Overview of Chapter Actions

Altoona Cuts

• We appeal in an open letter the university administration to reinstate programs and posistions at Penn State Altoona that the administration cut in April 2022 without faculty and student input:

  • to renew the contracts of twelve faculty (representing music, math, non-western languages, theatre, communications)

  • to re-open the programs of Integrative Arts, Mathematics and Statistics, Science, and Political Science.

  • Media coverage: the AAUP letter in the Altoona Mirror; Dance-In to Save the Arts: Altoona Mirror, WTAJ. Altoona Mirror Op-Ed by Michelle Rodino-Colocino

• • Please sign the petition to Save the Arts Stop the Cuts at Altoona Campus!

Anti-racism

• We stand with Alleghenies Abolition, the Coalition for a Just University, NAACP State College, Students Against Sexist Violence, and additional community and campus groups in supporting Dr. Oliver Baker; our chapter released a statement in his defense; see coverage in The Collegian. This AAUP report shows that the administration's use of AC-70 constitutes a misuse of faculty dismissal and termination procedures.

• Our chapter sent a letter to President Eric Barron to follow the recommendations of More Rivers to Cross (Parts 1 & 2) that documents racism against Black faculty across the state. Top among MRTC's recommendations is to hire 50 tenure-track Black faculty by 2026.

• We call for Penn State to do the right thing by hiring 50 Black faculty by 2026; providing job security and competitive wages to non-tenure track faculty.

• We stand with The African American Studies Department and Coalition of Graduate Students in calling for action to address systemic racism at Penn State.

Contingent Contracts

• We are working to bolster the job security and pay of our contingent, fixed-term faculty. See our Labor Day letters from the chapter to President Barron calling for

  • job security for non-tenure track faculty, and

  • safe working conditions during the pandemic.

COVID-19 response

• COVID-19 highlights many longstanding inequities that our chapter seeks to redress. Penn State AAUP is working to make our university a safe and sustainable place to study and work during and beyond the pandemic for all faculty at all campuses.

• We support our international students and their access to visas. See our letter to President Barron here.

• Chapter members contributed to the Open Letter to Penn State Administrators regarding COVID response, and AAUP principles of shared governance, transparency, and academic freedom informed its contents.

• Penn State AAUP stands with hospital workers who face layoffs by cost-cutting executives