Press
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*Press Inquiries can be directed to our VP for Communications & Public Relations, aaup@psuaaup.net*
Tensions rise between PSU administrators and PSU-AAUP
November 4, 2024 / PSU Vanguard / Noah Carandanis
Portland State University American Association of University Professors (PSU-AAUP) members donned their red shirts and held up their pickets to march from the Vanport Building to the Neuberger Center on Oct. 17. Read the full article here.
PSU announces faculty layoffs
October 30, 2024 / Northwest Oregon Labor Press / Anna Del Savio
Portland State University has begun the layoff process for more than 90 faculty and staff members represented by the American Association of University Professors. Read the full article here.
Rallies return to Portland State University as faculty and students make demands of leaders
October 24, 2024 / OPB News / Tiffany Camhi
Some unionized faculty called for the university to abandon layoff plans while student groups against the war in Gaza doubled down on demands for PSU to end its relationship with Boeing. Read the full article here.
Nearly 90 Portland State University faculty face potential layoffs
October 17, 2024 / Higher Ed Dive / Ben Unglesbee
Portland State University sent notices Tuesday to 89 non-tenure track faculty members that they could be laid off by the end of the academic year, the university confirmed. Read the full article here.
PSU begins layoff process for nearly 100 faculty members, more expected
October 15, 2024 / OPB News / Tiffany Camhi
Barely three weeks into fall term at Portland State, faculty members are already receiving notice of possible layoffs. Read the full article here.
Portland State Trustees Laying Off Teachers While Building a $300 Million Arts Center
October 15, 2024 / Los Cerritos News
Today, it is being reported that the majority of non-tenure track faculty at Portland State will be receiving notice of layoffs. Read the full article here.
Faculty union prepares for bargaining as PSU faces budget deficit
June 6, 2024 / OPB News / Tiffany Camhi
Negotiations have yet to begin but Portland State University’s largest faculty union is readying for a long and hard fight with university administration over its next labor contract. Read the full article here.
PSU students and faculty protest university’s budget management
June 14, 2023 / PSU Vanguard / Kai Field
The demonstrations happened in the wake of campus-wide funding cuts. Read the full article here.
Standing up for academic freedom
March 9, 2021 / PSU Vanguard / Dylan Jefferies
Academic freedom: What is it? What does it protect? And where is the line between free speech and abuse? Read the full article here.
Oregon education leaders call on lawmakers to “fully invest in public education”
March 2, 2021 / PSU Vanguard / Dylan Jefferies
Following the release of Oregon’s quarterly economic forecast on Feb. 24, education leaders and advocates released a statement calling on lawmakers to “fully invest in public education from pre-school through post-secondary education. ” P-20 investment, in other words. Read the full article here.
There is no Budget Crisis
November 22, 2019 / PSU Vanguard / Sophie Concannon and Justin Grinnell
The American Association of University Professors, a longstanding union with 1,300 faculty members fighting for academic freedom and due process for Portland State faculty, claims PSU is financially stable and has a budget surplus of $27 million. Read the full article here.
In a Fight for More Funds, Professors Quantify Colleges’ Neglect of Instruction
July 9, 2014 / The Chronicle of Higher Education / Peter Schmidt
The humble calculator has emerged as a powerful weapon for faculty members battling administrators over spending. When university leaders say they need to hold down instructional spending because of a budget crunch, the American Association of University Professors often seeks to debunk their claims by crunching numbers. Read the full article here.
Portland State University professors authorize strike
March 18, 2014 / nwLaborPress.org
College professors at Portland State University (PSU) voted overwhelmingly March 11-12 to authorize a strike, and could walk off the job as early as April 4 if no further progress is made in negotiations over a new contract. Read the full article here.
Faculty members take issue with budget deficit
January 28, 2014 / PSU Vanguard / Sara Swetzoff
On Jan. 24, Portland State’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors hosted a membership meeting on PSU’s financial situation featuring guest speaker Howard Bunsis, professor of accounting at Eastern Michigan University and Chair of the National AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress. Read the Full Article here.
Dismissal of tenure-track faculty Hillary Jenks raises concerns of administrative retaliation
January 20, 2014 / PSU Vanguard / Coby Hutzler
The June, 2013 dismissal of Hillary Jenks, a tenure-track faculty member who was making good progress to tenure, has raised concerns of administrative retaliation at Portland State. The Vanguard was given access to a body of correspondence surrounding Jenks’ tenure bid that details a tense working relationship. Read the Full Article here.
“Strikes on the Horizon?” gathers local unions and student organizations to discuss potential strike
January 20, 2014 / PSU Vanguard / Sara Swetzoff
On Thursday, Jan. 16, representatives of eight local unions and student organizations came together for a community discussion on the state of public services and public-sector employment across Portland. Called “Strikes on the Horizon?”, the event filled one of the larger rooms in Smith Memorial Student Union with nearly 150 attendees. For Full Article click here.
PSU gets a lesson in tough labor talks
January 16, 2014/ The Portland Tribune / Steve Law
Portland State University should be basking in glory after earning U.S. News & World Report accolades as one of the top 10 “up and coming” national universities two years in a row. But looming budget cuts have soured relations between PSU administrators and faculty and spread angst among students and staff. Read the whole article here.
KPSU The Raging Moderate Show
December 12, 2013/ KPSU Radio
José Padin, PSU Sociology professor, Faculty Senate member, and AAUP volunteer organizer joins us for an engaging conversation on the AAUP's efforts to get a new contract, and how this affects all students' education. Listen to the full KPSU program here.
KBOO Labor Relations Program:The Abe and Joe Talk Radio Show
December 03, 2013 / KBOO Radio
Ron Narode and Leanna Serbulo of Portland State University join Joe to discuss the tense labor relations at Oregon's largest university. Also -- your phone calls and a conversation about the current state of the American labor movement. Listen to the full KBOO program here.
We Stand United’-Educators’ unions join forces as PSU-AAUP contract deadline looms
December 3, 2013 / The PSU Vanguard / Coby Hutzler
As Portland State prepares to wrap up fall term and many students get ready to go home for the holidays, prolonged contract negotiations between the administration and the largest faculty union on campus are seeing almost 1,200 instructional faculty and academic professionals at PSU end the quarter without a new contract for 2013–2015. The next step is a two-day mediation in mid-December. The current contract, NOW on its second extension, is set to expire at the end of the month. If mediation fails, the university can impose its own contract. At that point, the two parties can either continue negotiating, or the union can authorize a strike. Read the entire Vanguard article here.
Proposed budget cuts will harm PSU's mission: Guest opinion
November 21, 2013 / The Oregonian / Mary King
The Portland State University campus is in an uproar, reacting to a directive to all academic units to identify 8 percent of their budgets for possible elimination by fall term 2014. Read the entire Oregonian article here.
PSU Faculty Union Protests Budget Cuts
November 21, 2013 / Portland Mercury, Blogtown PDX / Nathan Gilles
Portland State University’s administration is once again looking to slim down the school’s budget. Needless to say students, faculty and the faculty union aren’t happy.
Yesterday at noon, around 260 individuals, many from the PSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)—the union representing the university’s faculty—along with students and other supporters, marched from PSU at SW Broadway to the Market Center Building, where PSU President Wim Wiewel keeps an office. Read the full Mercury Article here.
Oregon’s most proletarian professors protest bottom 10 percent pay
November 21, 2013/ NW Labor Press
I don’t have any job security,” said Portland State University philosophy professor Brian Elliott at a Nov. 19 union rally. “That’s why I’m here.”
Full-time PSU faculty are represented by American Association of University Professors (AAUP), but this year’s union contract talks have not produced an agreement, and the two sides begin mediation in December. Read the full NW Labor Press Article here.
Academic Freedom Through Tenure Insures Quality and Accountability to Students: Part 1- Letter to the editor
November 18, 2013 / The PSU Vanguard / Patricia Schechter
For a century now, tenure has served as the basis of academic freedom and shared governance in higher education. Together, academic freedom and shared governance insure a robust, responsive, high quality education to students and advance the public trust which is at the heart of an educational mission like PSU’s. Read the full Vanguard article here.
Portland State University drops more than 50 classes to save money, angering some students and faculty
June 21, 2013/ The Oregonian / Betsy Hammond
As little as a week before the start of summer term, Portland State University abruptly canceled more than 50 courses, including at least a dozen with enough students enrolled that the class would have turned a profit for PSU. Read the full Oregonian article here.
Higher Ed Reform, Student Debt and Oregon's future: Guest opinion
April 26, 2013 / The Oregonian / Mary C. King
The Oregon Legislature is deep into the project of shuffling the organizational flow chart for higher education administration, but this is the wrong priority. The current governance structure is not perfect, but what is in absolute disarray is the funding model for our public universities. In-state tuition and fees at the University of Oregon were more than six times as much in 2011-12 than in 1982-83, with the result that student debt has skyrocketed. Read the full Oregonian article here.