At PSU. A reader sends this, by Jennifer Schuberth, an assistant professor of religion at Portland State University:
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/04/psu_stakeholders_need_transpar.html
On the question of whether a faculty union will promote more transparency and a “better” allocation of resources by the administration:
“Like many students and faculty, I have been frustrated by the administration’s lack of transparency about financial matters. For more than a year, PSU faculty and students have asked the administration to explain how a $54 million surplus will be spent and why the university, while forcing draconian cuts in the teaching budget, is building up reserves in excess of the Oregon University System’s recommendations. The administration has never given a clear answer. “
On the issue of salaries and benefits for NTTF faculty:
“With a growing deficit looming in the background, the administration claimed that faculty will need to increase productivity and capacity — i.e., increase class sizes — and that PSU will be implementing retirement incentives so that higher-paid faculty can be replaced with lower-cost alternatives. In academics, “lower cost” means adjuncts who are paid by the course, often teach huge classes and have no benefits. Many adjuncts working at PSU teach at one or two other schools and make only enough to hover around the poverty line. Some are on food stamps. This is the current administration’s vision of PSU’s future: lower-quality education and a workforce living in poverty.”
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