APSCUF-WCU

WCU APSCUF Executive Committee’s Statement on Academic Freedom*

The West Chester University Executive Committee of APSCUF affirms the statement from the WCU administration on 1 November 2023 that the university must remain “staunch defenders of the academic freedom of our faculty and the rights and freedoms of students not only at West Chester University but in higher education broadly.”

We reaffirm the right of all members of our community to express their views, engage in scholarly discourse, and participate in activism without fear of reprisal or retaliation, in accordance with Article 2 of the APSCUF Collective Bargaining Agreement. In this critical moment, we state unequivocally that WCU community members have the right to speak out on issues related to Israel and Palestine without fear of intimidation, harassment, discrimination, threats of violence, antisemitism, and Islamophobia.

As core members of the university, we commit ourselves to actively combatting all instances of discrimination and oppression. We recognize that threats and intimidation are no part of the academic endeavor and have no place in our community.  In that vein, we are committed to working with the administration to prevent these instances from occurring, and also to protecting faculty members should they experience them. We recognize the increasing instances of antisemitism and Islamophobia, including threatened and actual violence because of the current conflict; we commit to defending the right of all to feel safe in their own homes and workplaces, regardless of the focus of their work.

In line with the following statement from Rutgers University AAUP, we believe that “people of all faiths, races, and identities deserve to live in a world free from war, violence, terror, and oppression.” In making this statement, we have no desire to sow division within our union. We urge our members to find ways in these difficult times to uphold the practice of solidarity, with each other, with our students, and with members of our communities locally and globally.

*The WCU APSCUF Executive Committee, comprising 18 voting members, voted by majority, not consensus, to approve this statement for distribution to WCU faculty.

**This document has been revised since the initial communication on 11/9/2023. The spelling of “antisemitism” has been corrected.

The following statement was approved by unanimous consent of the WCUPA APSCUF Executive Committee, March 29, 2022

APSCUF WCU Student Debt Cancellation Statement

We, the West Chester University chapter of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and Universities Faculties (APSCUF), call on President Joe Biden to cancel all federally held student loan debt.

Student debt is a crisis. Student debt has reached nearly $1.75 Trillion, approximately 92% of which is federally held (US Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid). This Trillion dollar burden is shared by over 43 Million borrowers in the United States. The average federal student loan debt balance is $37,113 and the average public university student borrows $30,030 to attain a bachelor’s degree (Education Data Initiative). Student loan debt is preventing people from owning homes (Million Acres, 2021), getting married (Lendkey, 2020), and having children (Student Loan Planner, 2021).

Student debt is an educator crisis. Nearly half of all educators today are forced to take out loans to pay for college. The average educator from K-higher education now carries on average $58,700 in debt. Those with advanced and terminal degrees (such as faculty members) have loan debts far above that average, as 1 in 7 educators owe over $105,000 (NEA, 2021). In higher education, this burden disproportionately impacts adjunct faculty, who are routinely paid less, receive fewer benefits, are often excluded from eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and have less stable employment at their institutions.

Student debt is a Pennsylvania crisis.  Pennsylvania graduates carry some of the highest student loan debt in the country. The average student loan debt for the graduating class of 2020 rose to $39, 375, third highest in the nation. A full 64 percent of Pennsylvania college graduates had student loan debt in 2020, (Institute for College Access & Success, 2021). Due to decades of defunding the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education as well as the Commonwealth’s community colleges, Pennsylvania students have borne the burden of these cuts via their student loans.

Student debt is a social justice crisis. Student debt cancellation is a gender equity issue, with 58% of all student loan debt belonging to women. Similarly this crisis greatly affects Black and Latinx college students who are the most likely to use federal loans to pay for school. A full 49.4% of Black students borrow to pay for school with 66% of them expressing regret at having taken out education loans that now seem “unpayable” and “not worth it.” Latinx borrowers report an average of more than $40,000 in student debt. Meanwhile, a third of Latinx students who took on debt didn’t graduate, compared to a fourth of white borrowers, leaving them with more debt and fewer means to pay it off.

With a massive teacher shortage in the Commonwealth, the burden of student loan debt also disproportionately impacts educators of color, who carry far more than their white colleagues. Over half of Black educators, for example, took out an average of $68,300 in loans and a full 1 in 5 owe more than $105,000 (NEA, 2021). Thus, student loan debt is an often-overlooked barrier to diversifying the U.S. teaching workforce in kindergarten through higher education.

Student debt cancellation is possible. President Joe Biden has full executive authority to cancel all federal student debt using his powers of executive order. Canceling student debt is a policy that has broad political and public support, especially here at West Chester University. It is a first, but necessary, step towards remedying the failures in public higher education funding of the past several decades.

In Pennsylvania, and here at West Chester University, canceling student loan debt would provide a huge benefit to the many WCU Alums with student debt, as a full 75% of 2020 WCU Graduates left with an average debt of $37,100 (TICAS). Cancellation would be an enormous economic opportunity for these former students to increase spending in our local communities and be freed of the limitations this debt places on their lives.

APSCUF Responds to COVID: Status Update 9/7/2021

The WCU Chapter of APSCUF is continuing to work to improve the safety of our members and our community during the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. Our current actions focus on working with management to improve communications about COVID related issues, and encouraging students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated.

COVID Vaccination Numbers and Dashboard

Updated vaccination numbers, the number of surveillance screening tests of unvaccinated students performed, and the number of these tests that were positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 will be distributed to faculty via email by the end of this week.

Starting next week, ongoing updates about vaccination numbers and other vital statistics about COVID on campus should be available via a campus COVID dashboard. We’ll have further updates about this dashboard soon.

Improving COVID communications at WCU

APSCUF continues to work with the administration to improve how crucial information about the pandemic and pandemic related policy are communicated with the community. We’re working with management to clarify the COVID policies published on the “Rams Return” website. Later this week, we’ll launch a survey to gather more information about your satisfaction with current COVID policy.

Scholarship Opportunities for Vaccinated Students

The APSCUF Executive Committee has approved two new $2,000 scholarships to encourage student vaccinations. These scholarships are in addition to the scholarships already announced by WCU. Students who are receive a COVID-19 vaccination via the forthcoming on-campus vaccine clinic will be entered into a drawing to win one of these two scholarships. More details about the vaccine clinic will be available shortly.

Chancellor Brogan:

Given the fact that I’ve been urging faculty and students to contact you for about two months, it’s ironic that I’m only now writing to you myself. However, as I was prepping a session for my “Literature of the Enlightenment” class on the Declaration of Independence, I was struck by its characterization of oppressed people trying to free themselves from an unjust government. Even more, I was struck by how it was a last effort by a group of people to get an authority figure, George III of England, to come to a fair agreement with them.

Though I don’t want to push the analogy between the colonists and our current contract negotiations too far (analogies are always tricky), I think parts of it are apt here. The colonists considered themselves on the same team as King George: they thought of themselves as British. We hope that the PASSHE Chancellor and the PASSHE faculty have the same goals: success for our students. Colonists had tried to work out their differences with the government in Britain, such as asking for representation in Parliament and resenting oppressive measures from afar, but each attempt was met with inaction and disdain: “Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury.” Further, King George had stalled the colonists, “for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.” Sadly, faculty feel similarly.

They began to set deadlines, which the King ignored. Your state faculty find themselves in the same position: our contract provides deadlines, and you have ignored them, as faculty have been ready to negotiate at least a year before our contract expired. Faculty tell students they must meet deadlines all the time. Our institutions kick students out if they miss certain or too many deadlines. So the other irony of our current situation is that you are insisting that students do something that you have not done yourself. Students are suffering because those who should know better are not meeting basic professional responsibilities.

Tomorrow, a huge deadline approaches. You have the fate of our state system “nation” in your hands. Will you negotiate fairly? Will you provide a reasonable, fair contract that does not take away governance from faculty and treats them all equally, with dignity and respect?

The faculty’s declaration is clear: we are standing up for our students, our colleagues, and the future of the state system of higher education. We hope that you will do the same.

Cheryl Wanko