Hundreds of Penn State faculty members voiced concerns about reopening. Have they been ignored?
Penn State’s plan to resume in-person classes for the fall semester was a relief to some students, employees and downtown businesses, but some faculty are questioning how the university reached that decision.
More than 840 faculty and more than 300 graduate employees, students or others signed an open letter sent Friday to three university administrators, including President Eric Barron.
The letter chiefly called for faculty to have autonomy when deciding how classes are delivered, a promise of job security and transparency in the decision-making process.
The university did not respond to the letter as of noon Tuesday and Barron ignored faculty concerns when announcing a “Back to State” plan Sunday for resuming in-person classes, organizer and associate Spanish and Portuguese professor Sarah Townsend said in a statement.
“President Barron’s statement doesn’t address any of the concerns we expressed in our open letter. It offers no guarantee that faculty will be able to take the measures needed to protect their own safety, along with the safety of their students, staff, and the broader community,” Townsend said. “Right now, many people are worried about whether they’ll have a job in the fall, and yet his statement says nothing about job security for non-tenure track faculty and staff, and the critical need for funding our graduate students.”
The past three months have been a whirlwind for university leaders. There were questions about the spring and fall semesters, graduation, the college football season, a class-action lawsuit over the decision to shift to online classes and more.
Answers came about the same time administrators said they were bracing to face at least $260 million in losses over the next 14 months and a series of cuts, including potential furloughs or layoffs.
Barron sent several open letters to community members, participated in at least four town halls open to faculty, staff and students, and helped organize 16 task groups that developed the university’s reopening plan.
The university also sent separate surveys to students and faculty and staff, which informed the university’s complex planning, spokeswoman Lisa Powers wrote Tuesday in an email.
“As we move forward, our plans will be shaped by new and continued collaborations, as we look forward to continuing to actively engage faculty, staff and students,” Powers wrote. “Their voices are an important part of these efforts.”
More than 250 faculty, staff and administrators comprised the task groups that helped reach a decision that affects tens of thousands of families and employees.
But, according to Townsend, each member of the task forces was appointed by administration and fewer than 20 are faculty. Nearly all faculty members also have administrative titles, Townsend said.
Faculty are the “driving force behind the education mission of the university,” but have not been consulted in a “meaningful way,” Joshua Wede, teaching professor of psychology, said in a statement.
“Faculty feel that their concerns about personal and public health are being ignored or downplayed by administrators, and that they are being subjected to a dangerous, potentially deadly experiment without their informed consent,” education professor Esther Prins said in a statement.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 7:17 PM.