My Letter to Governor McDonnell and all Virginia Commonwealth Employees

Dear Governor McDonnell:

I write to you today in great distress and concern, about the ongoing state of Commonwealth employees in general, and those toiling in higher education in particular.  After more than 3 years with frozen salaries, on the same day last month that the U.S. Congress passed a temporary 2% cut in social security payroll taxes, you announced a plan to garner that entire 2% for a permanent cut in Virginia Commonwealth employee benefits via a cut in VRS and ORP contributions.  Although you have packaged the benefit cut as a salary increase resulting in no immediate net change, it shifts a Commonwealth burden to employees in a retirement system that is currently far healthier than in other states.  According to our campus AAUP representative, Virginia’s VRS system is 80% funded, which is considered healthy and solvent by national standards.  Our representative reports that: “VRS has a secure $50 billion pot of money, and with its 14% rate of return this past year, has already significantly reduced the $620 million deficit caused by the Governor and GA “balancing the budget” by deferring the payment to VRS.”  It would appear that you are gambling that a 2% cut in VRS/ORP contributions that is not noticed in our take home pay this year will only be noticed when the temporary 2% federal social security tax cut expires in some two years – i.e. when it becomes someone else’s problem, and will then be blamed on the U.S. Congress rather than the Virginia General Assembly.  Well, I have noticed, as have all of my colleagues.

I joined the University of Mary Washington’s History Department in the summer of 2004, eager to educate Virginia’s young adults and prepare them for a productive and profitable life as residents in this state, country, and world.  At the time, I was offered a salary of $39,000 and a tenure track position, contingent on completing my doctoral thesis at the University of Chicago.  At the time, I had progressed beyond careers in international relief work and election monitoring to come to that point.  I did my part, completing that dissertation and eagerly contributing what I could to UMW’s curriculum, young alumni employment opportunities, international exchanges, and campus programs in general.  I can now count former students in the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School, Department of Homeland Security, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Department of Energy, U.S. Park Service, and several prestigious graduate programs.  Each of these alumni is a fully contributing member of society, and doing quite well as far as we can tell.   I have advised a number of Fulbright grantees, each of whom has either become a productive global citizen grateful for the opportunities afforded by UMW and Virginia’s Higher Education system, or has actually returned home and is directly enriching Virginia’s schools or other governmental institutions.  Yet again, I’ve done my part – and my students have done their part.

Unfortunately, what has become increasingly clear is that the Commonwealth is not prepared to do its part, as it does not value in the least what I and my colleagues do on a daily basis – as it equally does not appear to value the contributions made by our Commonwealth colleagues in a number of sectors, including primary and secondary school education, health provision, VDOT, DMV, and ABC, to name but a few.  In my personal case, after nearly seven years on the job and three promotions, I have watched my salary evolve to (well below median for Stafford County) $5-,— per annum –(none of your damn business what I make, come to think of it) a salary that my alumni top by roughly $15,000 the moment they enter federal government service at the ripe old age of 22, should they choose that route.  I have found my salary completely insufficient to support my spouse and two daughters to whom I was fortunate enough to contribute the seed of life.  In fact, each month I find us some $300-500 short.  Our vehicles date to 1994 and 1995 respectively; our house was purchased in 2009 for the eye popping figure of $206,000 (down payment covered by the temporary $8,000 federal tax break for first time homeowners); our vacation time largely consists of watching Gov. McDonnell give inspirational speeches on TV; we recently discovered that we cannot even afford our YMCA membership – and my girls have not yet even entered public school.  If you see excess in our living standards, please share where potential cuts might come.

Equally disturbing is the public perception of our status as university faculty perpetuated by media figures, certain politicians, and others in public life [Ohio’s governor characterized their state employees as overpaid: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/business/04labor.html?pagewanted=1&hp].  Before I cut our YMCA membership, one fellow met in the sauna there believed I made $95,000 as a UMW professor.  Interestingly, the neighbors on my cul-de-sac do earn something approaching that figure as: an engineer at the Dahlgren naval research facility, a mid-level customs agent at DHS, a military contractor in Afghanistan, and a DEA agent.  Don’t get me wrong – I don’t envy their careers, their houses, or even their salary tradeoffs.  However, this reality requires some thought: where do these valuable taxpayers, citizens, and voters – each of whom ultimately works for the federal military/security complex – come from?  At least two of those four examples spring from the Virginia higher education system.  Who educates them?  We do – and thus the circle grows full.

We UMW faculty are not interchangeable.  Rather, we are damn good at our job – and the privatized online education initiatives represented by the University of Phoenix could not have educated the alumni whom we’ve successfully placed all over society.  One cannot learn Arabic, critical thinking, or the sort of philosophical rigor that makes alumni valuable recruits for federal agencies through an online course and $150.  If the entire country turns to that model, then the reward will be an under-educated, substandard, and frankly frightening citizenry.  If Virginia turns to that model (n.b. last year, under your leadership the General Assembly cut Virginia’s higher education budget by 19%), then aspiring students will turn to other state systems, and Virginia will gradually sink to the level of Detroit or Mississippi – but with Washington’s federal economy ensuring that it can only fall so far through economic migrants coming in from those states that wisely eschew your proposed educational model.  While such an outcome might ultimately preserve the Virginia economy, what of the Virginians whom you serve?

I, and all of my colleagues resident in Virginia, will be watching these developments closely.  We urge you to protect state workers and make sure that we are treated equitably and with respect, with conditions that make our career worth continuing.

Nabil Al-Tikriti

Associate Professor

Department of History

University of Mary Washington