The faculty union at IUP and the thirteen other state-owned universities held its legislative assembly last week, officially signing the one-year contract recently ratified by the state and laying out some issues that could be part of the negotiations on a long-term deal.
One of those issues addressed last week is “the use of program review as justification for retrenchment”. That refers to the State System’s review of the educational offerings at member schools and the possibility that eliminating some programs would mean also eliminating faculty jobs. APSCUF cautions that low enrollment in a particular program does not necessarily reflect on the program’s value to “the student experience”, and retrenchment should be a “last resort” consideration.
APSCUF’s legislative assembly also addressed what it called “targeted harassment of faculty members” at State System schools, approving a positioning statement that says that some websites and social media neighborhoods have been established to identify faculty members who they claim discriminate against certain students, naming specifically “conservative” students. The union says those faculty members are then vulnerable to “cyberbullying and other forms of harassment”, and calls for the State System to ‘defend academic freedom”, including enacting regulations that prohibit students from secretly recording classroom discussion or private meetings with their teachers.
Negotiations are expected to begin on a new long-term faculty contract this summer.
