Following recent layoffs, one lucky administrator will get a pay raise. The rest will be eliminated.
The University of Tulsa will award a pay raise and “a more comprehensive portfolio” to a single administrator through a “Squid Game” style tournament, Vice President for Strategy Laura Jacobs announced Tuesday. Jacobs, who designed the tournament to identify TU’s highest-achieving administrator, said it is projected to bring the university’s workforce reduction to an even 12%.
On Oct. 15, just before fall break, TU President Stacy Leeds announced a workforce reduction “of just under 9%.” In her statement, Leeds added that “no faculty positions were eliminated.” Hours later, rumors of raises for university administrators circulated in the faculty-only group chat, which does not include the provost or the deans. Arts and Sciences Dean Blaine Greteman said he was unaware the chat existed and would like to be added with admin privileges.
The rumors were not well received by most faculty. Several cited faculty wages that are uncompetitive with the private sector and peer institutions such as Harvard and Yale. Faculty also noted that the lowest-paid administrator listed on the university’s most recent federal tax filing reported $189,063 in compensation.
One faculty member thought differently. Ryan Saylor, Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development, is one of the few faculty members concurrently holding a professorship and administrative position, and the only member of the chat eligible for a raise. “A raise is a raise,” Saylor wrote in the group chat. “Someone has to keep morale up or whatever. At any rate, the first round at the faculty mixer is on me. Happy to take one for the team.” Other members of the faculty pointed out that the mixer was cut three years ago. Saylor was removed from the chat shortly after.
The rumors turned out to be half true. What Saylor and the other faculty did not know at the time was that the raise would not be decided willy-nilly using an arbitrary metric like job performance. Like any self-respecting enterprise, the university will instead pit administrators against one another in a rigorous elimination tournament.
Jacobs, who reportedly spent fall break binge-watching “Squid Game” on Netflix, said the salary increase is expected to be at least 9%, a figure chosen for symmetry. When asked whether support staff would be eligible to compete, Jacobs said they had been eliminated in an earlier round. She added that she is looking forward to playing Red Light, Green Light with the new friends she has made since joining the university in August.
When asked if he planned to participate in the tournament, Saylor said, “Heck yeah! More money never hurt anybody, and it’s not like it’s life or death or whatever. Besides, they changed our employment contracts, so we have to participate to keep our severance packages, at any rate.” The tournament will be held at the Reynolds Center at noon on Oct. 30 and livestreamed from official university accounts on KICK.
