Nearly 200 Syracuse University faculty, doctoral students and alumni have signed an online petition expressing concern with the restructuring of the university’s Division of Marketing and Communications.

SU informed nearly 30 people on June 12 that their positions in the division were being eliminated, according to the petition. The petition, signed by roughly 190 people as of Tuesday evening, claims those staffers were given three days to apply for new positions, which they would have to interview for.

According to an SU News release published Tuesday, 31 staff members in the division are keeping their current positions. Nineteen individuals were offered new positions, presumably after applying and interviewing for a job, while eight were laid off and did not apply for positions within the restructured division. A remaining five others were laid off without being offered new positions.

In total, 32 people had to find alternative solutions when their positions no longer existed within the restructured division, and 13 of those people no longer work for the Marketing and Communications Division.

Tula Goenka, a television, radio and film professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, wrote the petition with several other professors on June 17. She and two other professors passed out the petition at a meeting of SU’s leadership team the next morning, Goenka said. Chancellor Kent Syverud and members of his senior administration were there.

“This may be the most expedient way of changing job titles and job descriptions,” Goenka said. “But the toll it takes on people’s lives and the anxiety people had for that one week is just not acceptable.”

According to an SU News release, the division is restructuring to better align with SU’s vision and mission. Some positions will be eliminated, but the division will see a net gain in staffers, per the release. The university has not yet released details of the division’s new structure.

No staffers from the division have signed the petition, as of Monday night.

Dara Royer, SU’s senior vice president and chief communications officer, has been responsible for reviewing the Marketing and Communication Division’s operation since her arrival in fall 2017, according to the news release. That review included one-on-one interviews with every staffer in the department.

“After extensive consultation with my team, deans, faculty, staff and alumni, I announced back in February a new vision, mission and strategic plan for the division along with my intention to reorganize and modernize our operation,” Royer said in a statement.

Coran Klaver, an English professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, passed out petitions with Goenka at the meeting with Syverud. She said the restructuring process has left many SU employees “demoralized.”

“This is the kind of move you’d expect after a corporate takeover or within a major corporation … to have that happen at a university department just made me really distressed,” Klaver said.

The petition says staffers who worked at SU for decades are “regularly eliminated” and similar layoffs have occurred in the academic and career advising departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, Recreation Services and Audit and Management Advisory Services.

“We are concerned that entire service divisions are regularly being laid off without notice, told to reapply for new positions, and perhaps not hired back,” the petition said. “This is demoralizing and fracturing the Syracuse community, and is in direct opposition to the ‘One University’ goal.”

In 2015, SU offered buyouts to employees whose combined age and years of service were higher than 65. The university ultimately shed 254 staffers through the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program, which was intended to help cut costs.

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Published on June 26, 2018 at 7:01 pm

Contact Catherine: ccleffer@syr.edu | @ccleffert