PSU Chairs speak out about the strike

CLAS CHAIRS AND DIRECTORS STATEMENT ON EFFICACY AND EFFECTS OF STRIKE MITIGATION ACTIONS

In its update on collective bargaining dated March 13, 2014, the PSU Administration states, “Our top priority is to ensure that students remain on track with their courses. Spring term will open on schedule March 31, and registration for spring continues normally. If no agreement is reached by April 3 and the AAUP decides to strike, PSU has policies and procedures in place to remain open and continue campus operations. PSU’s seven schools and colleges are developing plans to maintain classes in the event of a strike, and those details will be announced soon” (http://www.pdx.edu/oaa/2013-2015-psu-aaup-collective-bargaining-update).

Considering the grave consequences for students of a possible strike by PSU-AAUP bargaining unit members, the CLAS Chairs and Directors have met to discuss the feasibility of continuing campus operations as proposed above by the PSU Administration. Given our experience working with students and faculty, and to facilitate the development of appropriate plans of action, we wish the upper Administration to be fully aware of the following:

1. As Chairs and Directors, we are committed to offering our students the highest quality education possible and to performing our roles as Department Chairs and Directors to the best of our abilities and capabilities.

2. Based on our experience of the labor market in the Portland area, we observe that it would be very difficult, and almost impossible, to replace striking PSU-AAUP bargaining unit members with instructors capable of teaching courses in the areas of specialty required to cover classes this Spring Quarter.

3. In our professional opinion as educators and scholars, the student experience in a classroom staffed by anyone (regardless of his/her qualifications) besides the usual instructor is highly unlikely to match the quality of the planned instruction that we pride ourselves in offering through our departments.

4. And also in our professional opinion as educators and scholars, a PSU-AAUP bargaining unit members strike will not only disrupt student learning in the short term but also have serious effects on academic achievement in the long term, effects that will rapidly compound as any such strike continues.

Respectfully submitted,

Michele Gamburd, Anthropology
Steve Bleiler, Mathematics and Statistics
Cornel Pewewardy, Indigenous Nations Studies
Christina Gildersleeve-Newman, Speech and Hearing Sciences
Jennifer Perlmutter, World Languages and Literature
Yangdong Pan, Environmental Science and Management
Thomas Luckett, History
Alan Yeakley, School of the Environment
Jason Podrabsky, Biology
John Freeouf, Physics
Heejun Chang, Geography
William Becker, Center for Science Education
Jeffrey Robinson, Communication
Kofi Agorsah, Black Studies
Hildy Miller, English
Sally McWilliams, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Susan Conrad, Applied Linguistics
Natan Meir, Judaic Studies
Thomas Potiowsky, Economics
Sherwin Davidson, Psychology
Tom Seppalainen, Philosophy
Matthew Carlson, Sociology
Dirk Iwata-Reuyl, Chemistry
Michael Cummings, Geology
Robert Gould, Conflict Resolution