Pa. court says state-owned universities violated pact by cutting faculty without discussion beforehand

Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court has issued a split opinion in a case with implications for faculty cuts imposed at 10 state-owned universities since 2021 and any future professor layoffs.

In an opinion that partly affirmed an arbitrator’s earlier decision, the court said Friday that the State System of Higher Education failed to have contractually mandated discussions with its professors’ union before setting new faculty-to-student ratios systemwide in 2020-2021.

A number of layoffs resulted from the change in ratio.

The court ordered that additional talks between the system and union “be held immediately to discuss possible retrenchments” contemplated for this and future years.

The court reversed a second remedy ordered by the arbitrator that “those faculty members who were improperly retrenched … shall be reinstated and made whole for lost wages, seniority and fringe benefits.”

Friday’s decision flows from a grievance filed by the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties on Sept. 8, 2020, and a Petition for Review filed by the State System after the arbitrator decided in APSCUF’s favor on Jan. 23.

The 10 state-owned universities — among them, PennWest University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Slippery Rock University — already faced worsening enrollment and financial pressures when the covid-19 pandemic shuttered campuses in early 2020.

On March 27, 2020, State System Chancellor Daniel Greenstein “urged ‘unprecedented measures’ to rapidly align university expenditures with enrollment,” according to the court’s 24-page opinion.

Three weeks after that, according to the opinion, Greenstein issued a directive calling on university presidents to reduce student/faculty ratios to 2010-2011 levels by the 2021-2022 academic year.

At the time of that directive, system enrollment that had peaked during the 2010-2011 academic year at nearly 120,000 students had fallen to 96,000, suggesting faculty retrenchment would be necessary under the new ratio.

The system’s enrollment has continued to decline since. As of 2022-2023, enrollment stood at about 85,000 students.

The court opinion doesn’t say how many professors lost their jobs over the changed ratio.

”APSCUF is still considering our legal options, and we cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings, ” said Kenneth Mash, president of the 5,000-member APSCUF and an East Stroudsburg University political science professor.

The union said 113 faculty received retrenchment letters.

“Some faculty retired or resigned. After APSCUF’s efforts, the State System pulled some letters or recalled some faculty into temporary positions,” the union said in a statement Monday “ After all this, 25 faculty members are on what we refer to as a preferential hiring list.”

The union said the State System has not sent out notices of any potential faculty retrenchment for 2023-24.

Kevin Hensil, a State System spokesman, said the system is reviewing the court’s decision, declining further comment.

In its decision, the Commonwealth Court wrote, “The arbitrator determined (the State System) had not provided early notification that retrenchment of faculty was being considered, even though it was clearly aware of the need for ‘unprecedented’ reforms, possibly including retrenchment, as early as the fall of 2019, months before the covid-19 pandemic began.”

Some subsequent conflicts might have been avoided had the State System done so, the arbitrator added.

But the court, noting management’s right to decide faculty levels, took issue with the arbitrator’s order to reinstate all retrenched faculty, saying such a remedy was not based in the collective bargaining agreement.

“The arbitrator exceeded her authority by essentially requiring those universities to retain more academic faculty than their respective presidents deem to be needed,” the court concluded.