Your solidarity can help save my job at PSU

Greetings Union Colleagues,
 
My name is Jennifer Kerns—I am an Associate Teaching Professor for the Department of History and Affiliate Faculty in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. I have a Ph.D. in US and Comparative Women’s History and have been a member of this wonderful community at PSU since 2000. That is 25+ years. As a teaching intensive member of the faculty, I have taught a wide range of courses with a particular focus on US Women’s History and Race and Ethnicity in the US. I teach courses that are full, receive uniformly positive if not enthusiastic student evaluations, and during my recent promotional process in 2022-23, I received outstanding commendations from my peers in the History department as well as from my Dean’s office for the work I have done in the classroom and for the University. And yet: on December 13, 2024, I received a notice of termination from the Dean of CLAS, detailing that the job that I love and have devoted my entire professional career to will end on June 15.
 
You can only imagine the devastation that this news has brought to myself and to my family. I am a single mother of two children, one of whom has been relying on my staff fee privilege to attend affordably Oregon State University and my other child plans to attend the same institution in another year. It is unimaginable to me how I could pivot at this stage in my career and time of life to another profession in order to support myself and my children financially.
 
Beyond the financial and professional assault that this could have on my life, this news really undermines the relationship that I have had with our institution these last two+ decades. I have made a personal commitment to be as involved as possible in serving our students and making this University stronger. I was the President of PSU-AAUP during the pandemic and worked with administration to create protections for caregivers impacted during that time. I was also a bargaining team lead for AAUP and advocated successfully for equitable COLAs for our members. I also served as co-chair of an ad-hoc Faculty Senate committee responsible for promoting equity for NTTF, ultimately creating the Teaching Professor ranks, which has furthered numerous opportunities for our colleagues to be rewarded and promoted for their contributions to this institution. I am currently co-chair of the seemingly boring sounding but important Faculty Senate Committee on Committees. I have served as chair on national committees within my discipline promoting academic freedom, earned awards for advancing the interests of women in the academy, and the list goes on. I do not want to go on and on—but  clearly I have been committed to this institution, its students, my colleagues, and my profession. Beyond my devotion to my children, PSU has been at the center of my world and receiving a termination notice without cause and one that makes no financial sense for the institution has been an incredible betrayal and a cold dismissal of all of the commitments and service I have given to this University.
 
It is my hope that the administration will reverse the cuts as it makes no financial sense. But I also hope that we will secure support from our colleagues to help us to push back on this top-down decision making process that lacks shared governance. If PSU wants to create a culture of care, we need to care for both our students and our colleagues.
 
So please join me in signing the strike pledge to ensure shared governance, future layoff protections, and for reversing the layoffs. Thank you.
 
In solidarity,
Jennifer Kerns