Funding could bring reprieve for at-risk PASSHE faculty
Faculty at the 14 state universities will get a three-year reprieve from having to worry about losing their job, provided additional one-time state funding promised by Gov. Tom Wolf and the General Assembly comes through.
The State System of Higher Education’s governing board made that commitment to the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties. The system’s board approved the provision to their labor agreement on Wednesday by a 12-3 vote.
It grows out of a pledge Wolf and lawmakers made to provide the system with $200 million over a three-year period — including a $50 million installment this year. The money is to be spent, among other things, on reducing the immediate need for furloughs as the system moves forward with a major redesign.
Six other amendments to the faculty contract also were approved. Those specifically address issues arising from the consolidation of Lock Haven, Mansfield and Bloomsburg universities into one institution and California, Clarion and Edinboro universities into another. The consolidated universities will open next fall with the full implementation of their curriculum to be completed in 2024.
Faculty union President Jamie Martin said the agreements pertaining to the consolidations permit the development of curriculum at those six universities to begin. They also provide clarity to faculty regarding leadership of their academic departments, promotion, tenure, seniority, and how evaluations will be conducted.
But Martin also made it clear that the union’s agreement on the university consolidations was tied to the one regarding the deferral of furloughs, or retrenchments as those job actions are referred to in higher education circles.
The agreement says any faculty member identified for retrenchment this year or in each of the next two years will not lose their job until June 2024. Already this year, she said in an earlier interview Mansfield and Lock Haven combined have put nearly three dozen employees on notice of the possibility of their positions being eliminated.
“There remains much uncertainty and anxiety regarding consolidation on these six campuses among the students, among the faculty and the staff,” Martin told the board. “This process coupled with retrenchments that occurred at four of our campuses last year and the threats of retrenchments this year has left many feeling defeated.”
She went on: “All of this is happening while faculty struggle to offer face-to-face classes in a safe way amidst the ongoing pandemic. The combination of these things has negatively impacted morale at a number of our universities.”
Chancellor Dan Greenstein picked up on her point about faculty morale in defending the deferral of the effective date of retrenchments when a couple of lawmakers voiced their opposition.
Greenstein called it “a cost of transition.”
The retrenchment deferral also includes a new window for a retirement incentive that runs through Nov. 15. It offers enhanced payout for unused sick leave to reduce reliance on furloughs in adjusting staffing levels.
The chancellor said this agreement provides faculty members whose jobs are being eliminated “a sort of more graceful transition, which is important … given the need to continue to manage our universities while we are fundamentally transforming them.”
Jamie Phillips, a faculty liaison to the system’s board, said this assurance to faculty motivates them to engage constructively and effectively in creating these brand new institutions.
“We need to be investing in the people that are going to be doing it,” he said. “We need to give them something that says this is going to be to your benefit, that you’re not going to be thrown to the wolves and expected to change universities at the same time.”
Rep. Brad Roae, R-Crawford County, questioned how the board could take retrenchments off the table for three years while trying to ensure the system remains solvent.
“It’s not financially sustainable and as a board member, we have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that our costs are in line with our expenses,” Roae said. “I’m not trying to sound insensitive but we can’t put the financial future of the system at stake because we feel bad because somebody might get laid off.”
State Sen. Scott Martin, R-Lancaster County, added staffing decisions at the universities should be based on student enrollment.
“I really guard against the message that saying if we get more money in the future, we’re going to extend the ability to have an employee, keep them on board even though that position may not be required based on what the true needs of that institution are,” he said.
The chancellor said this agreement with faculty doesn’t prevent universities identifying employees for possible retrenchment over the three-year period. However, he said it was offered in the spirit of cushioning the blow on the faculty that will be impacted by the university consolidations or other circumstances that could require a change in staffing levels.
“It’s not a massive investment in dollars. It’s an investment in morale,” Greenstein said. “We’re just not going to treat them as if we’re a business that’s going to close its doors and leave town. That’s not what public higher education is all about.”
System spokesman Cody Jones said the agreement is part of “an overall effort to create smoother transitions– including staffing transitions — to financially sustainable operations.” He said support for the agreements with the faculty union and “other strategic one-time investments will be drawn from funds available to the State System as a result of its pre-payment of its SERS pension obligations and one-time investment made by the General Assembly in June 2021.”
Student board member Zakariya Scott joined the two lawmakers in voting against accepting the agreements.
Along with the six universities to be impacted by the consolidations, the State System includes East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities.