Preparing to Outsource, A&M Tells Employees Don't Worry
In an interview with The Texas Tribune on the day he was named chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, John Sharp said would-be higher education reformers had gone about things all wrong by targeting universities’ core functions: teaching and research.
“The first place you start is those things that support that core function,” he said. “The things that support the core function are everything from utilities to grounds maintenance, to food preparation, to all the things like that — from the chancellor’s office, the president's office, public relations, everything is there to serve those two things.”
Sharp ...
Comments (8)
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Very bad idea.
Luis Vela Guevara via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Poor, poor Aggies...
Susan Syler via Texas Tribune on Facebook
So sad that the persons with the lowest salaries (groundskeepers, cafeteria workers) will now lose access to the retirement benefits they have worked hard for.
Michael Smith
We were told once, that we were Ambassadors of A&M, We were told we were AGGIES ring or no ring we were a core asset. We'll Chancellor Sharp if i'm outsourced i'm not an Aggie, just a hired hand. When this campus flooded a few weeks ago, I was here working to save the buildings, and get ready for class Monday morning. Why, because Aggies support Aggies, because I care. If i'm not an Aggie don't expect me to bend over backwards to make you look good. Show me the money, you haven't shown it yet. You know the starting custodian makes 8.58 an hour. The only reason people apply here is the benefits of working for the state (longevity pay, teachers retirement, vacation, sick leave.) If you think a contractor will care as much about their employees, you are freaking nuts! They will care no more than you do. they will be here for the money. Perhaps you weren't the best choice for the job here in Aggieland. A contractor does not have to hold up to the Aggie Core Values.
Ron Blancarte via Texas Tribune on Facebook
You know how you know your job might be in trouble? They tell you not to worry.
IMHO, I wonder what the whole plan of all these university reforms are. I mean, what is the goal of them? The old reforms seemed to target education. These reforms target the bottom line. It makes you wonder what the ultimate goal is, or is it just reform for reforms sake?
Sol Hombre
Great comment Michael. But I think to some people (Sharp, Perry, etc), they simply want reform for the sake of it, even if it means nothing. Heck, IMHO, what this is, is nothing more than hiring a group that has ties with Sharp or Perry or the like. I hope it works, but anything under these clowns direction, I wonder about.
Stuart Greenfield
As I have a degree from UT and not A&M, one may have to excuse my ignorance. However, as the state has discovered in its valiant efforts to outsource activities, one cannot replace workers earning 10 percent less than their private sector counterparts and expect to save $'s. I would hope Chancellor Sharp and his team have spoken w/ the lawn maintenance and food service front-line workers to query them on ways to improve operations. Has any of his learned faculty offered to review operations and suggest improvements? I'm sure there are courses at A&M where students are required to undertake a real world problem and offer suggestions. A&M's budget for Fy12 is $1.2 bil. of which $315 million is operations and maintenance. I would hope one could find $10 million in saving from M&O. I would be happy to volunteer my services, gratis. If I couldn't identify $10 million in saving I would be most willing to again work for Chancellor Sharp, as I have experience in both washing dishes and mowing lawns.
James Ellsworth
I came to A&M country to retire--a plan that Bryan-College Station seeks to promote as part of its economic development strategy. Of course, the key to that strategy is a healthy and attractively-maintained A&M main campus and a healthy economy in the campus community. Over the past few years (the post-Gates presidency), more of the core decisions affecting the University seem to be made far from the campus by Rick Perry rubber stamps. The current President, Dr. Loftin, seems to be seen more as a place holder than as a leader who thinks for himself and whose views are respected 'up the chain of command'. This erosion of strong local leadership is not a good sign for the community. A&M does not seem to be in control of its own destiny.
The reasoning behind this downsizing seems disingenuous. The dining service operation is no longer losing a million dollars a year and has been at least breaking even for the past two years. It doesn't need Sharp or out-sourcing to fix it. Watching the pennies is important for public institutions and much of that has also been done during a substantial down-sizing of everything but administrators two years ago. Here in the community, we have plenty of concern that Texas cronyism and 'profits for contributors' is the real 'business model' behind Sharp's current agenda. Where employment is to be kept stable and salaries and benefits are to 'remain the same' how will an enterprise that is designed to break even (with a sharp eye to cost control) find new players who need to also make a profit? Supposedly, an acceptible solution will not permit prices paid by students to rise either.
The Twelfth Man needs to rise up and come together to aid this currently beleagered institution and the ground level workers who do so much to keep things going.