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Portland State University, Oregon’s largest university, will be closed for a full week after the fall semester due to lack of funds. Employees, both teaching faculty and professional staff, will be forced to take unpaid leave days.
 
Cathy LaTourette, associate vice president of Human Resources, said the unpaid leave days serve as a fair way of cutting salary.
 
“We figured out that’s when there are the least number of people, and we have reduced work,” LaTourette said.
 
The University figured out how many unpaid leave days staff are required to take based on salary ranking. According to LaTourette, in addition to the unpaid leave days now required, employees would also see a salary reduction. LaTourette herself and several higher-up administrators, including PSU President Wim Wiewel, took a salary reduction of 4.6 percent in April.
 
LaTourette said the leave days probably would not affect most academic professionals on a salary basis. She also said that employees will keep their health benefits even if taking the leave days bring them below the minimum hour requirement to qualify for insurance.

LaTourette emphasized that if the university has to be closed, this is the best week to do it.
 
“Most of them don’t come [after finals] anyway. It’s dead here in terms of faculty,” LaTourette said.

More info from the Daily Vanguard at Portland State University