As many of us stay indoors and use technology to communicate through work, the PSUFA Bargaining Team does so as well. Last week, bargaining continued with PSU administration through Zoom as we moved on from setting ground rules to formally advocating for changes and improvements. These include, among others, issues of clarification and transparency in information sharing that fundamentally affect the way we interact with our membership and a more clear and well-defined definition of who is in our bargaining unit. Finally, we outlined the necessity of an improved formal orientation for all new adjunct hires.
The need for an orientation is an issue at the heart of improving our working conditions. Many adjuncts have communicated to PSUFA throughout the years their frustration at not being provided with basic training for their work upon hire. This is not the first time that PSUFA has brought up this critical issue and we will continue to push for this basic right that we deserve. Adjunct instructors, professors, and researchers who are well-informed about how to effectively use campus resources are able to better support their students and their work. With this objective in mind, we established task forces with PSU administration to research what are the needs of adjuncts in terms of orientation, how much or how little information has been communicated to each of us before our hire dates, and how adjunct orientations are implemented at other comparable universities.
After each bargaining session, I will convey all the relevant information I am able so that we are all better informed about where bargaining stands. This a long process but know that the PSUFA Bargaining Team is working tirelessly on our behalf to improve our work conditions. Stay tuned for an update after bargaining this Friday.
—Eli Ronick, Chair of Membership