PennWest professors paint bleak picture while consolidation challenges persist
Faculty members at Pennsylvania Western University are tired, stressed and demoralized, faculty union leaders told PennWest’s Council of Trustees during a Thursday meeting.
Their voiced concerns come nearly two years after three struggling stateowned institutions consolidated to form PennWest. Since then, the fledgling school continues to face enrollment declines and financial woes.
Meanwhile, faculty members still grapple with disorganization and confusion in certain aspects of consolidation, leaders with the Association of Pennsylvania State College & University Faculties said Thursday.
“The faculty are not OK,” said Joyce Overly, a chemistry professor at the Clarion campus who serves as APSCUF-Clarion’s chapter president. “When will the chaos end?”
Citing a current challenge, Ms. Overly said lastminute changes and corrections are being made to the fall schedule, despite the fact that fall registration opens on Monday. Professors are trying to provide scheduling advice to students, but often have incorrect or flawed information, she said.
“It’s been nearly two years since the consolidation became official, and this degree of disorganization makes our lives very difficult,” Ms. Overly said. “It has a negative effect on retention and the lack of clarity about scheduling and how students will meet their degree requirements is really upsetting to all.”
Struggles also stem from a lack of updated or accurate information about PennWest and its professors online, said Mario Majcen, faculty president for APSCUF-CalU.
Mr. Majcen said PennWest still doesn’t have a fully functional university website where prospective students can find professor biographies. At the same time, outdated campus websites with inaccurate information remain online, Mr. Majcen said. Jim Geiger, PennWest’s vice president of advancement, said the university plans to launch a new website after this semester.
Currently, students and prospective students are often misinformed about current program offerings and faculty positions. That brings confusion to students and frustration to professors, said Mr. Majcen, who teaches atmospheric sciences.
“Our faculty are stressed out,” he said. “We’ve been doing a lot of work at a neck-breaking pace. At some point, we can’t do that anymore.”
Over the past two years, faculty have designed new curriculum, new courses, new policies and new procedures while performing their regular teaching duties, Mr. Majcen said. He described his colleagues as “tired,” defeated” and “demoralized” — and expressed concerns that if conditions don’t improve, educators will leave PennWest.
In a statement, PennWest spokeswoman Wendy Mackall said the university appreciates the “hard work and dedication” of PennWest’s faculty.
“We will continue to encourage an open dialogue with our faculty in order to have their voices heard,” Ms. Mackall said. “The future continues to be bright for this institution.”
And at Thursday’s meeting, interim President Laurie Bernotsky said she has “nothing but hope for PennWest.” The interim leader will step down this summer to become president of another state system university, West Chester. Ms. Bernotsky was the second person to lead the tri-campus school.
A nationwide presidential search kicked off earlier this month to identify a long-term leader for the young university.
The university’s next president could offer one “cornerstone” of stability, said Mr. Majcen. But though the search is only in its first few weeks, Mr. Majcen and Ms. Overly had some criticism of the process.
Mr. Majcen said he believes faculty have not been consulted enough in the search process, while Ms. Overly called the process “hasty.”
Ms. Overly believes there is “change fatigue” at PennWest. Faculty members feel apathetic or overwhelmed by too many changes, which started during the pandemic and continued throughout consolidation.
“Our PennWest faculty desperately need a sense of stability and continuity in how they meet their responsibilities,” Ms. Overly said.
Samuel Claster, faculty president with APSCUFEdinboro, said he believes PennWest’s faculty environment will be healthy when the faculty can once again focus on “teaching, research and service.”
“The challenge is to create a new culture, but to do that, we need to create a sense of belonging to the institution,” said Mr. Claster, who serves as chair of Edinboro’s Department of Sociology. “... It’s time to focus on building new life on our campuses again.”