the overtime cap reduction has not been executed.
The administration had suggested the reduction of the overtime cap from 60 to 48 hours. Workers told the Caravan that the cap on overtime has been 48 hours for three years, and claimed that it might be reduced to 12 hours.
The cost of salaries and benefits is worth $40 million, while the overtime budget is $2 million, said Brian MacDougall, executive vice president for administration and finance.
MacDougall added that the effect of overtime increase varies from one staff member to another, because it depends on the type of staff. For example, security officers need to stay overtime to fulfill the university’s needs.
One worker said that his overtime income would drop by 75 percent if the policy of overtime reduction gets applied.
“The workers don’t work in order to take overtime; they take overtime because they work,” said Mahmoud Abdel Moez, a staff member at the chemistry department who has been working at AUC for 27 years.
Abdel Moez added that at times, staying overtime is necessary because, for example, there are labs that are scheduled from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., which requires staff to spend extra hours in order to serve those facilities.
One worker told the Caravan, “Why would I leave my house and stay for the night at university? Why would I have loyalty to the university?”
The workers added that the alternative to overtime would be shifts, which to them, is much worse because they won’t earn as much as they do from overtime. They added that they still have to leave campus at late hours.
Workers said that since the possibility of a cap on overtime was announced, they have been “sleepless.” Their contracts are scheduled for renewal this month as they wait for their salaries to be issued concurrently, they added.
The administration hasn’t reached a final decision on overtime reduction, said MacDougall who added that decisions would be made regarding the budget deficit in the first week of December.
REACTION TO HALTING SALARY INCREASES
MacDougall said in an public forum organized by the administration Sunday to discuss the budget deficit that the university suggests postponing any increases in salaries.
According to Egyptian law, salaries should be increased by at least EGP 70 annually, which the university would be able to provide, MacDougall added.
Tarek El Maghrabi, president of the independent workers syndicate, told the Caravan that the staff has serious concerns when it comes to salary adjustments.
“Last year it used to be an increase of 4 percent, but this year they want to do the lawful increase of EGP 70 [which is] not enough to buy a single public school uniform,” Maghrabi said.
In a second public forum conducted in Arabic Tuesday, one worker said that deferring increments would be unjust to workers who earn much less than other staff members.
Lisa Anderson, president of the university, said that the administration is committed to ensure fairness with regards to the impact of such measures on members of the AUC community.
MacDougall told the Caravan that if implemented, the decision would be applicable to all staff members. He added that even the President would be affected.
Nesreen Sorour, student service manager at the journalism and mass communication department, said the administration’s new measures would affect staff the most.
Sorour added that staff members work just as hard as anybody else and it would be “unfair” to freeze their annual increase or make them pay for the busses.
“All of us here have responsibilities. All I’m asking from [the administration] is to put this into consideration,” she said, adding, “Just as they care about their own good, they have to think about those who work on making AUC a better place.”
“The red line that I see is that the staff should not pay for anything. For the past year, there has been no real increase in the salaries, and it does not look like there is going to be any for the next year or the following one,” said El-Maghraby.
RESPONSE TO NON-RENEWAL OF CONTRACTS AND OTHER MEASURES
The university is also considering reducing the number of staff by suspending contract renewal for some members.
“We need to understand the amount of work done at the university and the actual number of people needed to do it,” said MacDougall adding that AUC employs 2,600 staff members.
El-Maghrabi said that the university cannot release any of the staff and that if they think that the university is overstaffed, then it is not the problem of the employees, but rather the problem of the employers.
Waleed Shebl, an AUC worker and co-founder of the workers’ independent syndicate, also said that there is mismanagement from the middle administration in assigning work to staff members.
El-Maghrabi said the university uses outsourcing companies for security and housekeeping at the Zamalek residential building. He said instead of outsourcing, staff members should be reallocated if there are too many of them working at the New Cairo campus.
Shebl also raised the same concern adding that the university uses external companies to clean carpets and chairs, instead of assigning AUC workers to do the job.
MacDougall told the Caravan that the university has to look at the cost and benefit of using a third-party company, referring to Care Services.
He also said that the university would choose to make staff members from AUC do the work instead of care services if it saves money, which he had done before for maintenance two years ago.
MacDougall added that providing a service from the university instead of care services does not always save money. He said the administration studied the effect of not using third-party companies for the bus service, which would have increased the cost by 30 percent.
A senior supervisor at the Office of Facilities and Operations who attended the public forum asked about the criteria for contract renewals.
Anderson explained that in order for this process to be implemented in a fair and effective manner, the contract renewal decision-making process would be carried out at each unit.
AUC COMMUNIYTY MEMBERS PROVIDE ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
Staff members provided suggestions to overcome the budget deficit at the Arabic session of the public forum.
Hamdy Yasin from the office of maintenance said that that change of furniture is “a waste of money,” referring to new furniture orders at the administration.
MacDougall told the Caravan that furniture would not be renewed, as the university is holding on capital spending. He said that the extra furniture that might be seen coming into the warehouse is furniture that has already been purchased before the university found out about the $9.7 million budget deficit.
A senior supervisor at the Office of Facilities and Operations also suggested selling depreciated equipment. Anderson replied saying it is very difficult to sell the equipment in a fair way, but the administration can have a project to do that.
One worker suggested that the proposed change of summer uniforms is an unnecessary measure and could save money, saying that the workers don’t need summer clothes this year.
A staff member who works at the AUC theater box office, said the university could invite individuals such as Shaikh Al-Qasimi, ruler of Sharjah, to display his artwork at the Sharjah Gallery and invite businessmen to raise donations for the university.
Anderson replied that she spoke to Al-Qasimi and that he expressed interest in visiting the university.
FACULTY REACTIONS TO THE UNIVERSITY’S PROPOSED MEASURES
Faculty members expressed their dissatisfaction with the university’s decision to freeze hiring. They said fewer faculty members at each department would entail more work for less money, especially that some benefits like busses could be removed with increments shrinking.
“We subsidize buses for staff,” said Anderson. “It is time for faculty and managers to pay something. We are all going to make trade-offs and this is one of them.”
MacDougall explained that the university formed a taskforce of senior academic and administration leaders to brainstorm ideas regarding the Fiscal Year 2013-2014 budget deficit.
The taskforce is now part of a commission being formed to work on decisions regarding AUC’s financial crisis, said MacDougall adding that it will include faculty, student and staff representatives and is scheduled to meet for the first time on Dec. 3.
Commenting on the taskforce committee, Pandeli Glavanis, faculty senate chair, said that it does not represent the community.
He added that elected representatives, like the head of the workers syndicate or the Senate, should be involved in this issue instead.
When asked about the administration’s measures of making faculty pay for bus service, minimizing salary increases, downsizing staff or freezing the hiring, Mohamed Douch, visiting associate professor of economics, told the Caravan that those are examples of measures that have short term effects, and the university needs to focus more on the measures that will benefit the university on the long term.
“This might work for a year or two, but after that, I don’t think it is a good idea,” he added.
He also said that the university needs to consider options such as increasing the number of enrolled students or having bigger classes.
Brian Wright, Arab and Islamic civilizations professor, told the Caravan that he thinks that the real reason behind the university’s budget problem is not related to the fact that international students did not show up this semester, but rather related to “corruption.”
“AUC has a long history of corruption and waste, and this is what is causing these problems,” said Wright, emphasizing that this is an overall institutional issue and “not a high-level administration problem.”
In response, MacDougall said that he heard many claims about corruption at the university, but that he needs facts for the administration to review such cases.
He added that the university has an Internal Audit Office that reviews such allegations.
Wright added that the budget deficit is not just a one-year issue but “a result of long-term policy problems with AUC.”
He explained that there are a lot of overstaffed departments that don’t lay off those extra workers because of nepotism.
He added that the criteria for keeping staff is neither based on qualifications nor experience.
“It is not fair for any member of the AUC community to make general comments about AUC [being] corrupt. What is fair is for the administration to be open with respect to someone coming and saying I believe that that particular practice is wrong,” added MacDougall.
SU CONCERNED WITH ACADEMIC STANDARDS
Student Union (SU) President Ahmed Atalla voiced his concern regarding maintaining academic quality with hiring freezes for faculty and deferring salary increases.
Taher El-Motaz Bellah, former SU president, spoke in the forum and voiced concern that the measures the administration is planning on taking would affect the quality of education at AUC.
He said that the 2012/2013 SU signed an agreement with the administration last year where the university promised to improve the quality of education.
He added that he is not sure of the application of this policy as the administration seems to be planning on placing constrains on hiring new professors and the salaries of existing ones.
“I believe that we need to work together on finding solutions. This presentation will not work for anyone,” he added.
Atallah told the Caravan in an interview via e-mail that the freeze on faculty hiring and further increases in the student housing fees would affect students the most.
“A hiring freeze will hinder the university from solving a great issue that affects the quality of education, which is the overcrowding in classes,” Atallah added.
According to AUC’s website, the current residence fees as of Fall 2013 range from $1,750 to $3,530 depending on room type and whether it’s on the New Cairo Campus or the Zamalek Dormitory.
OTHER CONCERNS AND SOLUTIONS
Concerned with the impact of the university’s proposed measures to control the budget deficit, members of the AUC community shared alternative solutions with Anderson and MacDougall at the two public forums.
Hoda Grant, associate director of the core curriculum, suggested cutting salaries of top administrators, directors and faculty members by a small percentage as a “spirit of collaboration.”
A professor at the forum said the university needs to look more at the macro issues rather micro ones in order for them to find solutions for the current problem.
He noted that the university could accept more national students instead of the internationals that did not show up, which could solve the problem.
Anderson said that the Admissions Office thinks that the university has reached the maximum number of Egyptian students they can get.
She later explained the Egyptian students couldn’t compensate for the decline in numbers of international students.
“The Arabic language programs right now are underutilized, but most of the other ones are not, and if we admit Egyptian degree candidates, they go into programs that are already crowded,” Anderson said, adding, “This is what we are trying to avoid [in order for us] to make sure that the kind of things we do actually do maintain the quality of the programs.”
Another solution the same professor proposed was that the university could draw 7 percent interest rather than 5 percent out of its $500 million endowment. This would reduce the deficit into half, he added.
Anderson said this suggestion is not recommended because the university wants to sustain the endowment for future generations.
A forum attendee suggested that instead of hiring consultants who are not members of the AUC community, the university could use faculty members who are willing to consult for free and have the ability to do the same job.
Wright told the Caravan that the university is looking now at secondary solutions. There needs to be a full review of the entire faculty and staff of the university, and if some of them don’t have an important job, they need to be released, he added.
