In Spring, 2016 following the ratification of the 2015-19 CBA, administration sought to modify Appendix E(2) [Job Description for NTTF] with the Cultural Competency expectation language administration had adopted and added to other job descriptions and supplemental letters since 2011. It is our understanding that the language was created by the leadership in the newly created Office of Gobal Diversity and Inclusion. 2016, however, was the first time the language had been presented to PSU-AAUP.
The language is this:
Essential Key Cultural Competencies
- Create an environment that acknowledges, encourages, and celebrates differences;
- Function and communicate effectively and respectfully within the context of varying beliefs, behaviors, orientations, identities, and cultural backgrounds;
- Seek opportunities to gain experience working and collaborating in a diverse, multicultural, and inclusive setting with a willingness to change for continual improvement;
- Adhere to all of PSU’s policies including the policies on Prohibited Discrimination & Harassment and the Professional Standards of Conduct.
The AAUP Negotiating team and administration met last summer to discuss the language. Our first question was whether the language was aspirational, or whether it was a benchmark for accountability. Administration advised that the language reflected expected awareness and behavior, but they were not clear about how faculty would or could be held accountable. The administration also shared that they had not developed training programs to bring faculty to the expected competencies, and or how those competencies would be measured.
With such uncertainty in how faculty would be held accountable, the negotiating team did not agree to the requested modification to Appendix E(2). This now remains the only job description in the CBA, this remains the only job description where the cultural competency language does not exist.
Fast forward to 2017. In the current legislative session the Oregon Student Association sponsored HB 2864 that mandates each University establish a cultural competency oversight committee with statutorily required membership (PSU-AAUP would be a required member). In the introduced version of the bill, the committee is expected to adopt competency standards.
PSU-AAUP found the language in this bill problematic for the same reasons it found the language above problematic. Through AAUP-OR we negotiated revisions to the bill and the -2 amendment will be adopted in a work session of the House Committee on Higher Education and Workforce Development tomorrow. In the amendment, the cultural competency oversight committee will recommend (not adopt) standards for competence that includes training.
With this backdrop, the PSU-AAUP Negotiating team met yesterday with Administration leadership, which included the Vice President Global Diversity and Inclusion, to express our continued concern about the unilaterally inserted language in job descriptions and supplemental letters of offer and the lack of training to those standards. We asked, again, what accountability meant to the University.
PSU-AAUP received a clearer response. We were told that because the 4th bullet of the key competencies included adherance to the policies on Prohibited Discrimination & Harassment and the Professional Standards of Conduct, it was those policies that most likely determined when an expected competency has not been met. This is good news, as this is an expectation we understand and can support.
The cultural competency bill has legs and is expected to pass. After implementation, we look forward to participating in participating on the statutory cultural competency oversight committee that sets the recommended competence standards. PSU-AAUP, of course, will also have the ability to demand to bargain the effects of any policy that has an impact on faculty members within our mandatory scope of bargaining.