100 layoff notices sent to faculty

More than 100 tenured and tenuretrack faculty members of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education received notices Friday that they may lose their jobs at the end of the upcoming spring semester.

Retrenchment, or furlough, letters went out to faculty at Cheyney, Edinboro, Indiana, Lock Haven and Mansfield universities. California and Clarion universities of Pennsylvania notified the faculty union of possible retrenchments as well but none of their tenured professors received notices by Friday’s deadline when universities were contractually bound to inform them.

According to the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, the breakdown of the furlough notices by university have six of them at Cheyney, 21 at Edinboro, 81 at Indiana, two at Lock Haven, and three at Mansfield.

The union’s labor agreement requires tenured faculty to be notified by Oct. 30 if they are in danger of losing their job. Nontenured faculty whose job is at risk are to be notified by Dec. 1; second-year probationary nontenured faculty members by Dec. 15; and first-year probationary nontenured faculty members by March 1.

The system is in the process of increasing its student-faculty ratios as part of its redesign efforts to return to the levels they were at in 2010-11 whenthe system’s enrollment peaked near 120,000. This fall, it stands at 93,708 students. According to the union, the PASSHE averaged 21.07 students to every faculty member in 2010, and it averaged 17.43 students per faculty member in 2018.