As the fall semester quickly approaches and more PASSHE universities have announced plans to retrench over the summer, it is going to become increasingly necessary to continually ask the question: what’s the plan?

As several faculty members at Kutztown have pointed out, the administration’s retrenchment moves have seem haphazard at best.  The only organizing principle for their decision to close the Nursing program, for example, seems to have been made by rather crude accounting that the program was not currently “making money” for the university.  Yet, it would be wise for all of us  to place these “local” decisions into a a broader context.  Take, for example, this article from yesterday’s GantDaily.com.  The article discusses a recent report, “Offshorability of Pennsylvania Jobs,” issued by Penn State’s Workforce Education and Development Initiative:  Here’s a link to the article:

Penn State Experts: PA is More Susceptible to Job Offshoring | GantDaily.com.

The report points out that Pennsylvania jobs are more susceptible to offshoring compared to the rest of the nation.  That is because that many of the jobs–most of the jobs in some areas of the Commonwealth, actually–are in jobs that are considered high risk for offshoring.  What are some of the jobs that are NOT as susceptible to offshoring?  If you guessed health care jobs–in particular nursing–you’d be on the right track.

And yet, Kutztown chose to cut the nursing program.

The administration’s decisions have shown a persistent pattern of making decisions based upon short-term thinking, immediate cost-cutting, or what the magic 8-ball said.  Pennsylvanians deserve more than being treated like a number in an accountant’s ledger.  We need to demand that those people tasked with “managing” our educational lives (and lives in general!), plan for our future, not simply look for ways to wield their hatchets.  In the case of PASSHE, this means university administrations, university Boards of Trustees, the Chancellor and his staff, the PASSHE Board of Governors, our State Legislators, and the Governor (current and future).

So, if the plan involves only a hatchet with little consideration of long term planning, then maybe it’s time to “offshore” the administration and our State legislators to give all of us and our families a chance to live our lives with dignity and hope.

Earlier this evening I received the official list of academic program action recommended from the Chancellor’s office to the PASSHE Board of Governors from our State Meet and Discuss Chair, Mark Cloud.  In his email, Mark indicated that “discussion of these program changes will be this Thursday, 9am during the Academic and Student Affairs Committee session in Harrisburg.”  He also indicated that Ken Mash will be addressing the BOG on behalf of APSCUF and that some faculty members will be present as well.

I wanted to share this list so that we can all get broader picture of what is happening system wide and to situate the reorganization at Kutztown with what looks like a broader PASSHE reorganization.  For example, Medical Technology has been placed in moratorium while at the same time the Medical Technology program at Bloomsburg has been reorganized as a BS in Health Sciences with Clinical Lab/Med Tech as a concentration.  While this information doesn’t by itself mean something, it does provide a useful starting point for critical inquiry.

Here is a copy of the document:

BOG Acad Program Actions July 2010

I found this article to be quite interesting give the long-standing and on-going attempts by faculty at KU to get a bullying policy passed.

Workplace Mediators Seek a Role in Taming Faculty Bullies – Faculty – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

As many readers of this blog know, earlier this semester APSCUF and PSEA held a joint conference on labor in higher education in Harrisburg, PA.  If you want a little flavor of some of what some key figures at the conference said, check out this edition of Behind the Headlines, a TV show sponsored by the Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy.

Behind the Headlines, November 16 and 23, 2009.

In this video you will hear from current APSCUF president, Steve Hicks; current APSCUF vice president, Amy Walters; Howard Bunsis, Eastern Michigan University, AAUP; and Marc Bousquet, author of How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation (Cultural Front).

With over 100 faculty in attendance, including 35 department chairs who were invited to attend, IUP’s Representative Council has elected to conduct a vote of no confidence in IUP President Tony Atwater. Three votes were taken, the first to authorize the vote of no confidence in the president. The second vote was of the members of Representative Council who voted unanimously no confidence in the president. The third vote was of the members of the Council of Chairs who also voted unanimously no confidence in the president. The vote is scheduled for December 14-16 with the result being formally presented to the IUP Council of Trustees at their December 17th meeting.

Follow this link for Indiana Gazette article on the vote of no confidence.

APSCUF-KU held a joint Conference on Labor in Higher Education in Harrisburg on October 15-17th.  Here’s some stuff that came out of the conference:

• Here’s me being interviewed by Marc Bousquet for AAUP Online.  The interview focused on Article 11 of our contract–conversion of temporary faculty members/lines to tenure-track.
• Bousquet’s full post for AAUP Online, “Stabilizing Persons, Creating New Lines,” also includes a link to an article by Bill Hendricks of California U of PA, “Negotiated Conversions: Living with Uncertainty.”
• On Sunday, October 25th I was interviewed on the Harrisburg-based “The Rick Smith Show.” I was asked to come on the show to discuss last week’s labor conference, issues facing state faculty members, and, what the recent surge in student enrollment means for schools, students, and staff.”
• An excellent piece called “Is Your Fiscal Crisis Real?” posted by Marc Bousquet on his “Brainstorm” blog for the Chronicle of Higher Ed.
• Bousquet’s “Is Your Fiscal Crisis Real” post includes the PowerPoint presentation at the APSCUF/PSEA conference by Howard Bunsis, AAUP.  The presentation shows data that raises serious questions as to the reality of PA’s fiscal crisis.  You can check out the presentation right here.
• Also check out Marc Bousquet’s site How the University Works for lots of info on current higher education labor issues.

Welcome to APSCUF-KU XChange. This blog is an unofficial, member-initiated blog for APSCUF-KU members (and others) to discuss all issues related to working at Kutztown University.  For the uninitiated, “APSCUF-KU” stands for the Kutztown University Chapter of the Association of Pennsylvania State Colleges and University Faculties.  APSCUF is the union that represents the faculty at Pennsylvania’s 14 State owned universities.

Why is this an “unofficial” blog? Well, for starters, I don’t think a blog devoted to discussion among members should have to have the approval of local or State leadership.  I believe that a strong union has its roots in an active membership.  And by active membership, I mean members who are invested in discussing issues that directly affect their work-lives and organizing collectively to solve problems, resist injustice, and improve work-life quality.  An active membership does not wait for dictates from its local or State union leadership before it acts–just the opposite.  An active membership organizes in order to set the agenda for its local and State leadership.  An active membership also privileges member-to-member communication.  Member-to-member communication is one of the best ways we have to keep on top of administrative decisions, to build solidarity, to gain a more complete understanding of the workings of our university, to develop effective responses to abuses of our contract, and to educate each other on 0ur contract and what it means to be an academic union member.

This blog can serve as a means for determining the merit of rumors that might affect our work lives (e.g. “Did anyone else hear that they were shutting down program X?” “What ever happened to the university’s plans to build a conference center?” “Someone told me that our State union is selling its building…is that true?”).  Sometimes rumors amount to nothing.  Other times, these little whisperings might key us all into something important.  The key is to separate the rumors with merit from the BS.

This blog can also serve as a clearinghouse of information about our union, our university, and the state of higher education.  Eventually, I hope that other members become interested in posting here too.  If you are interested in becoming a contributor to APSCUF-KU XChange, drop me an email at deepdemocracy@gmail.com.

Here’s to the discussion.

This is a podcast of the paper I gave at the Rhetoric Society of America 13th Biennial Conference in Seattle, WA on May 26, 2008.  My paper, “Holding Back the Membership: Breaking Cycles of Despair and Rhetorics of Power in a Contract Negotiations Year,” was part of a panel I was on with Ken Ehrensal, Seth Kahn, and Cheryl Wanko.  Our panel was titled, “Responsible to Whom, for What?: Complex Audiences at Cross-Purposes in Labor Organizing.”  Our panel was focused on the last round of contract negotiations for our union, APSCUF.

If you would like to download full paper with my Works Cited page and cut selections, you can do that here –> Holding Back the Membership (doc)

 Holding Back the Membership, RSA 2008 [26:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (74)

That’s right folks.  APSCUF entered YouTube in September 2008.  Here’s the link <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6EInZfXYUw> and here’s the video: