The Executive Council is recommending that the members approve five MOAs.: Look for an email from us later this week about the MOA’s

First, due to the impacts of the pandemic, members who were on sabbatical during the 2019/2020 academic year and had their travel impacted may note this in their sabbatical leave report and subsequent promotion packages. Additionally, those who have an approved sabbatical for the 2020/2021 academic year may choose to delay their sabbatical by one year. Those who choose to delay do not have to apply again.

Second, members who had a Faculty Development Grant awarded with a finish date of June 30, 2020 or June 2021 are given a 1 year extension to complete the project.

Third, consistent with the changes adopted by the Faculty Senate, Post-Continuous Appointment Review for Non-Tenure Track Faculty will be moved from every three years to every five years. This will reduce the frequency of the reviews for our members.

Fourth, On May 20, 2020, PSU gave final approval to a new Copyright Policy. That policy was the product of over three years of work, with significant input from faculty and academic professionals, through the university committee structure, and through our Union. PSU-AAUP provided input and feedback to the Copyright Policy from beginning to end.

Under what is known as the “work for hire” rule in U.S. Copyright Law, ownership rights over material created by employees in the course of their work remains with the employer, unless the employer waives this right in favor of employees. The new PSU Copyright Policy spells out the scope of transfer of copyright from the University (the employer) to the scholarly creators (employees, faculty and academic professionals).

PSU-AAUP was active in providing input to the creation of the new PSU Copyright Policy, and we are satisfied that the new PSU Copyright Policy codifies strong protections for the right to copyright over scholarly work. We made sure that the scholarly work of both faculty and academic professionals are protected. We also made sure that course materials put on university-run online platforms are also protected. Finally, the Copyright Policy also includes a strong dispute-resolution process to handle violations of faculty and academic professionals’ rights to the copyright of their scholarly work. The effect of this Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between PSU-AAUP and PSU is to incorporate the new PSU Copyright Policy into our Collective Bargaining Agreement, giving faculty and academic professionals access to the resources of our union and our grievance procedures to protect your copyright to scholarly work in cases where there may have been a violation of these rights by the University.

Fifth, A member with a start up package that falls within the period of remote operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic will have those deadlines extended until June 30, 2021.