UMass Workers Urge Campuses to Shore Up Shortage
Lily Bohlke – Commonwealth News Service
BOSTON — Workers in the University of Massachusetts (UMass) system say short-staffing is putting undue strain on existing employees, and limiting their ability to serve students’ needs.
UMass campuses are the third-largest employer in the Commonwealth, with more than 10,000 faculty and staff, but university executives have been reducing the workforce in recent years, even more so in the last year with the pandemic.
Jariza Rodriguez, an administrative assistant at UMass Boston and a member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said job duties don’t go away when the positions are no longer filled.
“What justice are we truly doing for the students if the services aren’t of the highest caliber?” Rodriguez asked. “Because we’re short-staffed, because people are being pulled in multiple different directions, because we have staff that are burning out, because they’re feeling so overwhelmed.”
Groups such as the Teachers Association pointed out funding is there; the university system has gained access to more than $140 million in federal aid in the last year. They urged UMass to use some of that funding to shore up its staffing needs.