Newsletter #11

Hello Everyone,

First off, thank you for being here. As I shared in the last brief update, I’m sorry I haven’t been more communicative since the Winter Recess. After the TAB decision last October, I didn’t think there was any way 2025 could be worse. Boy was I wrong! But I’m doing ok. Thank you to those of you who reached out. I hope you are also doing “at least ok” and finding ways to take care of yourself.

Since my last Newsletter on December 7^th , not a lot has changed at USC. In fact, it’s been pretty much exactly the same. Lots of new decisions are being made, and there’s not much in the way of Open Communication or Accountability. The State of the University address certainly avoided addressing any of it, while touting everything was going wonderfully. The administration’s messaging continues to be “defiantly optimistic”. Because of this, the USC community continues to feel unheard. Hopefully you’re finding a way to express your feelings in all of this. We’re happy to help be a place where you can do that.

 For those of you in a rush, the first My15atUSC survey of 2025 is live here. It’s also at the end of this survey.

Staff Assembly Letter

I very am proud to have been part of the Staff Assembly Open Letter to USC leadership. Aside from a few suggestions, my real contribution was collecting and organizing the data for the addendum. I’m hopeful that you’ll take the time to read through the comments shared by the community. They’re identical to what we’ve seen here: anger, frustration, sadness, fear, dismay, disgust, despair, abandonment, betrayal, hopelessness. I’m sure you can think of 10 more adjectives. I hope you’ll share your words with me in our survey so we can make a list. There’s a question for it.

Growing Our Movement

During the time away, every time I thought about the changes to our TAB, I continued to arrive back at the same place. The changes are unethical, counter to our history and the Unifying Values, and they’re worth fighting for. As we look forward, I’m heartened by the comments from those who feel the same way. I plan to Fight On.

In our last Newsletter, I suggested some of the easiest ways to support our efforts. Find us on social media (Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube) and connect with me on LinkedIn. I’m also moving new sign-ups away from the old “Contact Consent Form” tied to my personal Gmail. If you want to help grow our group, you can share this email with anyone. There’s a subscribe button at the bottom. If you share the link below, it will give them access to view the last few newsletters: https://my15atusc.beehiiv.com/.

This group has always been about members participating in their own way.  I want that to continue, but I’m going to need others to join me in this fight for it to be sustainable. There’s a question in the survey asking if you’re interested in doing more. Content, like your survey responses and stories, will always be needed from this community. We already have some capable folks doing the social media stuff, but perhaps you can help with design, or web-site building.  I’m planning to do some short-form podcast style interviews, and I will need volunteers. If you’re not comfortable with being interviewed, simply taking the time to email me thoughts and feedback, or connecting with me over coffee or a Zoom, all would be greatly appreciated. Together, these things will help us keep the momentum. I plan to continue to lead this effort, but I can’t do it alone.

Retired Staff

Over the past 4 months, I’ve been very grateful to a friend and colleague for the thoughtful way they’ve talked about how the recent changes have impacted our retired staff. Many retired staff are not even aware of the most recent decisions, but they most certainly are affected by them. We often think in a very binary way of “current” and “former” employees. Hopefully you’ll notice and appreciate the more inclusive wording, like I did with my friend.

With this new awareness, I attended the Retiree Community Holiday Breakfast in December hosted by the Staff Retirement Association (SRA), Retired Faculty Association (RFA), and Emeriti Center. It was a wonderful event and a new and welcome experience. I met a number of wonderful people, including a few members of our My15atUSC community. Anyone may join the SRA for a yearly membership of $50. They also have a lifetime membership option. The holiday breakfast is more than worth the yearly price. I commented to my friend that the carolers alone (two different groups performed!) were worth the cost of membership. I’m really looking forward to the next SRA in-person event.

Next Steps and More Data

Our next step in resuming this is to collect more responses. Please complete the Re-Engagement Survey so I know your thoughts on where you are, and where you think we should go next.

I’m also finishing up a video that I had planned to call “Parallels”. It aims to compare the similarities between the recent federal executive orders and how the TAB decisions at USC unfolded. I feel like our October and November is the University’s January, February and March. It’s important that I note, the My15atUSC effort will always be directly aimed at the TAB decision. I don’t plan to stray too far from that. That includes other university decisions, and politics. My speech as currently drafted isn’t political commentary, and it’s not focused on individual people, politicians or otherwise.  It simply compares how decisions are being made in complete secrecy, counter to how they have been made in the past. I heard a few different opinions on this- that it’s warranted and accurate, that it will be off-putting- so I’ve added it as a question in the survey. Your feedback is important and will be weighed in my decision.  Any video I post on YouTube is part of the My15atUSC movement. If large number of people feel like it crosses a line, I can do it on LinkedIn in a way that doesn’t associate my personal thoughts with this movement.

My sincere thanks if you’ve read all the way through this. I hope it helps provide a little encouragement. Here’s the link again for the Re-Engagement Survey.

Please let me know how you’re feeling, and reach out if you want to chat! I would love to hear from you.

Thanks, and take care,

Phil

[email protected]