Announcements:
1. Faculty Senate Vote - Resolution Calling for Access to All-Funds, Line-Item Budget,
Jan 6th, 3 - 5 pm, CH 53
2. Flyer Party - Meet in CH 265 at 5 pm, Mon Jan 6th! Stay for Pizza & Beer, if you can!
3. Mediation, Jan 8 and Jan 13: Plan to Wear Red and PSU Lanyards around Campus!
4. Join the PSU-AAUP Info Picket, Jan 14 & 15: Time to Push PSU Back on Track!
Save as Much of 11 am - 2 pm on the 14th and 15th as Possible; PSU Needs You!
5. Save the Date: Jan 24, Noon to 1:30, SMSU 333, AAUP Membership Meeting
Howard Bunsis "No, PSU is NOT Broke!" and Bargaining Update
What's Going On at PSU?
2013 Felt Like a Series of Crises Created to Shift Spending from Academics, Undermine Faculty Power & AAUP
Jan 2013 Winter Symposium Brings Speaker to Tell Faculty
"Universities are the Pony Express, Doomed to Oblivion
by Tech Advances"
But San Jose State's MOOC Experience is just one, high-profile
example of the poor fit between some highly touted tech-based
"fixes" for sale and access universities like PSU
April 2013 Admin Demands End to AAUP Contract Protection of Shared
Governance, Full Control for President
But can cite no problems in 35 years of contract language
Admin Bargaining Team: "Pres. Wiewel is President of the Faculty, so
should have ability to change Faculty Senate processes without having to
negotiate with the faculty union"
June 2013 81 Summer Classes Cut Just Before Term Starts
PSU Students and Faculty Left in the Lurch, Rumored $1 million Lost
Aug 2013 Administration Suspends Faculty Travel Grant Program
Despite claiming falsely that “we’ve always done that during bargaining,”
the Admin had to re-instate travel funds when challenged.
Oct 2013 Call to ID 8% of Academic Budgets for Possible Cut
Now Reduced to 5% in Face of Faculty Opposition and Budget Forum
Shaky Case for “Structural Deficit” and Cuts
Figures Don’t Agree with those Published by State Board of Higher Ed
Tuition Growth Understated by $5m, State Contribution by $1.4m
Other Questionable Assertions
Provost: We Must Eliminate Degree Programs by June
No apparent recognition that this may save NO Money, since we’ve
spent 15 years leveraging existing resources supporting current
programs to create new programs
CLAS: Replace Dept. Chairs & Staff with Managers in Summer
Huge Pushback and the Dean Backed Off
Pres Wiewel tells Student Delegation Faculty Pay is Source of
Tuition Increases, Neglects to Mention
* Big increase in Number and Real Pay Rate of Exec Administrators
* Falling Faculty/Student Ratio, Flat or Falling Faculty Real Pay
* Millions of Tuition Dollars Used to Subsidize “Auxiliaries”
Nov & Dec Pres Wiewel Finds Way to Cut Asserted “Structural Deficit’ in Half
No mention of why he would first have sought cuts in academic
budgets, or what else could be pared to pay for academic investments
Dec 2013 CLAS: Drastically Cut Summer Session Faculty Pay & Budgets
But Summer Session, when independent, always made money for PSU
Chairs & Deans Directed to send Letters of Non-Renewal to
Nearly All Fixed-Term Faculty – with Suggestion to Blame AAUP
Notice of renewal or non-renewal by Jan 1 is actually required by the
P & T Guidelines
Admin chooses to formally “non-renew” a HUGE proportion of
fixed-term faculty members, many of whom will be re-hired and some
of whom have taught at PSU as long as 25 years!
What the heck? No wonder we're feeling battered!
Why isn't the PSU Admin working with and for us, building on what we do well, and focusing lean resources on critical academic priorities?
What if each of the 20 Exec Administrators - Vice Provosts, Vice Presidents, Associate Deans, etc - added in the past 10 years had been new, well-paid faculty chairs, anchoring grad programs?