BREAKING NEWS

Reedies Protest Proposed Staff Pay Changes, Currently on Hold

Reed Student Lily Larsen, who initiated the protest at Bilger’s office, contacted the Quest to apologize to the President’s secretaries and make clear that the majority of those present did not intend to antagonize college staff

“[We] decided that it would be a good idea to take some of the signs and leave them in the foyer for when Audrey Bilger returned to her office to see,” Larsen said, “My intention behind this was more quietly occupying the space or just leaving the signs, and the majority of people there came to just leave the signs. But there [were] a few people who were just really antagonizing the secretary. I just wanted to state that I believe that quietly occupying that space and leaving the signs there is something that’s productive [and] causes minimal harm, but…

The Quest has previously covered staff pay issues, including staff discontent and a data-based explanation of the proposed changes

In Staff Pay Explained, Declan Bradley does his best to clarify what the proposed changes would have meant for staff across Reed’s campus. In Staff Continue Objections to Proposed Pay Changes, Declan and L Urena recount the events of an all staff and faculty meeting, and the questions, comments, and concerns staff raised for HR. And in Faculty Raise Concerns Over Staff Pay-Scale Reconfiguration, Madeleine Voth recounts the events of a prior week’s faculty meeting. Meanwhile, Sabrina Blasik sat down with HR Director Heather Quinn-Brown for a Q&A, and Madeleine interviewed anonymous staff members on their experiences with the proposed changes. See reedquest.org/staffpay for further coverage.

A group of students who contacted the Quest claimed to have witnessed a meeting between what they believed to be staff and administrators while the protest was taking place

The students arrived outside of President Bilger’s office shortly before 3:19 PM (Quest reporters arrived at 3:22), and took several photographs of the meeting and what seems to be an agenda written on the white board. “Pay evaluation” and “replicable job descriptions” are two notable agenda items.

In a speech, faculty member Aaron Ramirez said that a Reed Union had been discussed in recent weeks

Professor Ramirez said that they had been approached about the idea of calling a Reed Union, a public forum for discussion traditional to Reed which is unrelated to a labor union, but that the idea was not currently being actively pursued. Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly suggested that the organization being called was in fact a labor union – this is not the case.

Staff Express Overall Discontent Following Pay-Range Changes

Note: interviews with staff discussed in this article have been anonymized as a result of alleged implied threats of retaliation from higher administration towards individuals who directly speak up, as described by staff. Staff members are an integral part of the Reed community, and their contributions can be seen in all aspects of the way…

Q&A with Director of HR Heather Quinn-Barron

As part of our coverage of recently proposed changes to staff pay scales, The Quest reached out to Director of Human Resources Heather Quinn-Barron over email with questions about the new system. Among other things, The Quest asked about the released pay grades, their suspension, staff reactions, and the introduction of job descriptions. This article…

Staff Continue Objections to Proposed Pay Changes, Now on Hold

At an all staff meeting on Tuesday, college employees expressed ongoing concerns about proposed changes to staff pay, which had been paused and placed “under review until further notice” by the time the meeting began. College President Audrey Bilger began the meeting by addressing the roughly 100 staff present (as estimated by two Quest reporters…

Faculty Raise Concerns Over Staff Pay-Scale Reconfiguration

Monday’s faculty meeting opened on a full house, and on top of other things, included discussions of additions of academic buildings and new classes, inclusive classroom dynamics, equitable distributions of work, and a lengthy discussion about the recent overhaul in the pay scale for the staff here at Reed. With the bang of a gavel…