January 23, 2017 Member News
Events of Possible Interest to Faculty Members
Lecture: "Academic Freedom Under the Trump Administration," Prof. Hans-Jorge Tiede (Department of Academic Freedom, National AAUP), Tuesday, January 24, 1-2 pm, Smith 333.
Nominations are now open for the Special Election for Vice President- Membership & Organizing
Pursuant to the PSU-AAUP Constitution, a special online election will be held January 30 to February 10 for the office of Vice President- Membership and Organizing. The term of office is February 10, 2017 to April 30, 2018 (the balance of the term currently in place that was vacated by resignation).
Nominations for this special election will be accepted until Friday January 27, 2017 5pm. Nominations are open to regular members of PSU-AAUP. If you wish to nominate yourself or someone else, please send a candidate statement of no more than 150 words with an email indicating your interest in the position to Jose Padin, President and Nancy Eichsteadt (Councilor At Large).
Nominations now open for the Executive Council elections in March
Nominations are open for the following executive council positions for regular election.Nominations will be accepted until February 10, 2017. The Term for these positions is May 1, 2017 to April 30, 2019. Nominations are open to regular members of PSU-AAUP:
Vice President of Academic Freedom and Grievances (one position) Secretary (one position)
Treasurer (one position)
Councilor At Large (three positions)
If you are interested in nominating yourself or someone else to the position, please send an email to the Nominating Committee.
Another email will be sent on behalf of the nominating committee about the election.
Sabbatical Leave Policy grievance/ Demand to Bargain-
settlement reached
On September 30 we reported that AAUP and administration had agreed to negotiate a new sabbatical leave policy as a result of a Division A grievance and Demand to Bargain that PSU-AAUP filed in February 2016 about unilateral changes that were made to sabbatical leave eligibility in a 2013 memo to Department Chairs that had previously not been shared with PSU-AAUP.
Instead of a new sabbatical leave policy, PSU-AAUP and administration have agreed to place everything about Sabbaticals in the CBA, Article 33- Sabbatical Leave. Here is the MOU. The agreement removes the 2013 memo and the changes that were made and we have returned to historical eligibility for sabbatical. The language that had prohibited sabbaticals across academic years has been removed, and faculty members will be able to continue requesting sabbatical leave across academic years with justification for the multi year sabbatical.
The Executive Council will determine our requirements for ratification at our next Executive Council meeting.
Post Tenure Review Guidelines grievance- settlement reached
In our Fall 2016 member message we reported that a faculty member was found by their Department Chair equivalent to “not meet standards” under research, but to meet standards overall. The criteria used for the research standard was publication record.
The grievance was denied at Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3. The grievance was approved by the Executive Council for arbitration in November and on November 15, PSU-AAUP submitted to the University General Counsel's office its Demand to Arbitrate.
The PSU General Counsel's office responded with a willingnesss to explore settlement in lieu of arbitration. We submitted proposals in December, and reached agreement in a MOU to settle the grievance this week.
The settlement included a re-written PTR report by the Dean, and removed all documents in the PTR file that conflicted with the new report.
Internal and External Market Equity Comparators-
Faculty Equity Workgroup Update
In November we reported that the equity comparator study had begun. Since that time PSU-AAUP and administration has been meeting weekly- through winter break when possible due to weather- to find the salary adjustments needed pursuant to Article 30 Section 4 of the CBA. We have an institutional comparator set, and are now working on matching up PSU positions that do not have comparable data at other institutions, and on finding NTTF internal comparator criteria.
We learned that there are a number of parties waiting for us to finish our study so they can use our comparator list of institutions for other purposes. The workgroup discussed this at length and determined that the comparator institutions for faculty salary equity is not a comparator set that could be used for other purposes because the list is responsive to the specific conditions and variables we've identified that are important around faculty salaries. Availability of faculty salary data is one such variable. We've agreed to release the comparator set with a full explanation of the methodology when we are done.
We started having the dialog about total compensation vs salary, but have not arrived at a conclusion.
Academic Professional Advisory Committee Update
The Academic Advisory Committee has been meeting 1-2 times per month on the reclassification study initiated last year. The last meeting we reviewed and revised a draft confidential compensation philosophy that was to be reviewed and accepted by senior administration prior to the next step. We are getting close to reviewing potential comparator sets, and expect to spend the next couple of meetings on that.
Demotion of Department Research Administrators (DRAs) from Program Administrator II job family to Program Administrator I job family
In December PSU-AAUP was notified that the positions of six DRAs were moved from the Program Administrator II job family to the Program Administrator I job family. After analysis PSU-AAUP determined the movement represents a possible demotion without just cause, which would be a violation of CBA Article 27. The University requested and PSU-AAUP granted them the opportunity to review the action taken by HR and determine if they can resolve the matter informally, prior to PSU-AAUP filing a grievance. We expect an initial meeting with administration on the matter soon.