Faculty union strike underway at Cal, other state universities
Union faculty members picket Wednesday at the main entrance to California University of Pennsylvania.
This was among the chalk messages on sidewalks at a faculty union picket line Wednesday at California University of Pennsylvania.
Swarn Gill, third from right, spokesman for the faculty union at California University of Pennsylvania, walks a picket line Wednesday at the Second Street entrance to the campus.
CALIFORNIA – Students at California University of Pennsylvania delivered doughnuts, brownies and bottled water to their professors who walked picket lines Wednesday, the first day of a strike affecting more than 100,000 students across Pennsylvania.
Others joined professors on the picket line at the Third Street main entrance to Cal U. a day after tense negotiations broke down between the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties and the state System of Higher Education, and the union kept its promise to strike at 5 a.m.
“I’m here standing with my professors,” said Cal U. sophomore Alex Pasculli. “They’re out here for us, and I believe we should be out here for them, as well.”
Students were required by the State System to show up for classes even if their professors were on strike.
Cal U. spokeswoman Chris Kindl said she had no information on how many professors crossed the picket line or a head count of students who crossed the picket line by attending school.
Faculty union spokesman Swarn Gill said making the students decide whether or not to cross the picket lines was “a legitimate problem” for them. “We’re encouraging them to do what the university says. They seem to be with the faculty.”
He said the union, which represents nearly 5,500 professors and coaches statewide, objects to the State System’s desire to keep wages low for adjunct professors, more than 60 percent of whom are women.
“They’re the most vulnerable faculty positions,” Gill said while at a picket line at the Second Street entrance to campus. “That’s still a sticking point,” he said, adding the union wants a better health care package from the State System.
“I don’t know that we have far to go,” Gill added.
The strike drew criticism from Gov. Tom Wolf, who said it will deal a devastating blow to already-declining enrollment at the State System schools and have “far-reaching effects for years to come.”
“The shortsightedness on both sides is counter to my efforts on behalf of the system and hurts the dedicated professors and university staff, and students and their families who are paying tuition to these universities,” Wolf said in a statement.
“At 11:35 p.m., we made a last attempt to negotiate through back channels,” APSCUF President Kenneth M. Mash said. “We waited until 5 a.m. We are headed to the picket lines, but even on the picket lines, our phones will be on, should the State System decide it doesn’t want to abandon its students.”
State System spokesman Kenn Marshall said officials hoped both sides will return to negotiations, but he was unsure when that would happen.
APSCUF spokeswoman Kathryn Morton said the union is ready to talk as soon as the State System returns to talks.
“Currently, we are not meeting, and the next session is not set,” Morton said Wednesday afternoon.
Marshall also said it would take a few days to determine how many professors were teaching or students attending classes.
The strike left nine Cal U. students at a conference in North Carolina with their professor, who could no longer advise them there because she honored the walkout, said Luke Gray, a member of the university’s Wildlife Society chapter.
Gray said he was angry because “we’re pretty much on our own now until the strike is over,” and that it was expensive for the students to attend the Wildlife Society National Conference in Raleigh.
Back at the picket line, Pasculli carried a protest sign with the phrase, “You can’t put students first if teachers are last.”
Kimberly Singleton, a junior from Vandergrift, said, “Some students feel these are bad teachers that are messing with their educations,” but she added she decided to join the professors’ picket line because “they are standing up for us.”
The State System said the universities will make every effort to be “as flexible as possible while fulfilling its educational requirements.”
The universities also will work with the December graduates to help them finish the semester in a timely manner, especially those with military, employment and graduate school obligations.
The decision on whether classes need to be made up will be made at the conclusion of the strike, the State System said on its website. The strike also could delay the issuing of student grades.
The Cal U. football team will still meet Gannon University at 3 p.m. Saturday for the homecoming week football game, Kindl said.
The school’s coaches who also are members of APSCUF were still in negotiations, she said.
Morton said faculty members understand that the coaching contracts require coaches to continue working.
“We don’t want them to violate their contracts,” Morton said.
Gill said the professors will return to the picket lines today at 4 a.m.