To address the Faculty Senate’s call for Oregon Tech President, Dr. Nagi Naganathan to resign, senior leadership submitted a response to the Faculty Senate-approved report.
The original Faculty Senate report was shared publicly and thus requires a public response. A copy of the response in total is available at www.oit.edu/news/university-response-faculty-senate-approved-report.
Broad context:
- March 10- Oregon Tech declared an impasse in negotiations with the faculty union where the University cited little movement in resolving issues and great concern over the impact to students of 20% faculty salary cost increase demands. Declaring the impasse does not end negotiations—an impasse is a means to refocus negotiations.
- March 11- Faculty Senate called an emergency meeting to discuss a resolution against President Naganathan. The meeting ended with no resolution.
- March 16- Faculty Senate presented a 9-page document of complaints as support for its call for President Naganathan’s resignation.
- March 19- The faculty union publicly dismissed the latest proposal made by Oregon Tech just two days into the mandatory 30-day “cooling-off” period and stated a strike vote would be held.
The response provided by University leadership on March 24 asserts:
The purpose of this communication is to call-out and correct the basic inaccuracies and misrepresentations in the Senate-adopted report, and to convey that Oregon Tech is proud to be in a strong position with President Naganathan as its leader.
Oregon Tech is strongly encouraging the faculty union to continue negotiations during the cooling-off period and the teams are currently scheduled to meet on April 1 with the state-appointed mediator. Oregon Tech will continue to act in good faith and be open to negotiations and unity of purpose.
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