Bargaining Win! Staff Fee Privilege Expansion

Because the Fall 2022 term is right around the corner, the PSU-AAUP bargaining team felt it was important to enact the new Memorandum of Agreement on an expansion of the staff fee privilege immediately, rather than wait until the end of this bargaining round.

Last week AAUP Members voted on the MOA on the Staff Fee Privilege Expansion. This new language was approved, passing easily with 99.1% of members voting saying “yes!” View the full results link here.

We anticipate an announcement from President Percy very soon about the expansion of this privilege being applied to all PSU employees.

This is an example of how far reaching AAUP’s efforts at the bargaining table can be. While we can legally only bargain on behalf of APs, non-tenure-track faculty and tenure-track faculty in the AAUP bargaining unit, Administration often sees the value of what we propose and extends it to the entire campus community. 

What’s the Expansion?
The staff fee privilege allows faculty and APs to take courses at participating public universities in Oregon at a discounted tuition rate.

Up until now, faculty and APs have been able to use this benefit for themselves or for one dependent at a time. The expansion bargained by PSU-AAUP in this round will now allow faculty and APs to enroll a second eligible dependent for undergraduate education at Portland State. 

This means, for example, that a faculty member or AP could use the discount for two eligible dependents at the same time, provided one of those dependents is enrolled in undergraduate education at Portland State. 

Or another example: you could use the fee privilege for yourself to take a class at OSU or U of O while simultaneously enrolling a dependent at Portland State. 

One caveat: degree programs at other participating universities in Oregon may be excluded; such exclusions are detailed in the MOA.

Click here to see the MOA language as submitted to voting members of PSU-AAUP.

We all know how costly it is to pursue higher education. In fact, many faculty and APs carry student loan debt many years after graduation! This benefit expansion can provide huge cost savings for faculty, APs, and their families.