Tentative Agreement Information

Tentative Agreement Contract Language

Side Letters: 2003 Promotion Side Letter; Seven Percent Cap Side Letter; Distance Education Side Letter; Grant Funded Position Side Letter; McGuire Memo Side Letter; Regular Part-time Faculty Side Letter

Tentative Voting Schedule

Monday, October 1
9:00 AM – 3:30 PM APSCUF Office

Tuesday, October 2
9:00 AM – 11:15 AM APSCUF Office
11:30 AM – 1:30 PM University Club
1:45 PM – 3:30 PM Vincent Lobby

Wednesday, October 3
9:00 AM – 11:15 AM Vincent Lobby
11:30 AM – 1:30 PM University Club
1:45 PM – 3:30 PM APSCUF Office

Absentee Ballots - Ratification Vote

The ratification vote on the 2007-2011 Faculty Tentative Agreement will be taking place in the next few weeks. Ballots will be mailed to the home addresses of all faculty who are APSCUF members. If you will be away between July 30 and August 11 and wish to obtain an absentee ballot that will be mailed to your summer vacation address, please email Ty Marks at tmarks@apscuf.org with your summer vacation address by July 27, 2007. If you will be vacationing where mail receipt is not possible, please also notify Ty Marks via email by July 27, 2007. She will send you instructions on how to cast your vote.

Comment and Reply

STUDENT QUESTION posted in Comments:
Why is no one concerned about us students??? who will
pay for this raise? the students. who will suffer from
a strike? the students. It doesnt make sense. Either
way students are being hurt. How many kids trying to
get into school are going to be turned away becuase
they cant afford it? More students hurt. How many
parents will have to mortgage their homes to pay for
the last year of their child's school, which is
turning into a year and a half because of the strike?
again mroe students hurt.

OUR ANSWER:

APSCUF is extremely concerned about the students, and
has been all along. Consider these factors:

• The strike date was set for July 1st, rather than during a regular semester because fewer students will be affected

• Chancellor Hample refused to include even a slight increase in faculty salaries in her budget request to the state legislature

• The faculty workload, salary, and benefits package has deteriorated so that it is now difficult to recruit highly qualified faculty. This must be reversed to assure students they have qualified professors
  

• The state's appropriation for supporting public higher education has been cut almost in half over recent years. That is the primary reason tuition has increased. Statistical analysis shows that tuition is not closely tied to teachers' salaries

• State leaders do not consider higher education a significant priority. Otherwise, we would not have the low salaries and high tuition that have brought us to this point.

• Finally, financial aid offices are willing to work with students and their parents to ensure that students complete their educations. Then contact President Smith and Provost Williams’ offices to ask them what to do in your difficult situation.
  

You may ask administrators what their raises have been. At some PASSHE universities administrative salaries have increased nearly 50%. Managers averaged more than 10% raises when faculty contracts offered 0% raises over half of the last agreement, and the current "generous" baseline offer is 7% over four years. 0%, 2%, 2%, 3%--add it up, and you get less than an administration raise in ONE YEAR, then ask who is raising your tuition.

Negotiations Update

July 1 6:00 pm

The mediator in PASSHE-APSCUF negotiations has requested that APSCUF refrain from initiating any job action for the next 24 hours.

Neither side is conceding.

However, the two sides have made enough progress that cutting off talks at this point would be counter-productive.

The two sides will meet on neutral territory tomorrow.

If you are scheduled to teach Summer Session II, report to class on Monday.

Watch for additional information Monday evening.

Letter to Students and Families

June 23, 2007

To Our 109,000 Students and Their Families:

Our union, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF), is currently trying to negotiate new contracts for the 5,500 faculty and 350 coaches in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). The contracts currently in effect expire on June 30, 2007.

We are fighting hard to secure fair agreements that will allow us to attract and retain well-qualified faculty and coaches at our universities. We will not sacrifice the quality education that you have come to expect. If we have to, we will strike to preserve that quality!

Last Wednesday, three students stopped at State APSCUF headquarters in Harrisburg. I was happy to welcome the students and answered their questions. The students had serious concerns about summer courses, and their local university president refused to meet with them regarding the matter. In addition, the students called the Governor’s office and their call was promptly disconnected!

The students were concerned because the PASSHE has announced that if there is a strike called and a faculty member fails to meet the first scheduled class or subsequently scheduled class of a summer course, the course will be canceled and students will receive a full refund of tuition and fees.

In many cases across the state, there are courses scheduled to end the week after a possible strike would commence. APSCUF encourages all students in this situation to request an incomplete grade so that all of their course work will not be nullified by a strike. Another avenue students can pursue is taking courses at the state’s community colleges. The PASSHE has articulation agreements in place that require the PASSHE to accept courses completed at community colleges. For a complete listing of courses that can be taken at community colleges, visit the APSCUF blog at www.apscuf.org/blog.

What can you do about the current contract situation? Tell the PASSHE and Governor Rendell what you think! Send an email message to PASSHE Chancellor Judy Hample at jhample@passhe.edu, and Governor Ed Rendell at governor@state.pa.us. Ask them to return to the table for serious negotiations with the faculty members and coaches. Your education is at stake!

For more information about the important issues, and to share your thoughts with us, visit our web site at apscuf.org/blog. You are also welcome to call us at 1-800-932-0587.

Pat Heilman, President, APSCUF

Representing the 5,500 faculty members and 350 coaches of the PASSHE

Keep Up to Date

Students and interested others can learn about negotiations and post their comments on the APSCUF blog.

And a special thanks to Dawn Wolfe and others who have joined the Support Slippery Rock APSCUF facebook site.

More March Pictures