Dear Faculty Colleagues –

In Fall 2021, UFE and The Evergreen State College signed a two-year MOU to involve faculty in student recruitment and enrollment; offer faculty a buy-out; charge a Curricular Review Team to review academic coherence in academic units to foster Evergreen’s interdisciplinary mission and serve underrepresented communities; and take further steps to avoid a Reduction in Force (RIF). In the MOU, there was a February 1, 2023 deadline to consider whether there would be a RIF.

Today, Evergreen and UFE are announcing that due to the success of these MOU initiatives, there will be no RIF in 2022-23. The success of our student recruitment initiative has been an integral part of Evergreen’s broader initiative to recruit and retain students. We believe the faculty recruitment and retention work should continue. Evergreen is growing forward.

Why are we successful?

1. Over 20 Evergreen faculty chose to take the College buyout and reduced academic costs. While our colleagues are no longer here at Evergreen, we stand on their strong shoulders to continue delivering the academic mission.
2. The coordinated faculty recruiting initiative between UFE, the President’s Office, Student Enrollment Services, and Admissions has helped reverse the decline in student enrollment and has shown the critical importance of faculty coordination with enrollment initiatives. Special thanks go to Nancy Koppelman and Brad Proctor for leading the faculty efforts, and Dexter Gordon, John Reed, and Wade Arave in the President’s Office and Student Enrollment Office for their leadership. And to all the Greeners from the Board of Trustees to faculty to many employees who reached out to students interested in Evergreen.
3. The Curricular Review Team, comprised of Deans and CAT leaders, has strengthened the academic coherence of instruction and undertaken very difficult work in reviewing and assessing curricular offerings. Special thanks goes to these academic leaders.
4. Thanks to the many new students who are choosing to come to Evergreen. The success of any educational institution is founded on the success of its students.

Next steps

The college still faces enrollment and budgetary challenges, but those challenges have been significantly lessened by our mutual efforts. The MOU expires on August 31, 2023, and Evergreen and UFE are preparing to negotiate a successor agreement. Some components of the MOU continue to have mutual support (e.g., continued faculty involvement in student recruitment and advising, faculty salaries based on legislative funding, and a multi-year duration). UFE and Evergreen have varying positions on faculty agency in college processes, preliminary steps and information before a RIF is considered, and the future RIF policy. UFE and Evergreen anticipate having a tentative agreement before the end of Spring Quarter 2023.

We are growing forward by continuing the success to grow student enrollment and continuing to focus on creating academic offerings that encourage students to come to Evergreen.

Best Regards –

Jon Davies, Bargaining Chair, United Faculty of Evergreen

Trevor Speller, Interim Vice-Provost, The Evergreen State College