The spin machine is in full gear at PSU - in the Admin's Thursday e-mail blast, on the Budget website, and in Pres Wiewel's remarks to PSU's incoming Board.
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Adjuncts are over-worked, underpaid and have little job security. It's an injustice, and it hurts higher education
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Just today, Jan 27th, we finished our 5th day-long mediation session, and can tell you that mediation - in the form prescribed by Oregon's Employment Relations Board - is an EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING exercise of communicating through a third party with no experience or knowledge of the University.
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Friday, 1/24/14
Over 100 students, faculty, and academic professionals of the Portland State community gathered for a presentation on the budget by Howard Bunsis, Professor of Accounting and Chair, National AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress.
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On January 20, The PSU Vanguard ran an article titled “Strikes on the Horizon?” gathers local unions and student organizations to discuss potential strike
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News:
Will We Have to Strike?
Current Status of Bargaining
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A Recent New York Times Article discusses the working life of Adjunct Professors
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We are resorting to a provocative ad in the Vanguard because we haven’t been able to obtain answers to our questions about the apparently flawed case for a structural deficit in PSU’s budget, despite weeks of asking in multiple forums.
President Wiewel has been calling for big academic cuts for Fall 2014, asserting a structural deficit of $15 million, including recently at the City Club on Dec. 13th.
The case presented for a structural deficit is questionable, based on
* Figures that differ from those reported by the Oregon State Board of Higher Ed, and
* A budget that fails to prioritize academics, spending too much on administration and “auxiliaries.”
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Margaret Butler, long-time Executive Director of Portland's Jobs with Justice, will start as AAUP-Oregon's first Executive Coordinator on January 21, 2015.
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Why Run a Provocative Ad in the Vanguard?
Because we're not getting any answers, after weeks of asking.
On Tuesday, Jan 14, we're running a provocative, full-page ad in the Vanguard, with an overview of the reasons that the PSU-AAUP is skeptical of the "structural deficit" in PSU's budget, and the case for serious cuts to the budgets of academic units.
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What's Going On at PSU?
2013 Felt Like a Series of Crises Created to Shift Spending from Academics, Undermine Faculty Power & AAUP
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No Progress in Mediation, What Now?
Two days of mediation Dec 18th & 19th yielded nothing but worse “offers” from the PSU Administration, and no explanations for the glaring discrepancies in the “case” for the budget cuts.
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We sat through 16 hours of mediation on Weds and Thurs, experiencing in concentrated and clarified form President Wiewel's idea of "negotiations:"
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It's the end of the year, grades will soon be in, and while this week we are headed into mediation and the Administration is demanding a plan from Departments to cut 1/5th of the Summer Session budget without reducing SCH, it's a good time to take a - short - break from thinking about everything that should be better at PSU than it is, and think about what we collectively are managing to accomplish, despite everything.
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The Irish university is in crisis, through massive under-funding combined with commercialization and managerialism. We ask you to sign this set of principles to support us in defending third level education in Ireland.
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1. Faculty Senate Resolution – No Cuts without Opening the Books!
2. President Wiewel’s Last Budget Update, and Reasons for Skepticism
3. Could Mediation Fail on Dec 18th & 19th? Yes! Despite our best efforts...
Appendix: Faculty Senate Budget Resolution - Full Text
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Announcement:
Monday, Dec. 2nd Faculty Senate Meeting, CH 53, 3 - 5 pm
Discussion of Proposed Language on Fixed-Term Faculty Titles and Promotion
Contents:
Must PSU Cut Academics? Evidence that "Structural Problem" is Small
Alternative Budget Strategy to Invest in Academics & Faculty
Tie Fixed Term Promotion Paths to Multi-Year Contracts - Bob Liebman
Appendix: The Past 10 Years - Exec Admin Pay Soars while Faculty Pay Lags
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At our 12th Bargaining Session, November 19, 2013, our AAUP Bargaining team submitted a revised package proposal to the Administration. We provided explanations for our requests with respect to the changes made in the articles in our package.
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In a study based commissioned by the PSU-AAUP, using data provided by PSU’s HR Department to the PSU Library, staff from the Center for Labor Research and Studies at FIU found sharply divergent trends for investments in administrative positions and salaries vs. faculty positions and salaries over the past ten years.
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1. 250 PSU Faculty, Oregon Senator Dembrow & Supporters Rally and March!
2. Press about PSU Budget Cuts and Bargaining - Add your Voice!
3. No Progress During Bargaining Nov. 19th - on to Mediation, FEG & Travel Fund Intact
4. Open Budget Forum MONDAY, 3 - 5 pm, CH 53:
What Would we Have to Know to Accept the Case for Big Cuts?
Are there Discrepancies between Board Materials and PSU Presentations?
5. PSU-AAUP Fall Membership Drive Winners!
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