Having voiced strong concerns about the State System Redesign last week at both Senate and House committee meetings in Harrisburg, the faculty union at the State System of Higher Education universities has arranged four recording sessions to collect public comments about the System’s university consolidation plans, which would combine six schools into two.
The sessions are planned for June 3rd, 8th, 14th, and 15th, with the one on the 15th reserved for student comments.
The State System has scheduled public comment hearings via Zoom on June 9th and 10th. The public comment period runs until June 30th, two weeks before the next Board of Governors meetings.
APSCUF, the faculty union, is also collecting stories from retrenched faculty members and publishing them on its website, apscuf.org. Retrenchment, which is unrelated to the State System Redesign, took effect at the end of this academic year. IUP originally sent retrenchment letters to 81 faculty members, but that number was reduced to around thirty, mainly though retirements and incentives, with about forty support/administrative furloughs also planned.
