July Bargaining Update

Well, it’s been over a month since our last update, when normal bargaining negotiations were put on hold due to the workshare program and administrators being on furlough. But just because the process for negotiations has been changed doesn’t mean we haven’t made any progress. 

Over the past weeks, teams have been working in remote joint subgroups on different issues to come to agreements around proposals that address different articles of the PSUFA contract. We are making progress in this new format—one upside is that we are able to work on multiple issues at a time. A downside is that we aren’t able to have all the decision-makers at the table, and due to the unstable situation and the wealth of unknowns about the future, the University is reluctant to talk about economic issues at this point.

We’ll reconvene again in mid-August for a weeklong bargaining intensive. In the meantime, we wanted to give you an update on what we’re currently working on. Here’s a breakdown from four subcommittees about how things are going.

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Data (Including Salary and Benefits)

We’ve learned a lot now that data requests (about revenue, costs, and other issues) made last November are finally being addressed. The table below contains some of the information that we’ll use to bargain for pay parity.

We’re also working collaboratively to understand the process of information flow regarding new hires across departments and how an electronic system might streamline this process so that PSUFA can connect with new adjuncts sooner. We’re working hard to ensure that the University complies with a new Oregon law (House Bill 2016, which we wrote about earlier) that states that our union will be given new employee information within 10 days of faculty being hired.

All that said, admin still cannot confirm exactly how many adjuncts teach in a single year. Knowing how many adjuncts teach at PSU is essential information; more than just knowing how many adjuncts there are, we need to know how to reach them so PSUFA can hear their experiences working at PSU and make sure their rights are being observed. We've looked at the records that PSU keeps to track assignment rights of adjuncts to make sure they have a system that works.

Assignment Rights & Evaluation

We are working collaboratively to improve the Professional Evaluation Process and ensure it is not used unfairly or for discipline. We’re also working on making transparent public records for assignment rights, so that faculty members know where they stand in terms of their employment as well as preparing proposals to create more clarity around hiring and seniority. Lastly, the administration and our team are committed to creating joint trainings to educate staff and administrators about our rights. 

Healthcare

The Healthcare Task Force is researching multiple approaches to tackling the issue of helping adjuncts access affordable healthcare. We have found a consultant with experience in insuring contingent academic workers to help us research possible group plans for adjuncts as an insurance pool. They are also helping us research other types of benefits/coverage, such as dental, vision, etc., which would be supportive but not interfere with members’ access to support through healthcare.gov or Medicaid.

We are also working with representatives of PSU, AFT-Oregon, and the State Senate to organize renewed efforts around creating and passing legislative solutions to provide affordable health care to adjuncts.

Grievances

Our goal is to clarify and streamline grievance procedures; we want to foster an environment where grievance procedures are accessible and not intimidating. We also want to make sure that there are clear processes for professional evaluations and professional feedback that are distinct from discipline. We are working on creating a new process around performance improvement as a mechanism for support and transparency in the progressive sanction/discipline process.

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Thanks for following along during this period. We’ll have more updates soon and ways to once again get our unit involved as observers. 

In solidarity,

PSUFA Bargaining Team

Read all of our 2020 bargaining coverage here.

Testimony to the PSU Board of Trustees

On June 18, 2020, PSUFA’s Chair of Bargaining, Ariana Jacob, testified during the public comments of the PSU Board of Trustees meeting asking for a more equitable campus for students and staff. We are sharing it here.

Dear President Percy and Members of the Board of Trustees,

I am adjunct faculty in the School of Art + Design and the Co-Chair for PSUFA, our adjunct union.

I am speaking to you today filled with hope for this moment of transformation, which has opened up in the midst of all the layers of crisis we are experiencing together. 

It is clear that now is a moment that we MUST, CAN, and WILL make significant changes to PSU so we can become a more equitable institution. Economic and racial equity are not lofty goals, they are essential to the survival of PSU.

We can no longer afford to be an institution where some of our administrators and faculty are paid more in one month than our adjuncts can be paid in one year. For the survival of our school I ask that you cut all PSU salaries to no more than $160K/year, which will mean they are still in the top 5 percent of income earners in the United States.

Rather than raising tuition this fall, lower it. We cannot keep charging our students more money for fewer services; they will stop coming. It isn’t right to raise tuition when our campus will almost certainly be closed. We are capable of creating a budget that doesn’t require tuition hikes, and now is the right time to reprioritize our economics towards economic and racial equity.

We must become accountable to our claims of valuing equity. To do that we can begin listening to Portland’s Black leadership and community at large, who are calling for PSU to disarm. The proven consequences of armed security is the loss of, in particular, Black people’s lives, specifically Jason Washington’s life. We can no longer ignore the fact that armed security is incompatible with our equity mission. 

Please, let us not be hypocrites when we say PSU cares about our diverse students, faculty and community members. It is clear that if we are accountable to our Black, Brown, and Indigenous community we will disarm PSU.

As many of you know PSU was originally founded as Vanport College, a college for the working class multiracial people who came to Portland to build better lives for themselves around the second world war. The Vanport neighborhood was the origin of Portland’s vibrant black community. When Vanport City was destroyed by floods in 1948, Vanport College moved to our current campus site and became Portland State University. 

The white neighbors from Vanport were able to pick up their lives and integrate into the rest of Portland, but due to housing and employment discrimination based on race the Black neighbors were kept segregated and economically disenfranchised, marking one of the major moments in our civic history when Portland failed to care for the lives of our Black community members.

Portland State University as Vanport College was founded to be in service to our multiracial working class community. We have a special accountability to the legacy of working class, Black, and immigrant descendants of Vanport and their peers. The legacy of Vanport is both painful and beautiful. PSU belongs to that history. Let’s live up to our responsibility by transforming our institution into a powerful civic force for racial and economic justice. Anything less is dishonoring our own history.

Thank you for your work, and your time considering this.

Ariana Jacob
Adjunct Faculty School of Art + Design
Co-Chair of PSUFA

We are proud of Ariana and echo her words. If you would like to read a sampling of other testimonies from the meeting, many calling to disarm our campus security officers, you can read them here.

Bargaining Update 4: Welp, Bargaining Is on Hold for Now

As you all are aware, COVID-19 has and continues to impact the ever-evolving world we live in. Despite the pandemic, the PSUFA and PSU bargaining teams were able to come together in the past few weeks to negotiate over Zoom. PSUFA made progress in putting forth various proposals to improve our working conditions, including those pertaining to Oregon House Bill 2016. This Friday, June 12 was to be the next bargaining session but it has been cancelled. While PSUFA’s bargaining team has transitioned smoothly into the online bargaining platform, details beyond our control emerged this week that will put bargaining on hold for the moment. In the paragraph below I’ll outline why, as well as elaborate on when and how PSUFA is advocating for bargaining to resume. 

Recently, PSU furloughed many employees on campus. The workers hit hardest by these cuts were those belonging to the SEIU union. These workers include technology specialists and many office workers, among others. Most of the PSU bargaining team also took furloughs and cut their hours from 40/week to 32/week. On this reasoning, they have suspended bargaining both with PSUFA and AAUP, the union for tenure-track and fixed-term faculty. PSU has pointed to August as the time to resume bargaining. We believe, though, that mixed PSU/PSUFA subcommittees can continue to hash out contract details in June and July and we will push for this action in the coming week. While it is our preference to continue negotiations over the summer, we are fully prepared and capable of resuming bargaining in August as well. 

In the next week, updates will be forthcoming on our progress in this matter. Stay tuned. 

In solidarity,

PSUFA Bargaining Team.

Read all of our 2020 bargaining coverage here.

Joint Statement on George Floyd and PSU Campus Police

Members of PSU-AAUP, PSU Faculty Association (PSUFA), and the Graduate Employees Union (GEU) were outraged at the recent murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, the murder of Breonna Taylor by Louisville Police, and the murder of Ahmaud Aubery by white men in Georgia. These atrocities occurred in the context of decades of police brutality against members of the Black community and other Communities of Color and queer communities. With this in mind, we want to remind members of the PSU community, President Stephen Percy, and members of the PSU Board of Trustees that the Executive Councils of PSU-AAUP, PSUFA, and GEU continue to call for PSU to disarm the campus police. Considering all that is happening in Portland and across the country in response to the uprisings of individuals and groups protesting the criminal justice system, the fact that more communities of color are dying from COVID19 and also experiencing negative virus-related economic impacts, continuing to maintain the legitimacy of armed police should stop now. 

We call on the Board of Trustees to have an emergency meeting to reassess their prior decisions which do not serve the best interests of our community, a community with diverse voices who have legitimate fears of the consequences of armed campus police. If the President's statement of support for Minneapolis sent out on Friday is to have any truth to it, disarmament must happen now. As Philip V. McHarris and Thenjiwe McHarris wrote in The New York Times on May 30: we should redirect our funding of arming campus police towards other services that would better benefit our students and community. Alex S. Vitale came to PSU this past year to speak to the same topic of redirecting resources to “develop non-police solutions to the problems ... people face.”

PSU police have only been armed since 2015, when the Board of Trustees made this decision over and above the objections of nearly all campus constituencies—students, faculty/staff, and campus unions. Over 70% of the student body rejected this idea and entire departments took stands against it as well. In the short time after campus police were issued firearms, they killed Jason Washington, a good Samaritan whose perverse death in June of 2018 was the result of the arming of campus police.  As our cities burn in response to these kinds of tragedies, PSU should lead the way in rethinking the role of police forces, starting by disarming our own campus police.

As a reminder: here is the PSU-AAUP November statement against the arming of campus police and our particular concerns for how this impacts members of our community who are persons of color, whether they be students, staff, or faculty. 

PSU-AAUP

PSUFA

GEU

Bargaining Update 3: House Bill 2016 and PSU

On Friday, May 15, 2020, discussion over Oregon’s House Bill 2016 took up nearly the entirety of PSUFA’s bargaining with PSU.

First, some context: There is great variation from state to state in terms of union membership. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, Hawaii and New York have the highest union membership (23.5 percent and 21.0 percent of their workers are represented by a union, respectively), while South Carolina represents the lowest (2.7 percent). In Oregon, 14 percent of workers are represented by a union. 

Like many state governments with a large percentage of workers represented by unions, the Oregon State Legislature recently drafted pro-union legislation to counter the Supreme Court’s 2016 Janus decision. House Bill 2016, a law that went into effect on January 1, 2020, was put and forth passed with the health and well-being of Oregon’s unions in mind. HB 2016 gave many rights to unions in Oregon that will help us continue to build strength in the coming years. Notably, in terms of how this affects adjuncts at PSU, the law would require the institution (in this case, PSU) to provide timely notice of new hires to the union (i.e., adjunct faculty). This harkens back to a contentious issue that we have been fighting for years in how new adjuncts are treated at PSU. 

Over the last decade, orientation programs for new hires and returning adjuncts at PSU have been nonexistent on a campus-wide level. Certain departments have chosen to undertake their own orientations but others have not. While PSUFA undertook the first orientation in many years in 2019, we were hindered in doing so because we had not been provided with a complete list of new hires. As our bargaining team outlined today, providing updated information on new adjunct hires not only supports these workers and helps them to more smoothly transition into their work at PSU but also helps improve the overall preparedness of teaching faculty and, thus, the quality of education at PSU.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon that new adjunct hires don’t know where their office is located on the first day of work or, if they are able to locate it, find that they do not have access to basics such as computers, printers, and private office space to speak with students. When new and returning adjuncts are not provided with these basic necessities, everyone and everything suffers the consequences—adjuncts, students, the quality of education provided, and the academic integrity of the institution. Adjuncts deserve better. With this recently-put-into-effect law, we have constitutional backing from the State of Oregon to improve said conditions. 

The PSUFA bargaining team communicated to PSU the importance and immediacy of these issues to current and future adjuncts. PSU was amenable to some of the changes and responded often that they would need to speak with PSU Human Resources personnel before taking next steps. There has also been a Technology Committee formed between PSUFA and PSU to work on many of the specifics in terms of data sharing collection and distribution, and several of the issues that PSUFA addressed with PSU’s implementation of HB 2016 will be discussed in this committee. PSUFA and PSU will check in on this matter’s progress during the next bargaining session on Friday, May 29. 

As always, the PSUFA Bargaining Team is working tirelessly on our behalf to improve our work conditions. Stay tuned for an update after bargaining on Friday, May 29 from 1 to 5 PM or better yet, join us in support as an observer.

 —Eli Ronick

PSUFA 3571, Chair of Membership

 Read all of our 2020 bargaining coverage here.

Bargaining Update 2: Ground Rules, Transparency, and Information Sharing

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

Read all of our 2020 bargaining coverage here.

Bargaining Update 1: Calling All Observers

Bargaining in 2020 has begun! Unfortunately, we don’t have too much to share yet. We spent our first two meetings laying ground rules and figuring out what an all-virtual bargaining session will look like. This means we’re still hashing out the details of how and when observers will join us.

What we do know is the important role observers have in the bargaining process. Being a digital observer will be different from the feeling of being physically present with us at the bargaining table, but we’re choosing to see the silver lining: A Zoom bargaining experience will hopefully create an accessible way for more members to join us throughout the process. 

We can’t overstate the value of having observers at bargaining. At every session, the bargaining team is there representing roughly 1,400 PSU adjuncts. Observers show management that we are bargaining on behalf of this broad group of faculty and researchers, and that we are all in this together. Then there’s the transparency. Over the years, members have continuously told us how being a bargaining observer opened their eyes to the uphill battle we and other PSU workers face when asking for the bare minimum of rights, pay, and protections. Lastly, it means the world to the bargaining team to not be alone. Bargaining is exhausting—mentally and physically—but being surrounded by our coworkers reminds us what we’re fighting for. 

Until we have more information about observing, we’re excited to share some custom PSUFA Zoom and D2L avatars and screen backgrounds to share with our members. (Check out this example from Brown University to see some in action!) 

It’s beginning to look like observers will not be able to use video, so we’re encouraging observers to change your Zoom avatar to the small “Adjunct at work” square. So even though we won’t be able to see your face, your presence will be felt in our wall of adjunct avatars and the number of participants at the meeting. We encourage you to use the D2L banner and Zoom background in your other work and meetings!

Ready to get started? Visit this Google Drive folder to access the instructions and images.

Our next bargaining session is Friday May 8th. We’ll be discussing union rights and how the new Oregon law HB 2016, among other things. We’ll see you back on the bargaining blog with updates!

Read all of our 2020 bargaining coverage here.

We want to give you money! Last day to apply for benefits!

PSUFA Benefits

PSUFA administers three benefits funds for part-time faculty: the Health Insurance Fund, the Faculty Education Fund, and the Professional Development Fund.  Benefits are available to members by application throughout the year.  "Fair-Share" and "Due-Share" members can both apply.  Send any questions or inquiries to: benefits(at)psufa.org

Health Insurance Fund:

The Health Insurance Fund offers health insurance stipends to part-time faculty and researchers, available each term they are employed at the University. Stipends are dispensed along with the applicant’s paycheck and can be used to offset the cost of paying for individual health insurance premiums (medical, vision, and dental). To be eligible for the Health Insurance Fund, faculty must be teaching/researching during the term in which they apply and show documentation of their health individual insurance premium cost. Faculty must re-apply each term they are teaching to receive a stipend. 

In 2016, PSUFA negotiated with the University for substantial increases to the Health Insurance Fund. For fiscal years 2016 and 2017, PSUFA has $225,000 to divide evenly amongst applicants throughout the year. Applications are reviewed by a committee of PSUFA members and then processed by PSU Payroll.

*To apply, complete the Health Insurance Fund Application, and please observe the following deadlines:

May 1st for Spring term

Faculty Education Fund:

The Faculty Education Fund offsets the cost of tuition for part-time faculty who wish to take career-related PSU courses. Successful applicants to the fund pay $24 per credit for PSU courses. To be eligible for the fund, the applicant  must have taught for at least four terms at PSU and be employed in either the year preceding or the year in which a course is taken. A personal statement is needed to indicate how the Faculty Education Fund will support the applicant  professionally. Preference is given to applicants pursuing an advanced degree.

PSUFA has $45,000 to dispense to applicants of the Faculty Education Fund throughout the year. Applications are reviewed by a committee of PSUFA members. Due to limited resources, applicants are asked to limit the number of courses for which they are requesting support and consider the broader applicant pool when making their application.

*To apply, complete the Faculty Education Fund Application, and please observe the following deadlines and apply for the term in which you wish to take a course. 

May 1st for summer term course work. 

Professional Development Fund:

The Professional Development Fund provides grants of up to $2000 per year to part-time faculty members to cover the cost of professional development opportunities including travel, conferences, workshops, research, and more. Preference is given to faculty who are presenting, performing, exhibiting, or conducting primary research in their respective field. To be eligible for the fund, faculty must have taught for at least six terms at PSU and be teaching or employed as a researcher during the year in which they apply. Applications must be signed by the Department Chair by the submission deadline. 

PSUFA has $100,000 to dispense to applicants of the Professional Development Fund throughout the year. Applications are reviewed by a committee of PSUFA members and processed by the PSU Office of Academic Affairs.

*To apply, complete the Professional Development Fund Application, and please observe the following deadlines and apply for the term in which your professional opportunity will take place.  See our Professional Development Fund guidelines (PDF) and budget form (XLSX, PDF) for more information about how best to prepare your application. 

May 1st for Summer Professional Development

Part-Time Faculty Pack Public Hearing to Demand Access to Affordable Health Care

Khalil Zonoozy testifying in front of the Senate Workforce Committee on behalf of adjuncts seeking healthcare.

Over 30 Part-time faculty members, supporters, and their family members filled a hearing room on Tuesday, March 28, to attend the Oregon Senate Committee on Education public hearing on Senate Bill 196, and effort to provide affordable healthcare insurance to part-time faculty who work at multiple institutions. Many were clad in AFT-Oregon t-shirts. The large turnout was thanks to efforts by Mary Sykora (PCC Local), Travis Neel (PSUFA) and others.

PSUFA member Khalil Zonoozy gave passionate testimony about the need for accessible, affordable health insurance for faculty who work part-time at multiple institutions. The turnout was so large, there was not enough seating in the committee room and it forced the Capitol facilities team to open up overflow space. Even more submitted testimony in writing, which you can read here.

You can watch the entire hearing, here. After the hearing, the President’s of AFT-Oregon, the Oregon Education Association, and AAUP-Oregon, and the Association of Oregon Faculties issued a joint statement.

The bill has been voted out of committee and on to the Committee on Ways and Means. The effort on SB 196 is led by Senator Michael Dembrow and Representative Chris Gorsek-two long time champions of higher education.

Thanks to PSUFA Members Narendar Sahgal (for driving and bringing some amazing Chai Tea), Sheila Alfsen, Erin Currie, and Khalil Zonoozy! Thank you also to members Shane Abrams and Una Kim who submitted written testimony. 

The Hits Keep On Coming

 

“What brought us to the Union?” is a question that we often ask ourselves in the Executive Council. As an adjunct, it’s easy to feel alienated and powerless in the place(s) that you work, even though we teach as many student credit hours as tenure track faculty and make up the largest proportion of faculty (47%) on campus. Many of us are Road Scholars, commuting from campus to campus, teaching one class here and one class there and another class way over there. We are the New Majority on most of the campuses that we teach. Yet, we have no representation in the faculty senate therefore no voice in the curriculum that WE teach. We have very little job security and are paid less per credit hour than our non-tenure track colleagues. And, offices—don’t get us started on that...but stay tuned for a spring campaign to address it!

We’re not the only ones on campus who are affected by the corporatization and underfunding of higher education. The Board of Trustees voted unanimously to raise tuition 9% in the fall for in-state students (this on top of a 4% increase from last year), bringing undergraduate tuition and fees to $9,030 a year and in-state graduate costs to $15,816 a year. This increase is hard to swallow, especially when a member of our Board has profited so much off the student loan business. Tuition increases alone won’t fix the deficit, so the university is also looking to make $9 million in cuts, which will likely include “targeted personnel reductions” of $2.85 million.

So, what brings us to the Union? Given our current political climate, locally and nationally, a unified voice for workers is more important than ever. By joining together, we can go on the offense and build broad based campaigns that demand common good solutions to win progressive revenue and advance community fights for debt-free education, pay equity, and 15 NOW!

This is your Union and we need your participation more than ever. There are a lot of ways to get involved. You can be regularly involved by joining a Committee, you can join us in the streets on MAY DAY, you can write a letter to the editor, you can come to the next Executive Council Meeting, or you can start a campaign (and we’ll support you). And you if haven’t filled out your membership form, we encourage you to do it now (remember there are no additional dues). Continue reading for more important news, events, and updates!
 

In Solidarity,

The Executive Council

WINTER MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Please join PSUFA for our quarterly membership meeting and happy hour celebration: Friday March 10th from 4-6pm in the community room at the Lucky Lab Pub on Hawthorne. We will have some snacks to share; partners and families are welcome. 

We will gather to discuss how the new US administration may affect education and workers rights and what we can do to support each other around these issues. We will also share information about how the new evaluation process for part-time faculty has been going across different schools at PSU. 

Please RSVP to let us know if you plan on being there.