Hyperallergic
By Devon Van Houten Maldonado
April 21, 2016
Students and teachers at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) in Portland, Oregon, protested on campus this week, demanding that adjunct professors be rehired with contracts after some of the college’s most influential educators were unceremoniously left out of next semester’s class schedule. Protestors descended on the main entrance to the school’s main building Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings with bullhorns and picket signs. As the college seeks to assert its position among the major West Coast art schools, allegations of multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls and manipulative hiring practices have tarnished its image and threaten to dismantle its community, according to the protestors.
The frustrations of the group of PNCA teachers manifest into an organized protest group calling itself People Over Profit at PNCA, complete with a manifesto calling for the best possible education for students and fair treatment for teachers in exchange for the school’s $32,830 annual tuition. “We believe that PNCA’s new president should not be paid $400,000 a year while its average faculty member makes between $5,000 and $35,000,” the manifesto reads.