Unfortunately even after over 170 hours of PSU-AAUP bargaining, mediation, and impasse, the Cudd administration is resisting making meaningful changes to layoff protections or respecting shared governance, resisting giving academic professionals a livable COLA or any annual payscale, and delaying a contract which has bilingual pay for BIPOC academic professionals and bridge funding to protect researchers from gaps in funding like the ones created by Trump’s research cuts. The Cudd administration’s final offer on February 27th doesn’t make sufficient movement on these issues and the first ever strike in PSU-AAUP history could begin in as soon as 30 days.

Layoff protections

The importance of additional layoff protections is underscored by the way administration -per our pending grievance- violated our contract and disrespected shared governance processes with NTTF layoff notices. With administration planning for additional layoffs in 2026 and 2027, our AAUP bargaining team’s layoff language would prohibit the administration from redistributing the work of laid off employees. This is aimed not only at keeping members employed in economically viable positions, but also forcing the administration to engage in a layoff process that respects shared governance and is truly strategic, and not just an exercise in cost-cutting.

Whether or not 17 nontenure track faculty lose their jobs at the end of spring term depends on all of our solidarity. If they are laid off -as the Cudd administration wants- there are about 150 courses with no instructor. Rather than offer fewer courses, the administration’s plan is to force full-time faculty to take on some of those courses, or give the courses to adjunct faculty. In some cases, faculty members who received notice have been offered adjunct positions starting next fall, teaching the same courses they have been teaching as full-time faculty, but for less pay and no benefits.

COLA
Due to our signing strike commitment forms and declaring impasse, the administration slightly raised its COLA in its best and final offer. However, that is still well below what our team and our members calculated is needed to make up for the ground we lost with the exceptionally high inflation rates during the pandemic. The financial strains we are experiencing, especially with the ever-rising price of food and housing, make it critical to earn a substantial COLA in order to keep pace with those everyday costs.

AP pay scale
Academic professionals at PCC have a 17 step payscale that tops out at over $100,000. The Cudd administration has refused to agree to any regular salary increases for APs. This contributes to APs leaving PSU on average every three years.

With the soonest strike being less than 30 days away, we need community members, students, alumni, allies to email the administration and demand a fair contract now.