We signed off on the summer session pay language yesterday. This makes it official. The historic rates of summer pay will be in our next contract, and no department can try to pay you less money for teaching a course during summer term than you would make if you taught it during the regular, academic year. However, we’ve already been hearing rumors that summer budgets are going to remain tight, so we’ll need to monitor this. Please let us know what you’ve been hearing about summer session (email leanne@psuaaup.net).
Next, we continued our discussions about academic professional issues. We mostly focused on promotion and pay structures. AAUP proposed that we create a step system that provides incremental pay increases based upon years of experience, specific areas of expertise (bilingual, advanced degrees, certifications) and enhanced job duties (such as supervisory or training duties). The administration wasn’t ready to explore this option yet. They promised to brainstorm some additional solutions before our next session.
We also talked about workload issues. Administration is very concerned about the proposed, new Department of Labor Standards, which would make salaried employees who earn less than $50,440 a year overtime-eligible. Since most of our APs fall into this category (as do many non-tenure track faculty, but teaching professionals are excluded from the new rules), and many APs are overworked, this issue is a real concern for management. We would love to see all of our APs salaries raised above this threshold, but we don’t want to see people get a raise just to make them exempt from overtime and then see them having to work 50 or 60-hour weeks. That would basically make that raise meaningless.
Our current contract expires on November 30th. At the end of our session, we discussed extending it through February. While we had hoped to be finished with bargaining by the end of November, it doesn’t seem realistic. We will probably spend at least three more sessions on AP issues, and we still have to discuss continuous appointments for research faculty, professional development, sabbatical, and salary and benefits. Before we can begin a discussion about economics, we’ll need to get data. That can be a time-consuming process at PSU!
We’ll continue to discuss AP issues in our next bargaining session. We look forward to seeing the options the administration will bring to the table, and to crafting a solution to some of the pay and promotional problems our APs face.
To make real change, we need continued support from members across PSU. Thanks to APs and other members who attended the session. On November 30th — the day our contract expires — AAUP President Pam Miller will be delivering a bargaining update to Faculty Senate. We need you. Please come to Faculty Senate on Monday November 30th, 2:45pm, Cramer 053 and unite with your colleagues to win a strong 2015-2017 contract.