KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — United Campus Workers, a group comprised of faculty and staff from the University of Tennessee, University of Memphis, and Tennessee Tech University, held a virtual conference calling for campus leadership to implement more COVID-19 safety precautions for employees.

The virtual conference, held on Zoom today, brought together campus employees with shared concerns over their health and safety, wages, and the campus leadership.

Joined by State Representative Gloria Johnson, the group outlined five ways they believe campus leadership can improve the work environment on campuses statewide.

“We are calling on college administrations to move to online classes for the safety of our students, staff, and faculty, and all of our communities across our state.”

The group is asking for all classes to be moved online, hazard pay for front-line employees, like custodians or facilities services, and use of the state’s rainy day fund to limit cutbacks or budget shortfalls.

“UT Knoxville I know as facilities workers, know how hard they’ve worked to try to make the classroom safe. You can’t control the other 18 or 19 hours in the day when all people, not just the students, are in the classroom,” said Tom Anderson, a 19-year-employee in Facilities Services at UT Knoxville.

Anderson, who shared his concerns with WATE 6 On Your Side before students arrived back on campus, said again he didn’t feel like university leaders heard their concerns.

“We sort of feel like we’re being left out of those safety precautions”

Other UT Knoxville campus employees, like Josh Symser, say since the pandemic started, safety precautions on-the-job have been delayed. Symser works in the mail room and delivers mail across campus, even to dorms.

“It’s really frustrating because UT has the infrastructure and I think really, the obligation to provide that testing and they don’t,” said Symser.

He can’t work from home, as his job requires him to be on campus delivering mail. He interacts with students and the greater campus population everyday. At first, he says, around March and April the number of people on one shift was limited. Now, he says, in August things are “sort of back to normal.”

For faculty, like Sarah Eldridge, who also shared her concerns with WATE 6 On Your Side before school officially started, said she hasn’t seen any changes since she first spoke out.

“We sort of feel like we’re being left out of those safety precautions and of those measures and that’s not a good way to feel about where you work,” Eldridge, a tenured faculty member, said.

Eldridge works from home teaching her German classes entirely online. She says she is “in a good spot” compared to other employees who don’t have the option to work remotely due to the nature of their job.

In her own words: August 27, 2020

In a town hall, the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, in response to questions about why we are having an in-person semester, said that in June, this was what parents and students said they wanted. When asked whether they had surveyed students and their families again after TN became a hotspot, they answer was no. So we are all here based on data collected in a fundamentally different pandemic situation!

Faculty and staff were asked to come volunteer their time to assemble “saliva testing kits.” I asked my department head (who forwarded the email to me) whether faculty and staff would have access to these kits and was told that they are only for students.

Departments received notification from the Provost’s office that actually no, there is NOT money available to cover substitute instructors in the event that a primary instructor becomes ill. Departments can try to cover this on their own, but there will be no help. The fact that they said this AFTER the deadline for departments to submit the lists of substitute instructors is…well, let’s say it’s very convenient, since it kept folks from refusing based on the compensation issue!

Sarah Eldridge, written concerns shared with WATE 6 On Your Side

Like her peers who spoke during the virtual United Campus Workers call, Eldridge wants to see hazard pay for front-line employees responsible for keeping classrooms, common spaces, and the campus clean.

A job, she believes, they aren’t being compensated for because of the risk of exposure during the pandemic.

What these UT Knoxville employees see as an act of good leadership: Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Phillip Fulmer announcing a voluntary 15% pay reduction for himself.

These employees, concerned they’re not being taken into consideration by university leaders, see the choice to take a pay cut as the only option for other campus administrators.

Finally, if cuts are necessary we call on all campus leaders to follow UT Athletic Director Fulmer’s lead and take voluntary pay cuts first. They are the ones who are highest paid and will be least affected by pay cuts. Furthermore, we call on those same campus leaders, if necessary, to implement a graduated pay cut, starting with the biggest cut at the top and not reaching our lowest paid employees. No employee making under $50,000 per year should face cuts.

United Campus Workers statement on possible improvements to employee safety

UT Knoxville: “We made a commitment to be creative, compassionate and flexible”

Responding to the virtual UCW call and some of the specific concerns outlined by UT Knoxville employees, a UT Knoxville spokesperson shared a statement.

The UWC, and UT Knoxville employees who shared their stories separately, are calling for employee COVID-19 testing. That, they say, is a responsibility they believe the university should provide for employees, as it does for students on-campus.