Blog

18 August 2020

Dear Members of the Board of Trustees for the PASSHE System and Temple:

Together, we represent over 9000 faculty, librarians, academic advisors, staff, graduate students, medical students, and coaches at 15 different universities. Along with the students we serve, we are the lifeblood of our institutions: We teach the classes, win the grants, do the research, make the art, advise the students, coach the teams, serve on the committees, and serve our communities. When called on to pivot to online work in response to the current pandemic, we did so without hesitation and with unstinting effort. Now, we are being called on again to invest extraordinary time and resources to adapt to the grave challenges posed by the pandemic. And, again, we are ready to answer the call.

However, we are also being asked to needlessly risk our lives and the lives of those we love. We cannot accept this, and neither should you. 

We call on you to acknowledge that the ferocity of this virus and the failures in our national response have upended the plans our institutions have constructed. We urge you to join institutions large and small, rich and poor, public and private who have recently realized they must alter course. As of this writing, the U.S. has surpassed 5 million COVID-19 infections, an average of more than 53,000 new infections a day; the situation is much more dire than many of us imagined it would be. We are devastated by the loss of more than 170,000 Americans to COVID-19. Doctors and scientists every day warn us about the potential long-term health impacts of COVID-19 and encourage us to continue to be vigilant in our efforts to flatten the curve and reduce transmission. We have seen students, staff, and faculty get sick and die around the country, including at university campuses and their neighboring communities. We also need to acknowledge the enormous burden of increased family responsibilities that faculty, staff, and students are juggling due to the pandemic, making in-person teaching extremely difficult and in some cases logistically impossible.

We understand that people are supposed to wear masks and practice social distancing; however, we know that asymptomatic transmission can happen quickly in indoor spaces even when these precautions are taken. We also know that research on the propensity of our students to take risks makes it unwise to rely on their compliance with mitigation measures. Given the current state of COVID-19 in the U.S. and our institutions’ inadequate safety protocols and lack of consistent and widespread testing, we are being asked to choose between our health and our jobs when we know that we can teach effectively online.

We know that the choices before you could not be more difficult. We also know that a great deal of well-intentioned work, expertise, and considerable financial resources have gone into these plans. We understand that you want to satisfy our students’ desire for in-person instruction (though we are not convinced that you have properly surveyed them to see what they actually want given the current conditions). Of course, we would rather feel free to teach, advise, and coach them in person. We understand that you are concerned about revenue; so are we, since our jobs may hang in the balance.

But these considerations must be outweighed by the imperative to protect the health and safety of our members, our students, other employees of the university, and our neighbors.

Here’s how you can resist the temptation of questionable financial gains for one semester at the expense of the longer-term financial, reputational, and ethical health of the institutions you oversee:

If these two conditions were met, the threat to the health and safety of the university community would be significantly reduced. But you should also:

Our members and elected leaders stand ready to enter into a dialogue with you about how to address these grave problems. But we must first sound the alarm about the terrible risks you run if you do not change course. The potential damage to the universities we love could not be more profound–the loss of money, faith in leadership, health, and life. If you do not value the health and safety of the university community as you should, you will poison the relationship among all of its stakeholders for the foreseeable future.

Classes have already started on some of our campuses and will start soon at the rest. The window for acting before tragedy strikes is closing. We urge you to change course before it is too late.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

The Executive Committees of APSCUF, TAUP, and TUGSA and members of the student body of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine

To transition from one team to another brings a fresh set of challenges, but it happens frequently in APSCUF, as it did with Cliff Johnston and Kara Laskowski. The two changed positions this year. Johnston was chair for the State meet-and-discuss team before being elected to executive council as treasurer in April. Conversely, Laskowski moved from executive council, where she was an officer-at-large, to the State meet-and-discuss chair.

Johnston

This mixing and matching of positions may seem like an organizational game of musical chairs, but it’s one that Johnston and Laskowski are happy to play.

“You don’t want to be stagnant, where the same people are doing the same things over and over,” Johnston, an associate professor of mathematics at West Chester University, said. “In a volunteer organization, you want people to serve where they want to serve, not pigeonhole people and say, ‘You’re going to do this.’”

Laskowski, professor and department chair of human communication studies at Shippensburg University, concurred, saying, “We have people that are willing to serve, and we have a breadth of vision across the committees. That interplay is essential. It’s a great thing.”

Johnston and Laskowksi both emphasized the common attributes between positions. Johnston said his work with budgetary issues on State meet-and-discuss, coupled with his background in mathematics, has helped him acclimate to his position as treasurer.

Laskowski

“We did a lot of budget analysis in meet-and-discuss — asking, ‘Are you doing with your money what you say you’re doing?’” he said. “If we’re not, that needs to be called out and corrected. It’s all about the logic and the thought processes.”

Laskowski mentioned an element that she said is common across the union.

“APSCUF as an organization and meet-and-discuss as a component — the strength of both come from the membership,” she said. “When we are there, we are representing 5,000 people, and having that weight behind us is important and potent.”

Leaving a subgroup of the organization inevitably means sacrificing things that are distinctive to that group. Laskowski, however, mentioned that community and camaraderie lost from one group can be gained in another.

“The people that I served with were fabulous,” she said. “Looking at the staff across the organization is amazing. But it works in both directions. I miss them, but I’m also excited.”

Laskowski said knowing where to go when trying to get involved can be difficult, but that simply offering one’s service and getting to know local leadership can go a long way.

“There’s so much room for involvement,” she said. “We need the knowledge, the talent. For anyone who is uncertain in terms of where they would fit, striking up that relationship with their chapter president or local leadership and indicating their interest in getting involved is all that they need to do. We need that, and we welcome it.”

—Kyle Bower,
former APSCUF intern

The Aug. 13 Board of Governors meeting took place via Zoom and conference call. Below are APSCUF President Dr. Jamie Martin’s comments as prepared:

Chairwoman Shapira, Chancellor Greenstein, governors, university presidents and guests,

As I begin my remarks this morning, I would like to start by making an observation — and it is an obvious one. I am not giving these remarks at the Dixon University Center. All of us are in our offices or homes scattered throughout the Commonwealth. This meeting is remote because we are all aware that assembling in person in the board room in the DUC would not allow for appropriate physical distancing. As we know, the CDC recommends at least 6 feet of physical distance between oneself and others, and this should be done in concert with other preventive actions, such as wearing masks, to reduce the spread of COVID-19. While all of us would prefer to be in the same room and to interact with one another face-to-face, the Board of Governors is not meeting in person because it would not be safe to do so.

On the other hand, something very different is beginning to occur on some of the State System campuses. On Monday, face-to-face classes began at Cheyney University. Concerns have been raised by some of my colleagues there regarding an inability for students and faculty to appropriately physically distance in some of the classrooms. When these concerns were raised, a member of the administration stated that there are no specific requirements that there must be 6 feet of distance between desks, rather the guidelines suggest this should occur “when feasible.” This type of statement represents a lack of concern — and perhaps even disdain — for the students and faculty at one of our nation’s oldest HBCUs.

This week, students are arriving back to campus at Bloomsburg and Shippensburg universities, and they will be on campus for up to a week before classes begin. Students will begin arriving early next week at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and mid-week at Kutztown University. Many believe, and science seems to confirm, that having students return to campuses for in-person classes — or even hyflex classes — is unsafe, and the proliferation of COVID-19 cases at other universities is alarming. According to a recent New York Times report, more than 6,600 coronavirus cases have been linked to U.S.colleges and universities, and the fall semester has not yet begun at most of them.

In Georgia, the Cherokee County School District began K-12 classes on Aug. 3. On Aug. 4, parents were notified that a student tested positive for COVID-19, and that resulted in 20 students and a teacher being sent into quarantine for two weeks. The class is now being taught remotely. By the start of the second week of classes, over 900 students and staff members have been ordered to quarantine, and nearly 60 positive cases have been reported. One important difference between the K-12 schools and colleges and universities is that K-12 students return at the end of every school day to their homes and are under the supervision of parents or guardians. At our universities, this is not the case; our students do not have supervision of parents or guardians.

In a recent op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Gregg Gonsalves, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale University, said this:

“Dorms are like cruise ships on land or prisons without bars: people living in proximity, in frequent contact over extended periods of time. For many infectious pathogens, such settings are a boon for disease transmission…Colleges are perfect incubators for viral spread and propagation.”

I feel compelled to continue to articulate the real apprehensions of the members of my union. I want the position and concerns of APSCUF to be very well-documented. My members are convinced, as am I, that there will be cases of COVID-19 on some of our campuses; that students, staff and faculty will become ill; and there will be spread to the communities in which our universities are located.

I will close by saying that I hope and pray that I am wrong. I hope that our universities will be able to catch lightning in a bottle and that there will be no cases of COVID-19 on any of our campuses. If that occurs, I will stand before all of you, in person or remotely, and will admit my error and will encourage you to remind me of it. My real fear, however, is that the students, staff and faculty at Cheyney University — because they are the first university to open — will be the canaries in the coal mine, and I hope that they will all emerge healthy and safe.

Thank you for your time, and I wish you all continued good health.

Bloomsburg University student Kyle Bower was APSCUF’s summer government-relations and communications intern. Click here to learn more about APSCUF’s internship. APSCUF file photo

I applied to APSCUF’s internship program needing to fulfill a graduation requirement. I was fortunate to have a professor who is a member of the Bloomsburg APSCUF chapter. One day she sent me an email with a three-character message: “FYI” and a hyperlink leading to the APSCUF internship application. Before this, I had never heard of APSCUF, even though I had felt its effect during the fall 2016 strike. And although the university asked me to detail my expectations for the internship, the truth is I had little sense of what to anticipate. On a logical level, I had an idea of what the experience would entail, but I did not imagine that I would feel a connection with the organization, the team members and my work experience because it didn’t even really cross my mind. I’m sure it is no surprise to anyone familiar with APSCUF and its internship that the job is a wonderful opportunity in an enjoyable working environment, but I must stress that I am truly, truly happy that I stumbled into this lovable group that nurtured my development in a way that blows my other working experiences clean out of the water.

How do I properly commemorate APSCUF and go beyond a simple obligatory round of thank-you’s, without getting too gushy? First, it is important that everyone know — or be reminded — that there is a mutual respect and appreciation between the members of the APSCUF team that extends to the interns. I felt as if I was treated like an adult more so then I have in my entire life, and that is no exaggeration. There was a remarkable balance between being offered help without ever feeling condescended to, and a level of trust in my abilities that I really appreciated. In addition to the work I did and the support I had, I learned a lot just from watching my supervisors, our president and others on calls, videos, etc. Needless to say, they do an amazing job, and I could see how well they carried themselves, how organized they were and how well-respected APSCUF is.

I had a sense of responsibility with APSCUF that I have not experienced before. Being tasked with interviewing members, giving meaningful input on policy issues, and writing stories and posts for the website and social media all made me feel like I was doing meaningful, appreciable work —and that is something I crave. Something I know we all deserve. I speak with full sincerity when I say that I’ve looked back on the stories that I’ve written for the website and felt a deeply satisfying sense of gratification. I’d even be so bold as to say I feel sentimental about my time with APSCUF, despite the fact that my internship was entirely remote and only lasted 10 weeks. While being remote meant that I had less opportunity to spend time getting to know my co-workers and to meet legislators, my supervisors were great about keeping me connected. I was still able to meet and make connections with the team members, and I attended virtual meetings and public hearings. In fact, one of the first things APSCUF interns do is meet all of the department heads individually. This is such a simple gesture, yet so poignantly emblematic of what students get with an APSCUF internship.

There is too much to talk about to give a full picture of my experience at APSCUF and my appreciation for what it’s done for me and for young minds across the State System. I wish more students knew about APSCUF and understood its impact, but I will be sure to spread the word as far as I can. I also wish I could have spent time with the team in person, but even through virtual meetings and phone calls I feel as though I’ve made some valuable connections and made some wonderful friends.

Thank you to Kathryn and Sean for hiring me and guiding me, and thank you to Jamie Martin and the rest of the APSCUF team for being so supportive and welcoming. It was a short few months, but I will forever look back on them fondly.

—Kyle Bower,
APSCUF intern

Matt Girton has applied his background in organizational communication and conflict management to various roles in APSCUF — from strike council to negotiations committee, and now to the executive council as an officer-at-large. Girton said he understands the problems facing Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, and he is ready to tackle them.

Matt Girton

“You cannot cut your way out of a structural deficit,” he said. “It will not affect every school equally. That is the challenge going forward.”

Having helped to organize the fall 2016 APSCUF faculty strike and to negotiate a one-year contract, Girton said he uses a conflict-management strategy based on the five conflict-management styles, emphasizing the collaborative style of conflict resolution.

“If you can understand some superordinate interest, the end result is something that both parties can buy into,” he said. “If what it comes down to is competition, you get what you’ve gotten in previous years. The process will break down if one or both parties believe that their interests aren’t being taken into consideration.”

Girton began his career as an adjunct professor for Shippensburg University before transferring to Lock Haven University and beginning a tenure track. He became a member of the chapter’s executive council, before serving as chapter president from 2017 to 2019. Girton worked toward greater involvement in APSCUF from the beginning.

“It is hard to get into committees,” he said, “but I pestered Steve Hicks (then chapter president), and he was good about getting me involved.”

Hicks, also a past State APSCUF president, regarded Girton as having qualities that illustrated his potential.

“Matt was a fairly new, young faculty member,” Hicks said. “But he was enthusiastic. He was clearly unafraid of getting involved. On top of that, he was not shy about speaking and had things to say.

“Of course, as a chapter leader, one is always looking for new talent — the next generation, if you will. And he looked like that. That he would someday be chapter president and then on state exec council, well, I wouldn’t have been surprised.”

In entering his new position, Girton said he feels his experience and the union’s previous success have prepared him for his current role.

“This is one of the most challenging times that I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been in the strike.” he said. “There was a concern then in terms of how unified we would be. And we answered that definitively. Hopefully that still resonates with the officer of the chancellor.”

Girton said he finds inspiration from his parents and his wife, Joanette.

“My heroes are the people that I am closest to,” Girton said. “I have parents that are truly remarkable. I point to those two individuals, in addition to my wife. She is self-made, somebody who came up and educated herself through her own initiative.”

More about Girton

Girton said he likes to play tennis and run to stay active. He also loves to travel with his wife, who works in the travel industry. Girton is also a tenor saxophonist who has played in the Rose Bowl and appeared in the movie “Naked Gun” as a marching-band member.

“At the end of the movie, you can see the top of my head for a brief moment,” Girton said of his cameo in the film. Girton resides in Lock Haven with his wife.

—Kyle Bower,
APSCUF intern