Hello All!
We sat through 16 hours of mediation on Weds and Thurs, experiencing in concentrated and clarified form President Wiewel's idea of "negotiations:"
No consideration, even discussion of our many, many proposals
(see list below, if you're interested!)
No answers about the glaring holes in the case for a "structural deficit"
The numbers don't match those published elsewhere? Or even add up? Who cares?
No "offer" forthcoming except on absolutely unacceptable terms:
1. Loss of faculty power to require faculty consent through the union to any Admin changes to Faculty Senate created Promotion & Tenure language, or changes in unwritten policies described as "past practices." The Post Tenure Review process could be the No Tenure, Really process.
Wim Wiewel to Faculty Senate: I'm the decider, that's why I earn the big bucks.
2. Loss of job security for fixed term faculty - how about eligibility for two-year contracts after you've been here 10 years?!?!?!
3. Loss of earning power, with maximum divisiveness. If you don't like the "offer" of 1% and 1% when inflation's been 5% over the past 2 years, how do you like 1% across the board this year and, next year, 1.5% all in the form of merit pay? in other words, not just crumbs, but let's have the tenure-line faculty fight for the crumbs, leave the fixed-term faculty out in the cold unless they're in units with merit guidelines that recognize their contributions, and deliver APs to the mercy of their supervisors, which in some cases should work out fine.....
If we don't want to accept this "deal", we're going to have to work even harder
* to engage and mobilize the PSU faculty and APs, AND to
* take our message to the community, particularly the incoming members of
PSU's new Board.
We have valuable allies in the students in the ASPSU and Student Action Coalition (StAC), the other campus unions and legislators like Sen Michael Dembrow.
And of course, we have plenty of numbers & evidence, which we'll roll out to you in the most persuasive forms we can.
Here's to an exciting Winter Term!
Best,
Mary,
President, PSU-AAUP
Proposals Presented by PSU-AAUP these past many months:
* various ways to provide more stability for fixed-term faculty, used at SOU & U of O
* ways to provide a career path for APs
* faculty right to teach summer school, and at historic rates of pay
* supplemental pay and class limits for on-line courses
* merit pay through promotion, evaluations and post-tenure review processes
* a plan for progress on academic quality, with benchmarks
* substantially increased funding for faculty development and travel
* paid parental leave as they have at the U of O
* a catastrophic sick leave bank, built from member contributions of sick leave
* an early retirement incentive
* etc, etc, etc.......