Faculty at Portland State are facing layoffs as the university faces a budget deficit. A new $90 million art building, and $85 million dorms, alongside a renovation and rebuild of the Keller Auditorium are being built.

Our school has $200 million in reserves, but Ann Cudd, Sheryl Manning, and the Board of Trustees won't use it to save 17 of our faculty's jobs! PSU has encouraged 33 other faculty members to voluntarily resign, and these positions will not be filled. Students lose out on learning opportunities, yet PSU frames it as a win-win. Our professors are the heart of the community at PSU. Losing professors with over 20 years of teaching is a loss to our education, and also to the people we care about.

We need to reverse these layoffs. As these hard times approach, now is the time for unity, and to build strength at PSU. We need all of our Teachers Unions, to be strong right now. PSU, settle a fair contract with PSU-AAUP immediately. The administration continues to stall in bargaining while blaming workers. Portland State's Board of Trustees is in dire need of student representation and accountability. We demand the board position opening in June 2025 be filled by a community member whose focus is on education, who is a member of the PSU community, and who fights for professors' and student's interests, rather than against them.