From the University of Michigan, to Berkeley, to Yale – and now UT, there is national movement amongst higher education to corporatize the fundamental ways our Universities function. Instead of focusing on providing the best services to faculty and students that are conducive to learning and research, Universities are now looking to corporate models that downgrade services and jobs to save money.
Shared Services at UT would cut 500 positions on campus, move staff out of their departments to a centralized building, and force staff to reapply for their own jobs. The cost to implement this plan is between $160-180 million.
Shared Services has been implemented at Yale and has faced criticism from faculty for the organizations unresponsiveness and the negative affect it has had on staff. Recently faculty at the University of Michigan has delayed their own Shared Services project through protest and 1200 person strong petition.
We cannot let UT make the same mistakes that Yale and Berkeley have made. We ask that students, faculty, alumni, staff, and Austin community members sign the petition asking the University Administration to halt all plans to implement Shared Services at the University of Texas.
SAVE OUR UT, a new TSEU micro-site
To better present the information we have gathered about these and other issues at the University of Texas, Austin, we have created a website called ‘SAVE OUR UT’. Our site is a ‘work in progress’ so please be patient while we add information and functionality to the site. We hope to have the site fully developed before the start of the Spring semester. For now, you can sign the petition and very soon, you will be able to get the most up-to-date information as well as find out about upcoming events or other important news.