A month after indicating it might refuse to comply with an arbitrator’s order, Portland State University (PSU) has agreed to reinstate 10 faculty members who were laid off last June.
The decision came after local and national leaders with PSU-American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and other unions spoke out against PSU using its limited financial resources to fund a legal battle to fight the reinstatements.
In a Jan. 13 statement, PSU President Ann Cudd said the layoffs were made during a time of low enrollment and in compliance with the union contract, but said PSU would reinstate the faculty members.
PSU-AAUP said the university is still claiming the arbitrator overstepped their role under the collective bargaining agreement.
“In holding to their misinterpretation of the rights of reinstatement, PSU’s administration is expressly reserving the right to make further illegitimate layoffs and to violate the contract with relative impunity,” PSU-AAUP said in a press release announcing the reinstatements.
Jennifer Kerns, an associate professor in PSU’s history department who was laid off last June and reinstated Jan. 26 under the arbitrator’s order, said she had been actively looking for work while unemployed but hadn’t been able to find another position. The loss of her income — and the tuition assistance available to the children of Oregon public university employees — was a huge strain on Kerns and her daughter. Kerns has taught at PSU for 25 years.
“It’s been a very rewarding profession that has been deeply meaningful to me, and I’m really happy to get back to work,” Kerns said.
