Program Reduction

As we move in to the winter break, we hope that our members will get a good emotional and physical break from our work at PSU and also from all of the worrisome activities associated with the Provost’s program reduction timeline and the “Reimagine PSU” narrative that, frankly, makes us all quite concerned. It is worrisome!

PSU-AAUP member leaders have been in continuing conversation with the administration, letting them know that doing this work during a time when faculty and staff are not on campus together very often and meeting only within Zooms when we were “over” Zoom, what was it, 12 months or so ago? It is difficult to have meaningful dialogues about the needs of the University in this context. We also shared with admin that the conversation about program reduction has contributed to an incredible dip in morale, especially for our junior faculty without tenure, NTTF, and AP’s, many of whom are on the bottom of the PSU hierarchy. While we can not say with certain confidence that they have “heard” what we shared, we have shared these sentiments with them often. President Percy noted in a conversation with leadership that the timeline for the program reduction process has been slowed down a bit and we are waiting to hear from Colleges for their scheduled meetings to give our “meaningful” input into this process. Stay tuned for those and let us all be prepared to give that meaningful input. Please also await PSU-AAUP comments about budgets, the impacts of recent retirement programs on staffing levels, and whether or not drastic changes at the University are truly needed at this time, particularly during a pandemic.