Faculty contract talks underway

Collective bargaining between Portland State’s administration and faculty has taken a turn for the worrisome, according to faculty members familiar with the negotiations.

At the second round of 2013–15 contract bargaining on May 7, administration representatives presented dramatically reworked versions of four current contract articles that affect tenured and tenure-track faculty, contract faculty and academic professionals such as advisors and librarians. Current peer-review processes are also under scrutiny.

“The PSU administration has let us know that they want to eliminate substantial sections of the contract articles they’ve so far discussed,” said Mary King, president of Portland State’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a national organization that represents faculty and staff in higher education.

The eliminations proposed by the administration would reduce the union’s oversight over changes in evaluation procedures, and would, according to King “significantly weaken the protection of faculty rights and responsibilities” at Portland State.

In what has been called an unprecedented move, the administration plans to address a total of 14 of the current contract’s 44 articles. This, according to King, indicates numerous potential changes to come.

“Needless to say, that’s alarming,” she said. “Collective bargaining is a process of building working relationships and structures, which we have done over 35 years of working [with the university].”

According to King, the administration’s proposals “would significantly weaken the protection of faculty rights and responsibilities” at PSU.

According to a May 7 bargaining update released by the university, “the establishment, maintenance and modification of guidelines for promotion, tenure and post-tenure review fall within the traditional role of the faculty senate.”

“AAUP has no problem with that,” said Ronald Narode, the vice president of collective bargaining for PSU-AAUP. The concern, he said, comes from the administration’s reluctance to bargain faculty evaluation procedures while transferring responsibility for these procedures to the faculty senate.

“All we ask for is that whatever changes the faculty senate makes, we get to approve,” Narode said.

The administration presented an opposite position.

“The university supports the faculty senate’s role as the representative of the faculty in the shared governance of PSU, and thus intends to remove contractual barriers that limit the faculty senate’s authority in these areas,” the update continued.

While the administration’s proposals have left intact the union’s ability to grieve on its membership’s behalf, Narode stressed the gravity of the changes proposed by the administration.

“We have evaluation procedures for everybody in the union,” Narode said. “More than 50 percent of grievances right now have to do with procedural problems and evaluation.”

Regardless, AAUP faculty remain concerned at the scope of the changes presented thus far. “It’s totally outside the tradition of bargaining here at Portland State,” Narode said.

“They’re burning up goodwill at the most accelerated rate that I’ve ever seen.”

While the administration refuses to comment on negotiations that are ongoing, Scott Gallagher, PSU’s communications director, explained that the administration’s position is a difficult one.

“The university system is currently getting less money from the state than we did in 1999,” he said, “and at the same time we have, as a system, 30,000 more people than in 1999.”

According to Diane Saunders, the director of communications for the Oregon University System, the 1999–2001 OUS budget was around $900 million. Just more than a decade later, it is down to around $600 million.

“Something has to give,” she said.

“If you take the 20,000-foot view,” Gallagher said, “you have less money from the state, increased expenses, wonderful staff and faculty…it’s a balancing act. It’s very challenging for the university to try and manage all that.”

“That’s why we’re in collective bargaining agreement discussions,” he added.

At the third round of negotiations on Tuesday, PSU-AAUP and the administration signed a contract extension postponing the expiration of the current contract from August 31 to November 30.

AAUP used Tuesday’s session to deliver a verbal response to the administration’s May 7 proposal, and a written, legal response from the union will be presented at the next bargaining meeting, on June 4. The 10 articles opened by the administration that remain to be addressed will be discussed at bargaining meetings in the coming weeks.