Our third and fourth days at the bargaining table with PSU management saw the opening of discussions around the economic issues that pertain to our contract. We worked collectively to identify all the financial topics and our interests in them, as well as to frame guiding questions about each one. We outlined a slew of issues for discussion from minimum salary rates and length of service recognition to researcher funding and pay for committee service. Members of the PSUFA bargaining team thoughtfully explained what’s at stake for our members with each economic issue, clearly and candidly testifying to the vulnerabilities of the lived adjunct experience and the interests we have in a more equitable and stable future. Though framing guiding questions around our economic interests occupied more time than we imagined, it did aid our effort in organizing our economic interests for PSU clearly and broadly.
PSU noted the economic aspects of other topics being brought to the table such as improved orientation and onboarding procedures and the Professional Development, Faculty Education, and Financial Assistance benefits. They also identified how PSU’s overarching economic interests are inclusive of negotiated outcomes that result in a fair and equitable contract, while stating their perceived realities of PSU’s current economic situation and concern for fiscal responsibility.
Much of the work of the last two bargaining days potentially lays the foundation for upcoming conversations on our pressing economic interests. Behind this groundwork is the reality that there are places where we (of course) have conflicting interests and perhaps even different understandings of what constitutes shared goals, such as equity in higher education. Still, our team is committed to conversations around these issues and toward making PSU a more supportive place for our faculty members who collectively take on the majority of instructional work.
One of the ways our team is seeking to address this goal is to create a preamble to our Collective Bargaining Agreement that builds on the existing work we’ve done with the PSU Board of Trustees and Office of Academic Affairs, who have both been supportive of the goal to improve the status of adjunct faculty at PSU. (Read our 2020 Letters to the Board of Trustees here.)
Our vision is that this statement would outline a shared commitment between our Union and PSU to continue to improve the working conditions for adjunct faculty and researchers at our University. Two members of our bargaining team presented our proposed draft of that preamble at the table, drawing powerful connections between their own experiences as part-time professors at PSU, the history of the University, and the larger national formation of adjunct labor. We all recognize that something that has been seen as nonessential (adjunct labor) has become integral to the functioning of the University, and the institution needs to change accordingly.
We are including our draft of the preamble below for you to read. Its presentation at the table started an open conversation about the role of adjuncts in University culture, which was punctuated by statements of appreciation from the PSU team for the work PSUFA had put into this. We have plans to continue these talks and work on a collective draft in the coming days.
We have loved seeing observers from our union as well as allies from AAUP joining us at the table these past few days. Several times during the session, our observers are invited into the room and recognized. We love to see your faces and have your support! You can still join us Friday, our last day of the bargaining intensive. SIGN UP HERE TO BE A BARGAINING OBSERVER.
Preamble Draft
PSU and PSUFA recognize the landscape of labor in higher education, at PSU and across the country, has drastically changed in recent years. Responding to the radical declines in funding at the state and federal level, universities have countered by increasing the proportion of part-time faculty to sustain their mission but, at times, at the expense of their values. For example, adjunct faculty at PSU are responsible for teaching the largest share of student credit hours—more than tenure track or non-tenure track professors. As a result, adjuncts are essential to the operation of PSU. This preamble honors the importance of part-time faculty at our university and is an assurance that they will work with dignity.
Public universities are vital to a democratic society. As an academic community, we strive to promote democratic ideals, engage in vital conversations about equity and inclusion, oppose systems of oppression, and foster a platform for marginalized community members to center their own voices and experiences. We are an intellectual body committed to identifying exploitation and inequity and working to confront our biases.
PSU and PSUFA agree to combat bias against adjunct faculty and will work toward greater inclusion and recognition of the critical work that part-time faculty perform across all departments, programs, and institutes at our University, the role they play in student success and retention, and the broad expertise they possess. Long-term academic employment and service to the University should serve as a path to further professional rank and faculty advancement for those who seek such advancement. In recognition of our adjunct faculty commitment and service to the University, PSU and PSUFA recognize all faculty should receive the same respect and collegiality as full-time and tenured colleagues. PSU and PSUFA strive to bring adjunct faculty to a state of equity with other faculty. We agree to work in partnership to improve the status of adjunct faculty at our institution because we understand well-supported majority faculty also means greater student success and retention and a more just, more diverse, and more equitable campus community. Institutions from all sectors of society look to Universities for leadership and examples of vibrant, richly diverse, and democratic institutional ethics and behavior. We rise to this challenge—in this effort we seek to fulfill the promise of knowledge serving our city.