The Pennsylvania State's System of Higher Education is made up of 14 universities throughout the great state of PA. It is responsible for the higher education of over 110,000 students; and yet its Chancellor, Frank T. Brogan, does not value education.
If you've been keeping up with the local news, or if you are affiliated with any of these universities: Bloomsburg, California University, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, IUP, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester; then you probably know what's been going on in terms of faculty contract negotiations and a potential strike. The reason: PASSHE wants to reduce the salaries of part-time and temporary faculty by 20%, while asking them to increase their workloads by at least 25%. In addition, the system wants all faculty to increase their number of courses taught online instead of in person, and may even require some professors to teach classes outside of their domain.
APSCUF (Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties), the union representing many of the 5,500 faculty members in the PASSHE school system, believes that this demand is unacceptable and is cause for a strike. These faculty members have been working over 450 days without a contract.
I dedicate this article to Chancellor Frank T. Brogan.
Dear Mr. Chancellor;
I've never been interested in politics or money. I don't typically keep up-to-date with the latest election polls or the drama on Wall Street. But now it's personal. When I was accepted to Lock Haven University in July 2013 as an Education major, I put my trust into your hands. I put my money, my time and my future into your hands.
My question for you is this: How is it fair to me and the thousands of other education majors that attend our schools to try to achieve a degree in a field that you think does not matter?
Clearly, money matters more to you than education does. It decides budget, curriculum and who will teach what, when and where. But when you make these demands of our teachers, what message are you putting out there to your students other than that you don't value education?
Education is one of the most popular majors on our campus at Lock Haven University, and I imagine it is at the 13 other PASSHE schools too, because, well, it's important. As a future educator, it is simply maddening that I am going to enter a world and field that devalues its teachers. Teachers are not robots. We are people that help other people. Taking a class online does not prepare me or anyone else for our future and I hope you understand this.
I hope that your children and grandchildren can attend a school that values its teachers and that those teachers can provide them a fulfilling education. I hope most of all that some of those teachers can come from our 14 great universities, but they won't; not unless some things change.
Treat our teachers like people, not numbers on accounting paper.
Show that you value our education and our educators.
Realize that none of this would be possible without your students. All 110,000 of us, and then some.
Negotiate a contract.
Sincerely,
Someone Who Wants Education to be More Important Than Money
