Portland Spectrum
June 2014
This past year, as a full time student at PSU completing my undergraduate degree, I began hearing some whispers and hushed conversations about the inequalities within the Portland State University community. During the fall and winter terms, those whispers revealed numerous inequities regarding the way professors are treated and compensated at PSU.
The salaries paid to professors, the people that actually teach students, and top administrators, who don’t teach students, reveal a huge and growing disparity.
Each term, the buzz became more intense, the complaints by professors more vocal, sometimes shared with students in the classrooms. Something was wrong with the pay equity system, and the boiling pot of discontent was on the verge of spilling over.
Talk of a faculty strike was everywhere. Posters of an impending strike were taped to walls in the restrooms and on the entrance doors to various buildings, and in other unauthorized locations. Something was about to happen. The posturing was over and the message from professors was clear. Pay us a decent and livable wage, with better contract security, or we will strike. In essence, that meant they would quit working and go home, throw the university in turmoil, embarrass the administrative leaders, and make national news. The administration’s response? Essentially: “Sorry, we can’t afford a substantial raise for adjuncts. The status quo must be maintained.”