September 2019 Newsletter

APSCUF-KU NEWSLETTER SEPT 2019

President’s Message

Acienit id quatust ibustrum eseOn thedem Saturday start fall classes, thirty-three APSCUF members volunteered qui vellesbefore pro tethe que nisofnimaxim illaborae in et resectat et at the APSCUF Move-In Day table. Members handed out water to students and parents, es as endus que esti ut omnien-

provided directions, and registered students for a raffle. Move-In Day, with the organized

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chaos of thousands of students moving onto campus, encapsulates both the excitement and the anxiety associated with the beginning of each fall semester. Besides helping the students and parents, APSCUF's participation in Move-In Day, organized this year by Membership Committee co-chairs Lauren Moss and Emily Cripe, is a great way to represent the faculty to the campus community.

This fall, APSCUF starts the semester without a contract. While that can be a source of anxiety, all indicators are that talks are progressing, albeit slowly, toward a positive resolution. I had a chance to participate in a bargaining session in July, and I left impressed by how thorough and deliberative the process is. The commitment of our core negotiations team to getting a strong contract is clearly evident.

This month, your local leadership team attended the State APSCUF Legislative Assembly in Harrisburg. Undoubtedly, we returned to campus with a great deal more information about contract negotiations. As chapter president, I also serve on the wider negotiations committee and am receiving regular updates on the progress of our team. I will provide updates as soon as I get them. In the meantime, I hope you have all had a great start to the semester.

Tom Stewart President, APSCUF-KU

TABLE OF CONTENTS APSCUF-KU Leadership

Faculty

Table of Contents APSCURF Picnic APSCUF at KU Move-In Day Women’s Lunch Quality Education

President: Thomas Stewart

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Vice President: Michael Gambone

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Secretary: Amy Lynch-Biniek

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Treasurer: Anke Walz

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Delegate: Bill Donner, Anthropology & Sociology Delegate: Lisa Frye, Computer & Information Technology Delegate: Bob Kilker, English Delegate: Jason Lanter, Psychology Delegate: Tabetha Bernstein-Danis, Special Education Delegate: Mahfuzul Khondaker, Criminal Justice Delegate: Darren Achey, Physical Sciences Alternate: Robert L. Smith, Communication Studies Alternate: Philip Bolger, Criminal Justice Alternate: Yuxia Quian, Communication Studies Alternate: Kaoutar El Mounadi, Biology Alternate: Tauqeer Hussain, Computer Science

Coaches President: John Gump

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APSCUF State Leadership Address: 19 North Front Street Harrisburg, PA 17101 Phone Numbers: (717) 236 – 7487 or (800) 932 – 0587

President: Ken Mash, East Stroudsburg Vice President: Jamie Martin, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Treasurer: Chris Hallen, Bloomsburg Secretary: Michele Papakie, Indiana Coach Executive Leader: John Gump, Kutztown Faculty Officer-At-Large: Joyce Overly, Clarion Faculty Officer-At-Large: Kara Laskowski, Shippensburg Faculty Officer-At-Large: Ben A. Shaevitz, Slippery Rock Labor Relations, (Grievance-Faculty and Coaches): Mary Rita DuVall, head of labor relations: (800) 932 – 0587, ext. 2 Julie A. Reese, director: (800) 932 – 0587, ext. 2 Joshua J. Grubbs, director: (800) 932 – 0587, ext. 2 Sara E. Miller, director: (800) 932 – 0587, ext. 2 Jewel Tunstall, administrative assistant: 800-932-0587, ext. 3018 Angela Belcher, administrative assistant: 800-932-0587, ext. 3015 Government and Public Relations: Sean Crampsie, director of government relations: 800-932-0587, ext. 3014 Kathryn Morton, communications director: 800-932-0587, ext. 3007 Ty Marks, administrative assistant: 800-932-0587, ext. 3024 Membership Services: Bim Arthun, specialist: 800-932-0587, ext. 3021 Monica Troutman, secretary/receptionist: 800-932-0587, ext. 3001 Organizing: Chabria Thomas, director of organizing: 800-932-0587, ext. 3022 Researcher: Chris Dunne, researcher: 800-932-0587, ext. 3026 Support Staff: Andrea Mahoney, executive assistant to the president: 800-932-0587, ext. 3005 Beth Connelly, director of finance and facilities: 800-932-0587, ext. 3004

APSCUF is Requesting Your Publications!

State APSCUF wishes to receive complimentary copies of published works from members. This includes books, articles, and/or recordings. Your work will be added to the APSCUF member library at the state office. Letters of appreciation will acknowledge each donation.

Please submit your contributions to the APSCUF-KU office at Old Main 203-A, and it will be sent to Harrisburg.

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APSCURF PICNIC

by Samantha Tice

September 5th was the annual APSCURF picnic this year. Despite some windy weather, caused by the leftovers of Hurricane Dorian, everyone enjoyed good food while we elected new officers, discussed upcoming events, and reconnected with friends. Thank you to everyone who took the time out of their day to come and support your union.

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Changes?

Please inform the APSCUF office if you have a new address. Any changes to your name, marital status, dependents, or address will require an updated PA Faculty Health & Welfare Fund enrollment card. Please make sure to contact Sarra at (610) 683-4277 or apscufku@kutztown.edu

APSCUF UPCOMING EVENT The APSCUF Membership and Temporary Faculty Committees are hosting an open social at Saucony Creek Brewery + Gastropub for all faculty and their families immediately following our first APSCUF Rep Council Meeting of the semester.

When: Thursday, September 19th, 5:30PM-7PM Where: Saucony Creek Brewery + Gastropub 15032 Kutztown Road Kutztown, PA 19530 We hope to see you there! Please RSVP here so that we know how much food to order. See you there!

Have you recommitted to OUR union yet?

Don’t throw out your cards!

Have you recommitted to OUR union yet? Have you If you accidentally disposed of the mailing (which we sent signed your updated membership form? In late August, to your home address), please contact your chapter you should have received a recommitment letter and APSCUF office to obtain a new card as soon as you’re able. application from OUR faculty and coaches union, the Thank you!

Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties. If you are already a member, your status hasn’t changed, but our goal is for all members, existing and new, to complete and mail back the postage-paid cards as a show of solidarity, to meet legal requirements after Janus, and to update our records. If you’ve already returned your card, thank you! A double thank-you if your have initiated or increased your contribution to APSCUF’s Committee for Action through Politics (APSCUF/CAP), the political voice for APSCUF faculty and coaches.

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APSCUF at KU Move-In Day

by Lauren Moss

The APSCUF Membership committee mobilized nearly 40 faculty to support students and their families during Move-In Day which was August 24th. All involved enjoyed beautiful weather as APSCUF Faculty volunteers greeted students and families, handed out water, and raffled off a portable battery charger and a book store gift card as students moved into the dormitories and meandered the DMZ to learn more about a variety of campus supports and organizations.

Faculty presence at Move-In Day is a great opportunity to create a positive campus climate for students and their families during what can be a nerve-wracking experience! This year it was especially important for faculty to help shape the tone as we go back to class and continue contract negotiations. Thank you to all who helped make Move-In Day a success!

Adjunct Newsletter Adjunct members please check your campus email for the latest edition of the APSCUF Adjunct Update, an APSCUF newsletter exclusively for our adjunct members. If you are an adjunct APSCUF member who didn't receive the newsletter, email: qualityeducation@apscuf.org or you can catch up on past editions here (login required).

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Women’s Lunch

by Lauren Moss

The APSCUF Membership committee hosted the Annual Women’s Luncheon on cooperation with Provost Zayaitz’s office. This year’s event was ‘mix and mingle’ style with no formal agenda. Rather, it allowed female faculty to network across disciplines and voice concerns that effect women across campus (i.e., FMLA/ maternity leave, female representation in annual awards given at Convocation, female representation in leadership positions across campus, etc.).

Christine

Price, Director of the GLBT and Women’s Centers shared information regarding upcoming events for the year. More information can be found here.

Volunteers Needed!

Our union’s strength is equal to the hard work of our membership. If you are an adjunct, tenure-track, or tenured faculty, APSCUF-KU has a broad variety of committees that need your help. They include membership, mobilization, student liaison, grievance, academic concerns, public relations, and many more. Faculty interested in active service for tenure and promotion dossiers will find it in our committees. Adjuncts interested in conversion also have many opportunities.

Interested? Contact Sarra Guisse in our local office at sguisse@apscuf.org, 610-683-4277, or fill out a willingness to serve form here.

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Quality Education is in Need of Our Support

by Samantha Tice

Many people cringe and worry when the words “strike,” “school,” and “union” are used together in a sentence. It invokes this idea of angry people who are demanding things from school systems, and those not involved are unsure of whether or not they should be. For some reason, our culture finds it inconvenient that people demand better wages and working conditions. The real question is, why are we so unsupportive of employees demanding they be given wages that are sufficient enough to support their families?

According to an article written by the Chronicle of Higher Education, there were 42 strikes lead by faculty members, graduate students, and non-academic workers at colleges from 2012 to 2018. 13 of those strikes happened last year and now workers at Oregon’s public universities are threatening to strike for the first time in twenty years.

But this doesn’t just affect our collegiate system, strikes are happening in schools all over the United States from rural, urban and even suburban areas in California, Kentucky, West Virginia and more. Strikes can happen for all sorts of reasons. In Oakland, California teachers went on strike this year because the cost of living in Oakland is soaring due to the proximity of Silicone Valley. One teacher reported that her entire paycheck went to paying the mortgage on her house while her husband pays the rest of the bills.

Unfortunately, the Oakland Unified School District is in such bad shape that they were actually planning on laying off 112 staff. Problems like the issues in Oakland, California are widespread. To make things worse, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is requesting a 7.1 billion reduction in overall funding for Education Department programs.

Her reasoning?

“We are not doing our children any favors when we borrow from their future in order to invest in systems and policies that are not yielding better results,” DeVos said in her budget request statement before the House Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies on March 26th of 2019.

Betsy DeVos isn’t wrong that the United States needs to ensure that our systems and policies are yielding positive change and results, but cuts that take away money from school programs will only worsen our already consistently underfunded school systems. In an article written by the U.S News, they describe how a country can benefit economically from quality public education. They start with a quote from the authors of Education at a Glance 2018 which states, “The quality of education can be a strong predictor of a country’s economic prosperity.”

Penn State Education Professor Dana Mitra also states in the article written by U.S News, “providing quality public education is seen as essential in an age of increasing income inequality and political polarization around the world.”

In her thesis on the benefits of public education, Mitra asserts that people who have access to quality education are more likely to be gainfully employed and be productive citizens, less likely to commit crimes and place demands on governments’ social safety programs. “Healthy government spending in public education can reduce a society’s income inequality.”

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This is a fact that teachers are well aware of, and they spend their own money to buy school supplies. On average K-12 public school teachers spend $459 each year on school supplies for which they are not reimbursed, according to a state-level analysis of the National Center for Education Statistics survey data conducted by the Economic Policy Institute.

Why should any of this matter to everyone else?

It’s simple if we ever truly want equality, unity, and economic growth like other developed countries, then we need to support our teachers, unions, and schools.

Regardless of whether or not we are free of the struggles in the public school systems, this problem is so much bigger than all of us, but if we stand together, and fight for initiatives that will allow our teachers to educate, that will allow colleges to be affordable and will provide what is necessary for everyone to succeed. Investing in the future of our country is dependent on investing in education. So it’s time we supported our unions, teachers, and schools and did something about it.

CAP: The Political Voice of APSCUF APSCUF’s Committee for Action through Politics (APSCUF/CAP) is the political voice for APSCUF faculty and coaches. Since its inception in 1981, CAP has assisted faculty and coaches in making informed political decisions. CAP is a nonpartisan organization that supports candidates who will advocate for APCUF’s goals and prioriteies.

Why you should donate to CAP? When you contribute to APSCUF/CAP, you beome involved in the political process. Your CAP donations support candidates for state office who will advocate for public higher education and have strong records on labor, education and budget issues.

APSCUF/CAP members have the opportunity to: 

Attend fundraising events

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Build relationships with policymakers

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Make important endorsement decisions

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Assist candidates who support APSCUF goals

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Participate in golf outings to support candidates

To find out more about APSCUF/CAP, download the CAP brochure available online here.

Visit APSCUF’s member’s forum (login required) to view APSCUF/CAP’s recommendations for elections.

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