A group of Kutztown University faculty members rallied outside the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education headquarters in Harrisburg on Oct. 6.
“Numerous Kutztown faculty were among slightly more than 500 faculty who rallied outside the Dixon Center (PASSHE headquarters) Thursday morning while a meeting of the Board of Governors was taking place inside. Members of all 14 PASSHE schools’ faculties were represented among the boisterous crowd,” said APSCUF-Kutztown Spokesperson and PR Chair Dan Spiegel, a KU computer science professor.
“Several faculty addressed the Board of Governors, including at least one temporary faculty member who informed the Board of Governors of the ramifications of the system’s proposals regarding temporary faculty workload,” said Spiegel. “Students also entered the meeting, but in an interesting development, the chancellor, who claims to be so interested in their welfare, refused to acknowledge their presence. This followed a disastrous Facebook live session where Mr. Brogan spent a lot of time talking about and praising himself and little answering questions. Comments were universally negative. His condescending tone towards his audience was quite striking.”
See Kutztown Patriot’s coverage of the Oct. 4 webcast “PASSHE chancellor hosts live webcast.” View the webcast at www.facebook.com/statesystem/?fref=ts.
In the webcast, PASSHE Chancellor Frank T. Brogan answered students concerns about what to do if a strike does occur.
Brogan said they will do everything in their power to prevent a strike.
“Should a strike occur, you have our commitment that we will do everything possible to make sure that you have an uninterrupted opportunity to finish your semester, collect a grade and ultimately the credits that go along with that grade for the hard work that you put in. We may have to find different approaches to it. People will have to be patient, because in the extreme, it may require delays in ultimately satisfying those grades.”
If there is a strike, Brogan told students that they must go to class.
As of Oct. 11, press deadline, Spiegel said there has been no change in the status of negotiations since they broke off last week. They are scheduled to resume this Thursday, Oct. 13.
“But the sides remain very far apart,” said Spiegel. “Not one time has PASSHE come to us and proposed that we collaborate on solutions to financial issues. Instead, they come to the negotiating table with harebrained ideas cooked up who-knows-where that we have no choice but to oppose.”
Spiegel said that if there is a strike on Oct. 19, it will not have to do with money or benefits.
“It will have to do entirely with a chancellor who has not served a single day on a university faculty, trying to impose his bad ideas onto our system, ideas that will ruin our system’s ability to provide a high quality education and trash the value of our degrees, harming current students, alumni, and the prospects of the commonwealth keeping well prepared young people in its workforce,” Spiegel.
Meanwhile, PASSHE spokesperson Kenn Marshall, Media Relations Manager, reported to media that the State System and the union that represents athletic coaches at the 14 state-owned universities continue to make progress toward a new agreement, essentially agreeing on a variety of issues, including a communications process when a university is considering eliminating a sports program and the payment process for interim coaches. The two sides are discussing additional meeting dates to continue the talks.
“There have been a number of positives at the bargaining table, with both APSCUF coaches, and, obviously, with our professional employees represented by SCUPA,” said State System spokesman Kenn Marshall. “We are hopeful we can keep the momentum going as we prepare to meet with our other employee groups.”
The State System on Oct. 3 announced it had reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with the State College and University Professional Association (SCUPA), the union that represents about 700 professional employees who provide a variety of student services, working on each of the campuses in admissions, financial aid, residence life and career services, and in the registrars’ offices. The System also is preparing to meet with separate unions that represent university health center nurses and campus police and security officers.
Seven separate unions represent State System employees. Combined, they cover about 85 percent of the System’s workforce, not including student workers. About 4,000 of those employees are represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which negotiated a contract with the Commonwealth earlier this year. The State System follows the terms of that contract for its employees who are represented by AFSCME.
Negotiations between PASSHE and the APSCUF faculty union resume Oct. 13. APSCUF has announced that it will call a faculty strike if PASSHE and APSCUF do not agree on a fair contract by Oct. 19.
