CONTRACT DISPUTE AT PPU
Point Park union wants faculty cuts rescinded
Bethany Morris, an assistant psychology professor, left a college in Kentucky and moved to Pittsburgh with her husband for a her dream job — a tenure track spot at Point Park University — in a city where she long wanted to live.
All that unraveled six months later as she glanced at her inbox near the close of business Feb. 12 and saw an email with a subject line that read: “Communications.” She was being let go. So were 16 other full-time faculty members at the Downtown campus with 4,000 students.
“I was pretty much told that due to the pandemic, my contract would not be renewed next year,” said Ms. Morris, 33, of the West End. “I was pretty much heartbroken.”
On Friday, at a virtual news conference, the union representing those faculty asserted that effects of COVID-19 are really a cover for poor financial planning. It says the cuts will do irreversible harm to programs and students and that Point Park violated its collective bargaining agreement with faculty.
If allowed to stand, the cuts — combined with faculty who took a retirement incentive — will reduce the full-time teaching force
by more than 20%, according to Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh TNG-CWA Local 38061. (A separate unit of the guild represents newsroom employees at the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette.)
“We are asking the university to rescind the nonrenewal letters sent out to faculty because this decision is an utter disregard of specific language in our CBA and an act of disrespect to our full- time members who have resiliently pushed through, navigating this unforeseen pandemic,” said Guild President Lacretia Wimbley. “The faculty deserves better, and so do the students they serve.”
The university declined to address specific assertions, saying disputes would be resolved through processes outlined in the contract.
Point Park President Paul Hennigan announced in February that contracts of the 17 faculty members would not be renewed for the 2021-22 academic year.
“The pandemic has taken a toll on our operations, just as it has affected the operations of many higher education providers,” he said.
At the time, the school declined to identify disciplines affected by the job cuts. On Friday, union officials said they were institutionwide but especially in arts and sciences.
Ms. Wimbley said the cuts in tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty appear to target members of minority groups, including women of color and LGBT people.
She further asserted that the layoffs were unlawfully based on a “calculated misreading” of the contract. What Point Park labeled as contract nonrenewals in fact were position eliminations, which would have required notification months earlier than February to be effective at the end of this academic year, the guild said.
In response to the union’s assertions, Point Park spokesman Louis Corsaro released the following statement Friday:
“Point Park University does not negotiate contracts or contract disputes through the media. Disputes regarding the interpretation of language included in the Collective Bargaining Agreement with our full-time faculty are resolved through a process outlined in that agreement under the Grievance and Arbitration Clause.”