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APSCUF WCU On-line Elections |
Introduction
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The nominees for APSCUF State Delegates are:
Nominations close Nov 14, 2003. All APSCUF Faculty may be nominated. |
Rules for the Election
- State Delegates are elected by a plurality of votes cast, with no delegate being elected with less than twenty-five percent of the ballots cast.
- State Delegate seats will be filled by the candidates with the highest vote count until all seats are filled. The remaining candidates, ranked by highest vote count, will fill seats for Alternate State Delegate until all seats for alternates are filled.
Jen Bacon
Department: English
I'm honored to be included on a list of such committed faculty members. As a local delegate for the past year and a half, I've only just begun to understand the important role that APSCUF can play in creating the sort of institution that students are excited to attend, and faculty are committed to lead. I've been working hard for social justice issues for my entire adult life, however, and I think it's really important to have a voice at the State Assembly who is tapped into the interests of women, persons of color, gays and lesbians, and individuals with disabilities. West Chester University is way out in the lead on many of these issues, and we need representatives who will continue to urge the rest of the system forward. I will be an advocate for equality and fairness first and foremost, working to change the reputation of our union as an "old boys" network where the interests of those at the top of the payscale trump the interests of our newer, more vulnerable faculty members. I'm not sure it is that way any more, but the reputation lingers, and I won't really know whether the union represents me or not unless I get involved in the battles at the state level to see where my ideas go when they leave the local assembly.
Roger Barth
Department: Chemistry
In the last five years, APSCUF faculty have lost ground economically in comparison to the Consumer Price Index and in comparison to management. Management has been able to control the pace of negotiations to our disadvantage. As a result, it now takes 13 years to climb from the bottom to the top of the pay scale instead of six years. Summer pay is no longer paid based on the current salary scale. The overall salary scale has increased by about 2.2% a year, compared to 2.5% for the CPI. Recent hires have less favorable treatment for retirement health benefits. We need to do better.
In addition to issues of salary and benefits, I think APSCUF needs to take the lead in fighting efforts to centralize the SSHE. Centralization will lead to costly increases to the bureaucratic infrastructure with a concomitant increase in gridlock and frustration characteristic of other state agencies.
I favor the following steps. 1. Direct election of State APSCUF officers. At least we would get to hear them and see their faces every few years. As it stands, they don’t know us, and we don’t know them. 2. Early strike authorization. Management should have no assurance that we will continue to work for even one minute without a contract. 3. Thorough strike preparations in the spring of the final contract year. 4. A clear understanding that unless there is very substantial progress toward a new contract, the informal strike deadline will be mid-September. 5. Strong, effective voter registration and election turn-out drives for students at every campus every year. The traditionally low turn-out among students is a key factor that makes state higher education such a low priority in Harrisburg.
As one state delegate from one institution, I can’t hope to accomplish everything that I favor, but we have to start somewhere. For you, the place to start is by electing a state delegate who has a program to get us out of the current rut.
David F. Brown
Department: Elementary Education
I am interested in representing WCU faculty at state assembly again. I was a state delegate for three years from 1999 until 2001. I believe that the views of many faculty must be shared with the other state system faculty. I want to continue to represent the unique viewpoints and positions of West Chester University faculty due to our geographic location and the implications of living in such an expensive area of Pennsylvania.
Blaise Frost
Department: Chemistry
As a WCU representative to APSCUF State Delegate Assemblies many times in the past, I have worked for our faculty faithfully and honestly. My interactions with other WCU State Delegates and with delegates from the other SSHE schools has always been collegial and productive. I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to continue this work. Thanks for your time and (hopefully) your support.
Seth Kahn
Department: English
I came to WCU in August 2002 for many reasons, not the least of which is to be part of a unionized faculty. As a long-time organizer, I'm a strong believer in the power of grassroots campaigning, and I want to work to see APSCUF use the power we have in order to produce positive changes system-wide and on our campus; more importantly, I want to work to see APSCUF more organized and active in between contract negotiation periods. If the Chancellor's Office and the Board of Governors won't advocate more aggressively for us in the state legislature, we need to organize and do it ourselves. If the Governor and the media won't watchdog SSHE administrative philosophies and practices on their own, we need to do it for them. If nobody else will articulate the importance of public education to state and federal legislators, we need to do it. If nobody else will defend faculty and individual campuses from the centralization of authority in a Board with little stake in the ramifications of their own authority, we have to. One of our most important tasks, one that underpins these projects, is to work at the state level to encourage more active participation among APSCUF members. Grassroots organizations work best when everybody participates to the best of their abilities and interests. While the State Assembly should be an important decision-making body that represents the various interests of the system's campuses, it should also be a place to coordinate and support activist work across the system.
John Kennedy
Department: Political Science
Rodney Mader
Department: English
I served my department and APSCUF as a Local Delegate from Fall 2001-Spring 2003. I have also served on the Social Justice Committee (formerly Gender Issues Committee) for the past four years. Our work included advocacy for domestic partnership benefits, parental leave benefits, and workplace bullying policies. I represented the committee in Harrisburg at the State Gender Issues Committee meeting in October of 2001, and I enjoyed meeting with my colleagues from around the state and having a voice on statewide union issues. I would be pleased to represent West Chester as a State Delegate.
Sheri Melton
Department: Kinesiology
I would be privileged to represent the interests, positions, and concerns of WCU's faculty. As an APSCUF State Delegate, I would be a voice for "Quality, Fairness, and Equity", the three values being considered in the present negotiations. There are some things that just should not be compromised.
Created and copyrighted by Clifford Johnston, 2000-12