February 13, 2025
Dear Colleagues:
Four Academic Professionals (APs) received layoff notices this week—two positions are being eliminated and two are being reduced to half-time, effective June 1, 2026. FFAP leaders have met with affected employees and we plan to forcefully challenge these layoffs. Not only do they affect our long-serving colleagues, the College has not articulated a plan to redistribute the work, so it is likely to go undone, be assigned to casual workers, or fall on other APs.
The stated reason for the layoffs was the projected $14M shortfall in the 2025-27 budget—a number we have argued is arbitrary and baseless. Over the last few months, FFAP leaders have been analyzing the college budget with the help of an economist at the Labor Education Research Center. We maintain that there is no budget crisis.
The amount of money saved by cutting these valued employees is roughly equivalent to the amount of money PCC has paid to corporate consultants Trupp HR in the last year. PCC does not have a budget shortfall—it has a spending problem.
As a reminder:
- $14M represents less than 2% of the College budget
- Enrollment is up
- The College has $23M in an ending fund balance, plus $60M in contingency funds. The amount of money PCC has in its rainy day fund has more than doubled since 2019.
- We don’t know how much state funding will be allocated to PCC for 2025-27. But Oregon’s financial outlook is good.
Nonetheless, we recognize the anxiety that layoff notices cause. To our colleagues who received them, we want you to know that we are heartbroken, and angry. And we have your backs.
Our contract requires the College to provide at least eight months notice to full-time non-probationary employees who are subjected to layoffs, and they have provided more than twice that. So we have time and several strategies to explore, ranging from legal challenges to lateral transfers. But our most powerful tool is you! We need to stand together, organize, and show up for our colleagues. As we all learned in our last contract fight, pressure campaigns work.
If you have questions, are feeling nervous, or want to support our colleagues who received layoff notices, please join us at upcoming member meetings (details below). If you know someone who has been impacted, reach out with words of support and appreciation. We hope you will join us in solidarity to demand PCC rescind these layoff notices.
An injury to one is an injury to all.
Stay tuned for more information about how we can support our colleagues.
In solidarity,
Ben Cushing, FFAP President
Member Meetings
Wednesday February 19th
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Sylvania Campus (ST 100) and Zoom
Friday February 21st
12:00 – 1:30 PM
Southeast Campus (Tabor 140) and Zoom