APSCUF-WCU

Our APSCUF-KU brother Kevin Mahoney on the tentative agreement

sethkahn — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 03:13:58 +0000

If you know Dr. Mahoney and me, you know that we nearly always think pretty much the same things. Kevin has a gift for being a couple of steps ahead of me in his ability to make a clear case for what we both usually think.

His current piece on the Raging Chicken Press site is probably the strongest example of that phenomenon I’ve seen in 11 years of this. If you want to know what I think about the agreement, what it represents in terms of APSCUF’s status as a union and our role in defending public higher education, what it protects in terms of our job descriptions and workloads, how it defends against what was a brutal attack on our contingent faculty, what it costs economically and how those issues sift out, just read it.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Dr. Wanko discusses healthcare proposals

Wanko — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 01:49:23 +0000

Dr. Cheryl Wanko reviews the healthcare proposals related to the faculty contract negotiations. CORRECTION: please direct emails to Peter Garland – pgarland@passhe.edu.

Some negotiations basics for students

Wanko — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:18:49 +0000

Dr. Rodney Mader explains to students the basic issues of current negotiations. CORRECTION to email address in video: please direct emails to Peter Garland – pgarland@passhe.edu.

I don’t want to strike, but I will — a faculty perspective

lisamillhous — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:46:19 +0000

Dr. Lisa Millhous is the chapter president of WCU’s faculty union (APSCUF). She is a tenured faculty member in the Communication Studies Department and has been employed at WCU since 1999. In the following blog she offers a personal explanation for why faculty care enough to strike.

I don’t want to strike. My career is in educating students, and a work stoppage does just the opposite. But I teach my students to stand up for themselves, to know their worth, and to be bold in their leadership. At some point, I have to follow my own teaching and take a stand.

As the Spring semester starts, there are still unresolved issues on the table. These issues cut at the very foundation of my job. For me, these are strikable issues.

Class size and modality(face-to-face or distance education) impact what I do every day of the semester. Students know that when class size grows their learning decreases. More students means less time for each one of them. Students know that modality matters for their learning experience.

The administration wants to increase class size or assign a modality without involvement of the faculty. Their argument is that these are financial decisions – independent of teaching or disciplinary expertise. Certainly there are budgetary implications, but faculty are highly skilled experts at what they do. We know what classes work best face-to-face (vs. distance education) and what courses are best in larger or smaller sections. These decisions depend on the discipline and the curricular goals. Faculty need to be involved in the decision, or class sizes will continue to increase as they have every year since I started teaching. Faculty must take a stand on class size and distance education, because that is where students would be hurt the most: in their learning.

Health care (current and retiree) is a critical part of my salary. Over the past few decades, I have watched inflation erode my salary. My union has purposely traded salary increases to preserve my medical benefits. Now the administration wants to make me pay extra for my healthcare, eating away even more of my salary. My health is something I care about.

The administration is blaming the faculty, but we have saved the State System money, and we continue to suggest ways more savings could occur. For the 2003 contract the union hired a healthcare consultant who has saved the System thousands of dollars because the health provider was overbilling them. In 2011 the union recommended that the State System explore self-insurance, because we believe it will save thousands of dollars, but they refused to consider it.

The blame hurts most because the System has failed to negotiate healthcare and/or retirement packages for 3 other bargaining groups. Instead those groups agreed to take whatever the faculty got – so the faculty are put in a position of negotiating healthcare for a much larger group of employees. The System claims the faculty refused to take the healthcare package that other state employees have (the Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund, PEBTF). The truth is they never offered the PEBTF package to the faculty nor have they made a comparable offer of self-funded insurance like PEBTF. This is not a fair way to bargain.

Further, the administration wants me to trade the healthcare of future retirees to keep my own retirement benefits. I am already the beneficiary of the faculty before me, who negotiated my retirement benefits into the faculty contract before I was hired. They could have sold me out to keep their own benefits, but they didn’t. As a faculty member, I am an architect of the future. Why would I agree to a contract that purposely creates deep inequities, degrades my profession, and damages high-quality, affordable public education?

If WCU can’t attract and retain good faculty because the salary and benefits are not competitive – and because they will be teaching large classes in modalities for which they were not trained – won’t that hurt our students?

I don’t want to strike. I want to encourage and support my students to become a bright future for Pennsylvania. But if I have to strike to protect those students’ education, then it is clear to me what I have to do.

Join with me in asking that this contract be settled before my colleagues and I must take this action: Email Chancellor Cavanaugh (jcavanaugh@passhe.edu) and Interim Chancellor Garland (pgarland@passhe.edu).

FAQ — Tell me about a possible faculty strike at West Chester University

lisamillhous — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:15:54 +0000

The following are a brief synopsis and answers to some frequently asked questions about the possible strike at WCU. Note, APSCUF is the union that represents both faculty and coaches on our campus and is negotiating two different contracts with the Chancellor of PASSHE. Neither is settled as of this posting, but the questions below refer to the faculty contract only.

How long has this been going on? The faculty have have worked for 18 months since their contract expired. Part of the reason that this has taken so long is because Chancellor John Cavanaugh repeatedly sends his negotiators to the table without information. So, although we meet to resolve our differences, the state bargaining team is typically unprepared to offer counter-proposals or even respond to proposals we have made.

What are the issues that the two sides disagree on? Of course, both sides can change their offers at any time so the disagreement continually evolves and changes. There has been general agreement on faculty compensation, except for the issue of pay for part-time adjunct faculty. Faculty continue to push for conditions that will maintain quality education at the university. Faculty are concerned that we have some say in how large our classes are; we want responsible use of distance education that gives faculty funding to develop interesting and interactive online courses; we are concerned that the Chancellor is unfairly shifting the costs of our healthcare; and we want a healthcare program that will allow us to retire (rather than work into retirement to afford healthcare). All of these issues affect whether or not WCU can recruit and retain the best faculty for students to learn from, and whether your classroom environment will be the quality you expect from West Chester University.

What can I do? Write to Chancellor John Cavanaugh (jcavanaugh@passhe.edu) and let him know that it is important to you that he bargain in good faith and reach an agreement before the Spring semester begins. Visit PAstudentsvoice.org to sign up to receive updates (there is also a Facebook page and Twitter feed). Read the latest updates at the APSCUF blog.

What would happen if the faculty went on strike during the semester? Classes would not meet during a strike. All of the non-faculty employees at WCU are required to work, so buildings would be open and offices would still function. Faculty would form picket lines to block certain campus entrances. Once the strike was settled or called off, classes would resume and the President of the university would make a decision about whether to extend the semester or how to make up the missed days.

Would a strike prevent me from graduating? Faculty build our careers by graduating students like you who go on to have their own careers; We are doing everything we can to avoid harming your graduation. However, if we go on strike, we don’t entirely control the length of the strike, nor do we make the decision about how the semester will be made up. If WCU does not honor your tuition payment by providing you with the instruction for you to earn the credits, then you would have grounds to request your tuition back (even if it is past the deadline for refunds).

But the best thing you can do is help the faculty prevent a strike by contacting the Chancellor, having your parents contact him, and asking your PA legislators to advocate on your behalf. The faculty care about the quality of education at WCU — your education. Will you stand with us?

PAstudentsvoice.org | APSCUF blog.

You Can Tell A Lot About A College By The Way It Treats Its Adjuncts

sethkahn — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:35:35 +0000

Reblogged from APSCUF-KU xchange:

To borrow a turn of phrase, you can tell a lot about a college by the way it treats its adjuncts. If you read the PASSHE Negotiation Objectives recently distributed to KU faculty via email (referred to parenthetically in this post as “Letter”), you are likely angered and dismayed by most if not all of their positions. For a moment, I'd like you to consider the repercussions of one element of their attack on quality education, their proposed treatment of contingent faculty.

PASSHE brings divide-and-conquer strategy to negotiations

sethkahn — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:21:06 +0000

Reblogged from APSCUF-KU xchange:

This past Saturday, APSCUF posted the following negotiations update on its blog:

APSCUF and PASSHE negotiators met Friday, September 14, at the Dixon Center in Harrisburg. The Chancellor's team passed a proposal on retrenchment language and made suggestions for future bargaining sessions. APSCUF caucused and responded to their proposal in writing. The two sides reconvened and failed to come to agreement on the language, but agreed to session definitions for the next two times: on Oct.

Right to Know request from National Educational Services

sethkahn — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:00:02 +0000

Folks, just in case anybody wonders about the two emails from our Right to Know Compliance Office about the request for our salares, office numbers, phone numbers, and home addresses–revised today to allow us to opt into sharing that information rather than having to opt out–

The organization asking for that information is called National Educational Services, and the original request came from somebody named Janine Fye.

Following the lead of the English Department Secretary (thanks, Mary!) who had the good sense to Google the name, I did the same. NES appears to be a mixture of TIAA-CREF and AFLAC for educators; they offer insurance plans (life insurance, disability, disability supplemental, etc), retirement plans, help with fundraising campaigns on campuses, a whole swath of services. I don’t get any inkling they’re more evil or sinister than any other corporation that does what they do.

Once I learned this, I emailed VP Mixner to ask what their rationale for the RTK request is. He explained that it’s “internal research”; I’ve replied to that message asking if “internal research” means something else in legal-land than it does in research-land. They want information about people who don’t belong to their plans, which is about “external” as I can imagine. I just sent that message, but if anybody is curious about the response, ask and I’ll post it.

Anyway, the reason I’m posting this entry on the blog is so that if you’re trying to decide whether to “opt in” (re: Tuesday’s email about the revised RTK request), I figured you should have at least a dim idea of what you’d be “opting into.”

My opinion on the fact that our RTK people didn’t tell us that themselves? I’ll sit on that.

Oops, that probably gave me away, didn’t it?

If this is the first you’re hearing of this, surprise!

sethkahn — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 02:06:01 +0000

I’m reposting an article from this morning’s (Thurs) Inside Higher Ed in full. And without further comment unless people want to discuss it. Click the link to the original if you want to follow all their internal links. Otherwise, happy reading!

Creditworthy in the Keystone State

August 23, 2012 – 3:00am

By

Paul Fain

Pennsylvania’s regional public universities are gearing up to serve more adult students, and will use prior learning assessment and stackable credentials to help meet that anticipated demand.

Work force development is a priority for the 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, in part because they are often the only public game in town. Many lack nearby community colleges, especially the universities in the state’s central and northern regions, so the four-year system sports a healthy suite of associate degrees and one-year certificates, along with the standard fare of bachelor’s degrees.

“We offer the best of both worlds,” says Christopher Reber, executive dean of Clarion University’s Venango College campus.

Those academic programs attract large numbers of nontraditional students, for whom the potential to earn credits for their learning outside of the classroom can be a big draw. The system already does prior learning assessment, but plans to expand through a new partnership with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). System officials expect students will seek and receive credits for learning on the job, from technical training programs, in the military or from other sources, including massive open online courses (MOOCs), according to John Cavanaugh, the system’s chancellor.

“We’re going to open it up to any kind of prior learning that people are bringing,” Cavanaugh says. However, he stresses that by working with CAEL, the system will be able to ensure that it issues credits for college-level learning that matches up with the system’s academic course offerings. “You’re still going to have to demonstrate that you’ve got the learning before that translates to credit.”

The Pennsylvania system will be perhaps the largest public university partner to sign on to Learning Counts, CAEL’s portfolio-based prior-learning service, an official at the council says. Through Learning Counts, students fork over $500 for an online course on how to put together a portfolio that collects and describes their prior learning. For an additional fee of $250, faculty experts review those submissions and can issue recommendations worth up to 12 credits.

However, not all colleges accept prior-learning recommendations, even if they come from CAEL, which is generally considered to be an industry leader. So the council has enlisted over 100 partner institutions that have agreed to defer to Learning Counts and issue full credit for successful portfolios. The Pennsylvania system is joining that group, Cavanaugh says.

Credit for MOOCs?

One reason many colleges are skittish about granting credits for prior learning is because to do so is to acknowledge that the academy doesn’t have a lock on college-level learning. Some faculty members also view the process warily, arguing that it can be an academically suspect money grab and a weak substitute for college.

Prior learning could also threaten professors’ jobs.

“It changes who generates the credits,” says Steve Hicks, an English professor at Loch Haven University and president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, the system’s primary union. “Potentially there’s a job loss there.”

Hicks says that representatives from the faculty union met with system officials about Learning Counts and prior learning. While he says they were “concerned” about the plan, they have yet to take a position on it.

Cavanaugh and other administrators defend their approach, and say chief academic officers have been busy vetting how prior-learning credits will align with curriculums. Furthermore, Cavanaugh says the system has long granted credit to students who take College Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests, which are administered by the College Board to measure college-level learning. So the portfolio approach isn’t such a stretch.

“The notion that this is credit for living is just not the case,” he says.

The system held lengthy discussions about whether it should grant credit for MOOCs, according to Cavanaugh. CAEL has predicted that many students will seek credit for MOOCs, and the council plans to include those courses in credit recommendations if students can demonstrate that they have received college-level learning. Eventually the system decided it was on board, as long as MOOC credit submissions receive the Learning Counts stamp.

“We fully expect to see people putting them in the portfolios,” says Cavanaugh.

Daniel Hurley praises the system’s plan to ramp up prior-learning assessment, and its proactive approach with new forms of online learning. Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, says the system and other regional publics can play a leading role in prior learning, in part because they enroll many students who might benefit from the process.

The system is also not alone in helping community colleges on work force development. Hurley says that 42 percent of the association’s members issue two-year degrees. “It’s really about meeting demand.”

Up the Ladder

It’s a long way from Edinboro University to the nearest community college — like two hours.

The university is close to Erie, where county leaders have pushed hard for a new two-year college. But that idea tanked last year, after a saga described in an Education Sector report. So the university decided it had to step up its technical job training options. This fall Edinboro will launch a new associate degree in applied technology.

But Edinboro’s evolving approach is more ambitious than just a few isolated academic offerings, says Julie E. Wollman, the university’s president. It is working with technical trade schools, most of them small for-profits with ties to local industries, to help students get credit for previously earned technical certificates when they enroll at Edinboro.

Sometimes students arrive at the university years after having attended a trade school.

“A lot of people get a certificate at one of those places and go right to a job,” Wollman says.

To advance in their careers, even jobs on the floor of a manufacturing plant, they often need the sort of training only a college can provide. Edinboro treats the prior learning students bring from their jobs and technical trade certificates as the core of their major, Wollman says. And they can earn up to 27 prior learning credits. Then the university offers students classes that help them bolster their communication, analytical, business and mathematics skills.

“What they’re bringing is the major,” she says. “What we’re really providing is the general education.”

An hour down the road, Clarion’s Venango campus has developed similar ways for students to enroll with credits from their work experience. And both institutions are designing their sub-baccalaureate credentials to be stackable, meaning students can complete a certificate or associate degree, leave to take a job, and then seamlessly return to continue working toward a bachelor degree.

Reber calls the approach a “ladder” of credentials. To create credit pathways at Clarion, his campus has collaborated with several technical institutions and employers, including the Precision Manufacturing Institute and FirstEnergy Corporation.

Clarion is also introducing online degree completion programs, including an associate in industrial technology and a bachelor’s in technology leadership. The online coursework is particularly handy for adult students who work full time. And it’s not surprising that students might prefer to keep their jobs and enroll online, rather than attending Clarion as traditional students. Some of the Venango campus’s employer partners pay a guaranteed $60,000 salary to associate-degree holders from the university, and will cover tuition for employees who finish their bachelor’s degree.

For Venango and Clarion, as well as for other universities in the system, one benefit of work place partnerships is a boost to enrollment. Located in Oil City, the campus is surrounded by an aging population, and adult workers are generally conscientious students.

“It’s a win-win,” Reber says.

WCU-APSCUF Sponsors Community Athletes

lisamillhous — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:08:28 +0000

I have the opportunity to pass along some good news on a non-political issue, so I couldn’t pass it up. As you know our union is mainly visible when we are fighting for the respect that we deserve, given the important work that we do preparing future generations. In order to demonstrate that APSCUF is also a contributing member of our community we sponsor a variety of activities to promote goodwill and positive public relations. In the past we have sponsored conferences, inter-union activities, and also local sports teams.

This year two of the teams we sponsored have been very successful and we want to encourage them, and let them know we are proud of them—not just how they play, but how hard they work and their demonstration that solidarity and teamwork can make a difference.

First, the Senior Little League softball team we sponsored through the West Bradford Youth Association won their district championship and is raising money to go to Mansfield for the State championship this weekend. The team consists of 11 girls: most will be in 9th or 10th grade next year and several are looking at WCU for post-secondary school. (This team is one of three youth teams that we sponsored this year through West Bradford, though this team is unique in that it is both the regular season team and the all-star tournament team.) https://www.wepay.com/donations/wb-seniors-going-to-states; Photo: http://www.eteamz.com/westbradfordlittleleague/

Second, we sponsored the APSCUF Rams – a team of faculty, coaches, and some others – whose success in the hard-fought regular season of the Chester County Co-ed Softball League earned them a place in the play-offs. They won the first of two post-season playoff rounds: they beat another team in a best-of-3 series, and now go on to play the #1 seed in a best-of-5 series. They won their first game on Sunday and will play the remaining games locally if you are able to go to cheer them on. (Game 2: Thurs 7/19 7:45 p.m. Westtown Complex, upper field; Game 3: TBD; Game 4: Sun 7/22 6 p.m. upper field; Game 5: Wed 7/25 6:15 p.m. lower field) http://www.cccesl.com/stats.asp

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate our APSCUF coaches, whose efforts resulted in a very strong standing among Division II schools this year. Certainly their work promoting our institution and the demonstration of solidarity and teamwork is an inspiration – in spite of working without a contract! http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20120613/SPORTS02/120619833/wcu-among-top-d-ii-programs-in-nation

I hope this finds you enjoying your summer and doing what you need to do to prepare for the Fall. We are a strong union and I am grateful to the many efforts of all of you that build our solidarity and teamwork.

In Solidarity,
Lisa Millhous