If PSU can afford to invest in real estate, we can afford to invest in our faculty
The Portland State University chapter of the Association of American University Professors has been engaged in collective bargaining with the university since last April, in an effort to secure a contract agreement for the new biennium. With the current contract set to expire on Oct. 31, and university administrators and faculty union representatives at loggerheads, it appears that another deadline extension may be on the horizon.
While the situation may be complex, we’re tempted to reduce it to one fairly simple question: Is this sustainable?
Portland State prides itself on being a model of sustainability, and in the past few years we’ve put up plenty of money to prove it. PSU administrators have recently backed projects, ranging from massive long-term real estate investments to the smaller scale “green screens” recently installed in Smith Memorial Student Union, to track energy use and efficiency.
But are the present standards of educational quality being leveraged against a future full of bright, shiny buildings? A sustainable building, after all, is very different from a sustainable classroom. If Portland State doesn’t make a real effort to recruit and retain the best faculty, the educational quality will suffer, as will the university’s reputation. Students and faculty can both benefit from quality facilities, but what good does a nice new lecture hall do if it’s filled to capacity and students get no individual attention because enrollment continues to rise out of sync with faculty?
The Oregon Sustainability Center, a $63 million development project that has a proposed 50-50 design-cost sharing agreement between the city and OUS, is being backed significantly by PSU administrators. The problem is that the project doesn’t even inspire confidence in the Portland City Council; two out of five city commissioners rejected the proposal to move forward with the project in conjunction with the OUS in a Sept. 21 vote.
Could projects like this be the reason administrators wants to hold onto the $54 million fund reserves that Portland State reported as of June 2011?
The administration obviously needs to remain forward thinking when it comes to the future of Portland State, but not at the cost of the students presently enrolled. We deserve better than that. We deserve the best faculty that our tuition dollars can afford, and we deserve enough of them to ensure that our classrooms are an intellectual experience rather than warehousing.
During the last round of contract negotiations, in 2009, the PSUAAUP agreed to furloughs, wage freezes and other compromises in the spirit of “shared sacrifice.” In the meantime, the OUS has won a large degree of autonomy in spending tuition dollars, the cost of living has increased, enrollment and tuition have gone up considerably and more administrative positions have been created.
If PSU wants to be a world-class research institution we are going to have to cultivate standards of education and research that get us there, and that starts with faculty, not buildings.
No one cares what the buildings are like at Harvard, Stanford or MIT, and we will all be better off if people begin talking about the achievements of our faculty, rather than their struggle for the wages they deserve.
