Newsletter February 2020
President’s Message
Acienit id quatust ibustrum eseAHEAD qui dem velles pro te que CHALLENGES nis nimaxim illaborae in et resectat et The that Kutztown es fact as endus que esti utUniversity omnien- is facing enrollment and budget challenges is not a secret. KU is not unique among PASSHE schools in this regard. In terms of READING PG.middle 2 fiscalFINISH health, we are ratedON in the of the 14 schools. We have been affected by the same demographic shifts that have affected all similar colleges and universities. To address these challenges, APSCUF-KU has been working proactively with the administration. Our main goal is to protect faculty positions, whether tenured/tenure-track or temporary. President Ken Hawkinson and Provost Anne Zayaitz have already said in writing that they are not considering retrenchment. That is good news; however, as a local union we are pursuing further actions to ensure job security for our faculty. Our local VP, Mike Gambone, is seeking more commitments to our faculty through Meet and Discuss. One suggestion by both APSCUF and KU management is the idea of quickly developing innovative programs. To facilitate this, APSCUF has put together an ad hoc committee, led by Lisa Frye, to look at ways to make the curricular approval process as efficient as possible. On another subject, the retirement incentive for those retiring this year would equate to as much as a $75,000 payout for unused sick leave, depending on rank and step as well as the number of unused days. Faculty members who are currently on the phased retirement cycle can still qualify if they retire this year, even if that means changing their original plan. A total of 200 faculty statewide must retire for this to go into effect; as of this writing, we're nearly halfway to that number. The retirement paperwork must be submitted by March 2nd. I hope you all have an excellent spring semester,
Tom Stewart President, APSCUF-KU