Aug 24, 2016 3 min read

Classes will begin on schedule Monday for students at 14 state-owned universities, including California University of Pennsylvania, despite the threat of a faculty walkout as the union and state System of Higher Education continue negotiations.

Leadership of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties said it will meet Thursday to consider calling for a strike authorization vote among the union’s full membership sometime during the fall semester.

“In fact, APSCUF has conducted similar votes during each of the last four rounds of contract negotiations with the State System,” system spokesman Kenn Marshall said Wednesday. “In each case, while the membership voted to grant its leadership the authority to call a strike, a faculty strike has never occurred.”

APSCUF President Kenneth M. Mash said the union objects to the state system proposing to increase the reliance on adjunct professors on the campuses. He said the union worked more than a year without a contract.

“They are very upset about the lack of progress in negotiations,” Mash said earlier this summer.

Marshall said the state system wants to increase the number of classes adjuncts teach from four to five, and remove the requirement they conduct research while employed at the universities. He said the state system also wants the 5,500 full-time and part-time professors to pay more for their health care insurance, making the cost the same as what everyone else pays for the benefits on the campuses.

“We need some cost savings,” Marshall said.

“While we continue to bargain in good faith to reach a deal that is fair to everyone – most important, our students – the union has threatened our students and our universities with a strike from the earliest days of these negotiations,” Marshall said. “We want to be sure our students know that, no matter what they might hear to the contrary, classes will begin on Monday.”

This week, PSSHE sent a message to all incoming students that read, in part:

“With classes set to begin Monday, you might have heard about the faculty union’s (APSCUF) ongoing consideration of a potential strike. First, please know that the academic year will start as planned regardless of any action the faculty union might take.”

The State System negotiates a single contract for all faculty who work at the 14 state-owned universities.

Students are already arriving at the Cal U. campus and move-in day for freshmen is set for Friday.

Assistant Editor Linda Ritzer contributed to this report.