By Leanne Serbulo, VP for Collective Bargaining
On August 25th, we continued to discuss the job insecurity faced by hundreds of PSU educators and researchers. In 2014, we got the university to shift toward offering multi-year contracts (2-3 years in length) to a greater proportion of non-tenure track faculty. This was a major stride, but it’s not enough. Teaching faculty and researchers, many of whom have invested years of service into this university, should not be treated as temporary employees. Temporary employment creates a climate of fear for non-tenure track faculty members that leads to a stifling of academic freedom, an inability to protest unfair employment conditions or exploitative work environments, and is a disservice to our students, who have an interest in knowing that the faculty they work and learn with will remain at PSU. We need to respect and reward our NTTF who produce a significant portion of student credit hours and bring-in grant revenue for this university. We need to end the climate of fear for non-tenure track faculty by providing permanent employment.
Initially, there was some agreement. Our union and the administration coalesced around the idea of continuous employment, which means non-tenure track faculty would become indefinite employees, with full job security protections, after completing a probationary period and cumulative review. The teams agreed that continuous employment opportunities should be open to both teaching and research-focused faculty. We recognized that in certain cases, short-term appointments may be needed (for instance, to replace a person on temporary leave, or if a position is funded by a single grant that has a specified end date and continued funding from any source is not anticipated). However, we want to put strict limitations on how fixed-term appointments can be used, so we do not end-up creating another faculty underclass. We also discussed the idea of creating a task force through Faculty Senate to explore the possibility of tenure tracks for faculty members who are solely focused on either teaching or research. Many details of the new employment system still need to be worked out.
We have not yet reached consensus on how current non-tenure track faculty would be transitioned into the new system. Our union asserted that everyone who has met the four-year seniority mark should have their position converted to a continuous appointment without having to undergo further review or serve an additional probationary period. The administration did not agree with our position and, after taking a caucus, they proposed a fairly confusing array of contradictory tiered employment situations, some of which represent a move backwards from what we currently have. We did not see this as a viable option.
We meet again Monday, August 31st, 11am-4pm, ASRC 620. Please join us at 11am, especially if you’re a non-tenure track faculty member. The administration doesn’t always have an accurate understanding of who we are, how we’re employed and what we do for this university. Your presence will make a difference!