Bargaining Recap: 5/2/25 Session

Bargaining Recap: 5/2/25 Session

PSU's "Unprofessional" Behavior at the Bargaining Table Shocks Adjunct and Student Observers

Last Friday’s bargaining session was HOT (figuratively, yes, plus the bargaining room didn’t have a/c). Student observers were shocked at how “unprofessional” PSU’s team was. While PSU administrators were busy lobbing insults at Adjuncts and using legal subterfuge to disqualify negotiations over our essential working conditions, Adjuncts were busy presenting bold, innovative proposals on Member Rights, Academic Freedom, and Personnel Files with a real vision for “equitable access to a quality education,” PSU’s purported mission. Read on for details about these exciting proposals that address the pressing concerns of Adjuncts and the entire community at PSU-–from the use of AI technologies in education, to the climate catastrophe, to the explosion of online courses, to the detentions and deportations of our colleagues and students.

Whereas PSU’s team repeatedly tells Adjuncts that it’s not obligated to offer them anything beyond what is mandated by law, your bargaining team is making proposals that would result in better working conditions for faculty, better learning conditions for your students–and even in a more democratic society. Some of our student observers with YDSA were so upset about what they heard at the table that they are now circulating a petition to other students demanding that PSU administration give adjuncts stronger academic freedom protections! 

Given the importance of academic freedom to PSUFA members, and the current attacks on higher education, PSUFA invited our full-time faculty colleague Jennifer Ruth, Professor of Film Studies, as a subject matter expert to elaborate on how crucial protections to academic freedom are to the health and integrity of our university. Ruth is the co-author of the 2022 book It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom. 

Adjunct faculty are highly concerned about academic freedom (a brief straw poll of bargaining unit members confirmed this last week), and Ruth emphasized the importance of codifying academic freedom in collective bargaining agreements as a measure that protects both faculty and the university. 

Even so, immediately following the robust academic freedom presentation (and in front of a crowd of faculty, staff, and student supporters), Admin’s team thanked Ruth, vaguely mentioned a commitment to academic freedom and then immediately quashed the proposal, by denying PSUFA’s right to bargain over Article 6. This denial was intended to shock the bargaining team and observers.  “Academic freedom matters to students as well” one student angrily proclaimed after the session. 

Admin’s denial of PSUFA’s right to open the article on Academic Freedom is rooted in an ongoing technical dispute between the teams over the commencement date of bargaining, which has implications related to the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act timeline (quick explanation here). And while PSUFA declared their intention to open the Academic Freedom article (as well as many others) back when bargaining started, PSU did not, showing that Admin is satisfied with the limited protections in the current contract, even while threats to academic freedom on American campuses intensify. (AAUP national recently found that more than one in three faculty say they have less academic freedom today when it comes to teaching content without any interference, and speaking freely when participating in shared governance!) Plus, while PSU knew days in advance that PSUFA intended to propose changes to Article 6, the team saved their bombshell refusal for the bargaining table. What does it mean that PSU felt compelled to announce to a room of Adjuncts and PSU community observers that it will block Adjuncts from bargaining over academic freedom on technical grounds? Imagine what kind of university not only doesn’t want to bargain over academic freedom protections for contingent faculty but flaunts this!  

After a brief caucus, heated discussion continued and culminated with Admin accusing the PSUFA team of “'selective hearing'" (and right before we shared our nondiscrimination clause, too!). These comments were so egregious that even students shared their concern with our team likening management to a schoolyard bully.  

Eventually, PSUFA presented a reimagined Article 7 on Member Rights. Your team has been working for weeks on this proposal which included demands to expand protection from discrimination, new language on intellectual property rights and privacy, protections against the university replacing our labor with Artificial Intelligence technologies, and new rights around access to course materials and other support for Adjunct faculty. Your team was proud to make demands for the safety of our entire PSU and planetary community by calling for a weapons- and fossil fuel- free campus and for PSU’s status as a sanctuary campus to be enshrined in our contract. Throughout the presentation of the proposal, the PSUFA bargaining team consistently expressed concern for student well-being. Because basic needs insecurity deeply impacts student learning, the team also called on the University to adequately resource critical campus services and programs for students, like the Women's Resource Center, the Queer Resource Center, the Disability Resource Center, and PSU CARES. 

As we gear up for the next bargaining session we need adjunct testimony at the bargaining table, so sign up here! Join your colleagues and students on Friday May 23 from 12-5 to observe bargaining and tell PSU that We Are Worth More!