FACULTY VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

IN

PRESIDENT JAVIER CEVALLOS


The policies of Kutztown University, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, and the Collective Bargaining Agreement clearly express the intent to build an academic community through shared governance and actions based upon good faith.


According to the Kutztown University Mission Statement:


“Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, a member of the State System of Higher Education, is actively dedicated to excellence in learning and to the success of its diverse community of students.” [2005-2007 Undergraduate Catalogue, 7]


According to Article 1 of the Kutztown University Faculty Senate Constitution:


“The purpose of the University Senate is to function as a representative body of the faculty and professional staff to the end of initiating and/or reviewing all academic policies and procedures and any other matters which impact upon the University.”


According the PASSHE Enabling Legislation:


Per Act 188 of 1982, which created the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, each campus president is delegated specific powers and duties “To make and implement specific campus policies pertaining to instructional programs, research programs, and public service programs and academic standards in accordance with policies of the Board following consultation with council, faculty, and students.” [Section 20-2010-A.(2)]


According to the 2007-2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA):


“APSCUF and the STATE SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION, desiring to cooperate each with the other in mutual respect and harmony, have agreed to the provisions of this Agreement in consideration of the following…


  1. The UNIVERSITIES exist for the common good of the citizens of the Commonwealth, particularly the students who attend such UNIVERSITIES. In a world of rapid change and recurring crises, all will be served best by an intellectual environment which encourages the search for the truth.

  2. APSCUF as the representative of the above named employees recognizes its obligation to permit all individuals and groups on each campus to be included in the consideration of matters related to them.

  3. The parties recognize that collective bargaining in good faith will further their common aim of offering the best possible educational opportunities at the UNIVERSITIES and assert their intention to abide by the terms of the Agreement.

BILL OF PARTICULARS


Through his actions, President Javier Cevallos has violated the intent and the spirit of our contract, state law, and our university governing documents. Further, his decisions have had a direct and negative effect on the academic standards, working conditions, governance, and the growth of Kutztown University.


I . Erosion of Academic Quality

The Academic Forum


Academic Forum places cost-effectiveness over academic excellence to the detriment of both the students and faculty at Kutztown University. Courses formerly devoted to writing, a basic skill necessary for success after graduation, now feature scantrons as their primary measurement of achievement. Massive class sizes have forced a separation between the faculty and the students and changes in basic pedagogy. Faculty now find it equally difficult to cultivate gifted students as well as meets the needs of students with disabilities or those who are at risk.

Dr. Cevallos has not created a meaningful plan to mitigate the negative academic consequences of large classes. In fact, the critical academic responsibility of deciding what courses would be placed in the Academic Forum were delegated not to the faculty, but the off-campus consulting firm of Paulien & Associates, Inc.


Faculty have repeatedly requested graduate assistants, additional release time/compensation, and a course rotation policy to assist in the formidable academic problems created by the Academic Forum.



Some minor efforts have been attempted. In the Spring of 2007, the Provost allowed one additional day to submit final examination grades. He offered one graduate assistant per class to help proctor exams in the Fall of 2007.

However, all of these actions are piecemeal responses to faculty protests.

The Academic Forum will have a significant impact on student learning, retention, and graduation rates. Dr. Cevallos’ claims that only 3% of courses are being held in the Academic Forum is not supported by the facts. The actual number of classes in the Forum is closer to 20%, with some majors having an even larger proportion.


Fourth Tier


In 2007, U.S. News & World Report, let the entire country know that Kutztown University was a fourth tier institution. President Cevallos explained that we had dropped from third to fourth tier as a result of a simple error in reporting our class size data. Faculty were asked to consider the plausibility of bureaucratic incompetence or the actual impact of increasing class sizes on our national ranking.


II. Deteriorating Working Conditions


Space


Too many faculty and coaches are forced to work in spaces that are overcrowded and totally unsuitable for their job responsibilities. Many of these individuals now share former closets and conference rooms. One office in Keystone Hall is actually a shower stall. It is not uncommon to find faculty advising students in hallways. Office space formerly used to accommodate students under the Americans with Disabilities Act are no longer available. As faculty workloads and numbers have increased, a fundamental component of the workplace continues to suffer.


Health


While a campus construction boom continues, older buildings are in decline. Outdated and worn-out HVAC systems are increasingly unable to accommodate building use and seasonal changes in the weather. Consequently, water leaks and mold are a constant health concern for faculty.


Heat


On too many occasions, classrooms become heat traps that prevent quality education. Again, in older buildings, this is the product of outdated HVAC systems. However, the same problem is a constant in the new Academic Forum classrooms as well as the renovated sections of the Sharadin Art Building and other locations on campus.


IT



While the university prides itself on modernizing the classroom, Instructional Technology at Kutztown has been an ongoing source of faculty frustration. Poorly managed purchases, installation, and maintenance of both hardware and software have significantly interfered with faculty work. The latest round of computer replenishment revealed an Instructional Technology system that is badly broken. APSCUF-KU filed a grievance on this problem in 2007. It has been approved to arbitration.



III. Violations of the Contract and University Governance System


Commonalities


The administration received the draft proposal for this portion of SAP in November 2005. It did not release this information to the faculty for almost a year, effectively preventing a discussion on the significant impact that Commonalities would have on local academic policies. Although APSCUF-KU and the University Senate flagged more than two dozen potential conflicts between the Commonalities Agreement and local academic policies, the administration failed to respond to concerns until two days prior to the PASSHE deadline for amendments. President Cevallos has refused to fund software that is available to make SAP compliant with local academic policies.


General Education Reform


Under normal governance procedures and as a matter of past practice, changes to general education are the responsibility of the University Curriculum Committee (a contract committee) and must pass through the University Senate and the APSCUF-KU Representative Council before they are implemented. Despite repeated protests from the union, the president bypassed this process when he had a consulting firm hold a campus referendum on general education reform. The failure of the referendum averted a policy grievance from the faculty in 2006.


Sexual Harassment Policy


In September 2006, the administration unilaterally issued its own sexual harassment policy. This followed months of claims by the Director of the Office of Social Equity and by KU Human Resources that the existing policy was illegal. Management ignored repeated APSCUF-KU requests for specific information on the portions of the policy that allegedly violated the law and the actual statutes in question. The 2006 policy stripped out specific provisions under Art. 43 of the CBA that protect the rights of faculty under investigation.


The previous sexual harassment policy had been the product of a lengthy effort by the faculty, using the established governance process, in concert with management here and in Harrisburg.


APSCUF-KU filed a policy grievance on this matter in 2006. It was approved to arbitration in 2007.


Due Process



The university administration has frequently ignored a fundamental faculty right to due process under Art. 43 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Specifically, Art. 43.B, which states, “The FACULTY MEMBER accused of wrongdoing must receive a copy of the written complaint prior to the commencement of an investigatory review or pre-disciplinary conference.”


Adjunct Pools


Like regular, tenure-track faculty, temporary faculty (or "adjuncts") are hired by a process established by a local agreement on hiring policy.

However, the administration has decided to create adjunct "pools" as a means to hire temporary faculty. These pools are created by placing ads for specific positions on the university website. Once applications are made, they are "certified" by the Office of Social Equity for later consideration by the school.


This policy violates existing Kutztown University hiring guidelines. It bypasses the procedure by which the faculty interview and recommend applicants for employment at Kutztown University. State APSCUF has also taken the position that adjunct pools are illegal.


APSCUF-KU filed a policy grievance on this matter in 2006. It was approved to arbitration in 2007.


Management of the Lifelong Learning Center


Under the provisions of Art. 27 of the CBA governing Continuing Education, management is required to submit courses to be taught to relevant departments and local APSCUF before these courses are offered to faculty outside the bargaining unit.


In practice, the Lifelong Learning Center has routinely and repeatedly ignored this contractual requirement. Hundreds of courses have been listed without meeting the contractual requirement mandated by Art. 27.


APSCUF-KU filed a policy grievance on this issue in 2006. It was approved to arbitration in September 2007.



Violations of Article 11 G


According to the CBA, temporary full-time faculty with five consecutive years of employment are eligible for conversion to a tenure-line position. The university has deliberately interrupted this process to prevent the conversion of full-time temporary faculty. Faculty typically have been given contracts that reduce them to 3/4 load, thus blocking the path to tenure. This action has been a cost-saving measure that violates the Collective Bargaining Agreement.



IV. Mismanagement of Growth


SAP


SAP [financial management software] was introduced to centralize the administrative functions of PASSHE schools. The adoption of SAP at Kutztown University has made the administration of individual academic departments unnecessarily complicated and time-consuming.



During 2007, the financial aid components of SAP at Kutztown University failed, significantly disrupting new admissions to the school as well as current students’ ability to attend classes in the Fall semester.


The expansion of SAP into academic areas such as withdrawal policy is a direct violation of the CBA and current school governance procedure. As noted above, although software is available to customize SAP to comply with local policies, Dr. Cevallos has rejected that option because of its cost.


Budget Decentralization


The university has spent two years discussing budget decentralization. Ostensibly, decentralization will promote greater department decision making on expenditures, allow budget surpluses to carry from year to year, and grant departments the ability to control tenure lines.

All of these considerations are economic rather than academic. They introduce market principles into a segment of the campus that needs to focus on research and learning. Department chairs are not financial managers, yet decentralization will impose a premium on this activity.


Moreover, as late as April 2007, fundamental components of budget decentralization --computer software, seat targets, faculty tenure lines, facilities use-- remain unresolved.


This uncoordinated and badly articulated process has left the faculty with the sense that the driving force behind decentralization is economic and not academic. Unlike West Chester, Kutztown did not start decentralization by including academic need in the discussion. Instead, we focused on budget apportionment among the academic departments, or "credit generating units," as they were referred to in a March 2007 meeting.


Dr. Cevallos has since refused to allow faculty membership on the current committee tasked with implementation of budget decentralization.


Department budgets

At the start of the 2006 school year, department chairs expressed a series of long-standing and unresolved budgetary problems. These included facilities, maintenance, and other non-academic responsibilities that were being charged to the academic departments. The chairs also registered complaints regarding the lack of budget increases commensurate with department growth, increasing responsibilities for accreditation, and the poor quality of the SAP system to manage department budgets.

Recent increases in department budgets by the Provost have alleviated some of these problems. However, they have been identified for years with practically no progress towards resolving them. Moreover, in departments were growth has been dramatically large, administrative support for professional development, book purchases, facilities, and many other issues still remain inadequate.


Hiring process


The Kutztown University faculty hiring process is broken at nearly every administrative level. Months of administrative delays and bottlenecks severely handicap such simple tasks as placing advertisements in professional publications. Consequently, numerous departments are forced to conduct late searches, some of which extend faculty work into the Summer months without compensation. Moreover, despite repeated requests from department chairs, budgets for job searches in general, and for minority applicants in particular is inadequate.


Coordination of admissions and course scheduling


Under the president, admissions policy has focused on growth without adequate coordination between the administration and the academic departments. It has become a regular occurrence to have courses canceled in June because of a lack of students, only to have additional sections added later in the Summer when new enrollment finally appears. This practice has played havoc on department chairs and department hiring committees. More importantly, the academic quality of students admitted late in the Summer before classes begins varies wildly and poses a significant problem once they begin their studies.


Termination of the Early Learning Center


On 20 April 2007, the university announced the termination of the Early Learning Center. The primary reason provided was financial, although the president cited security concerns as well as a space shortage on campus for his decision.

The impact on the faculty, students, families, children, and alumni vested in the center appears to have occupied a secondary or tertiary priority for the president. At no point were any of these constituencies included in the decision making process to offer alternatives or, at the very least, be provided a fair warning of the decision. The fact that applications were being accepted for next year up until 20 April speaks volumes.

It was only after a storm of faculty and public protest that the university reversed its position.


Since that point in time, the administration has formed an Early Learning Center Task Force. This body includes faculty, parents, and staff. During the course of its meetings from May 2007 to the present, it has become obvious that the task force is simply symbolic and not meant to represent joint decision making in any form. Tuition for the ELC was doubled without a vote from the task force. Faculty and parent questions regarding funding, security, and space have either been blocked or ignored.


In October 2007, the administration announced that it would take half the current space available to the Early Learning Center. As of January 2008, president Cevallos has offered no alternative plan for space on or off campus. As of January 2008, president Cevallos has offered no solutions regarding the ELC budget crisis he cited last April.