#APSCUF

[apscufku]

Theatre Stage Crew Union Strikes for Fair Pay and Working Conditions

Streaming services, like Netflix and Hulu, are at an all-time high both in subscribers and profits, but the production workers that make entertainment happen have been left behind. On Monday, October 4th, 2021, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) authorized their first strike in 128 years of existence. IATSE currently has over 150,000 members working in arts, media, and entertainment. Their goal is to ensure their members have fair wages and fair working conditions. 

98% of IATSE members voted yes to a strike, giving union president Matthew D. Loeb the authority to call for a production shutdown. Crew members such as set builders, videographers, and production assistants have been suffering from a loss of meal breaks, time to rest, and paychecks which are below the living wage for some members. Brad Simpson, a film and television producer, shared, “In my 20-plus years, though, I haven’t seen the below-the-line crew feeling so unified and so upset.” As a result of production shutdown during the early days of the coronavirus, crew workers have been expected to play catch-up at a rapid pace as streaming services attempt to produce content to hold onto subscribers and bring in new ones. The injustice the crew members have been experiencing has made it the perfect time to fight for fair conditions and wages, as streaming services need production to continue or could end up suffering financially. 

Production crew members are not often recognized but are just as important as the famous actors on your favorite Netflix show. Without them, the quality and experience of entertainment would not be the same. Theatre Crew workers previously had a seasonal schedule that accounted for personal time with a period that was not as intensive, but that time has come and gone. Now crew members are fighting for a 10-hour turnaround time between shifts and a 54-hour weekend turnaround time. They also are hoping to increase meal penalties, so production is forced to stop for the crew to have adequate time to eat and rest. Crew members are also suffering from the inability to pay their bills since some entry-level positions pay less than the living wage in Los Angeles, California. 

While the IATSE strike is authorized, it is not desired. IATSE is prepared to meet with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) who connect their employees to productions to discuss how they can meet the needs of the union members. “I hope that the studios will see and understand the resolve of our members,” Loeb said. “The ball is in their court. If they want to avoid a strike, they will return to the bargaining table and make us a reasonable offer.” The AMPTP responded, “The AMPTP remains committed to reaching an agreement that will keep the industry working." IATSE and AMPTP have continued negotiations as of Wednesday, October 13th, 2021. If the negotiations do not meet IATSE standards, Loeb is supporting a nationwide strike starting Monday, October 18th, 2021

As a union, APSCUF’s mission is to work on behalf of student and faculty interests. APSCUF-KU stands in solidarity with IATSE as they work towards better conditions for crew members and fair wages. If you are interested in learning more about IATSE and its work, we encourage you to visit https://iatse.net.

By Erica Bottjer, APSCUF-KU Intern Fall 2021

Sources Referenced

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/04/hollywood-strike-vote-production-workers/

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/iatse-strike-vote-result-1235079382/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/business/media/hollywood-union-strike.html

https://iatse.net/about/

[don-lichterman]

Health reasons force Martin to retire as APSCUF president | Local News

Health reasons force Martin to retire as APSCUF president | Local News

Upcoming medical treatment is forcing an Indiana University of Pennsylvania faculty member to step down as president of the union representing IUP and other Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education faculty. On Saturday, a past president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, Dr. Kenneth M. Mash, was elected to succeed Dr. Jamie Martin. Mash previously…

[ragingchicken]

Promises, Promises: Affordable College in Pittsburgh and Across Pennsylvania

Promises, Promises: Affordable College in Pittsburgh and Across Pennsylvania

“Why not free college?”

Sen. Vincent J. Hughes asked this repeatedly when he introduced the Pennsylvania Promise to Pennsylvania’s state legislature earlier this year. If passed, the legislation — introduced as Senate Bill 1111 and House Bill 2444 — would cover college costs for many Pennsylvania residents.

“I’ve heard from far too many college students who are struggling to make ends meet,” said…

[allen-howell]

How They Hold Us Down

Do managers in your work environment typically expect employees to compete with each other for scarce rewards (e.g., promotion, advancement, plum assignments, and the like)?  If so, your colleagues in such a climate will be more likely to hinder and obstruct each other than to create an environment where each colleague can find a clear path to individual achievement and advancement. Is such an environment conducive to the bottom line? Many managers seem to think so. In the PASSHE, for example, managers increasingly and systematically sew the seeds of dissension in academic departments across the Commonwealth. For example, by rewarding department chairs of academic departments in their attempts to deny tenure and promotion to an increasing percentage of incoming faculty, the desired outcome will be that a limited number of professors will advance to higher ranks (and higher pay and job security). An increasing percentage of professors thus will systematically be denied tenure and/or promotion and will be bumped off a successful career track. In the worst case, they will leave academia and pay off their exorbitant student loans in a field unrelated to their chosen academic discipline.  Only slightly better is if they are forced into an endless cycle of adjunct assignments. In the best case, they will merely suffer a delay as they move to a new system that encourages and nurtures them, and will allow them to settle down and prosper (academically and otherwise) in one place until retirement.

The practice of systematically discouraging and abusing new tenure track faculty members (ostensibly for the sake of creating a rigorous academic environment) can serve to create a revolving door for many new hires who accept tenure track positions. In a department that is colluding with management to keep an ongoing majority of the faculty members young, poor, and easily controllable, observant new professors may soon realize that it is in their best interests to hamstring their colleagues who have not yet reached the upper rungs of invulnerability. Behaving this way will make new professors seem more rigorous and professional and will show the cronies of management who are at the higher rungs of promotion in their department that they are willing to play ball according to the unspoken ground rules (adjunct faculty also fall into this trap because of their inherently vulnerable positions). PASSHE Deans and Provosts seem to be impressed by such behavior and have shown a propensity to lend their aid on the future paths of such professors to tenure and promotion. By playing the game well, clever new faculty will reap the rewards of having (a) reasonable course loads (with small class sizes and desirable meeting times/locations), (b) reasonable course assignments (to courses topics that they know well and are passionate about), (c) reasonable committee assignments, (d) reasonable related work assignments (accreditation, recruiting, community outreach, and the like), (e) reasonable office size/location, and on and on.

My department chair has baldly stated that it is much more difficult to get positive student evaluations in large classes than in small ones. Even though he said this to me in a conversation where he was commending me for my positive student evaluations, his statement nevertheless demonstrates that he is aware that the path to positive evaluations is steeper for faculty members who are assigned huge classes of non-majors than for those who work primarily with majors in small classes or one-on-one. He also has said that he works actively to keep the ratio of tenured faculty to adjunct faculty as low as possible, ostensibly to limit the likelihood, by keeping expenses low, that any of our tenured faculty members will be retrenched in the future. He has said that the purpose of our huge general education courses is to pay for our smaller more expensive music major courses, particularly for one-on-one studio instruction.

Recent Article 29 retrenchments (furloughs) in the PASSHE have disproportionately affected small cohesive departments. In cohesive departments, everyone is likely to thrive and thus be rewarded and become more expensive for the system as they grow older together. It is seemingly in the best financial interests of the PASSHE if managers can break these departments up (or get rid of them altogether) and create more cutthroat environments for new faculty who will then be more likely to obligingly shuffle through the revolving door of academic “rigor” than to insist on fair treatment. This is not to say that cohesive departments need to protect unproductive colleagues. Rigor is not antithetical to collegiality. The sad fact of the matter is that the bottom line has become the bottom line in an educational environment that increasingly favors managers who possess a bean counter mentality. Educational and human outcomes have taken a back seat to financial outcomes. The losers in this game are not only faculty members (of all ages). The primary losers are the hardworking yet vulnerable students (and their families) who are desperately trying to complete and to pay for an authentic education that includes reasonable class sizes in courses taught by academically and personally fulfilled professors.

[mrmichael55]

Spring Break and Beyond 

Hello from the house,

I am just getting home at around 7:00, having left before 8:00 this morning. The last two days I have been in conference mode, grading mode, and wrapping-things-into- a-neat-package mode. I have one class left to get some substantive work completed on yet this evening. If I get everything done I want by tomorrow afternoon, I will actually walk into break with everything…

[bloomsburgu]

No tuition hike for BU students

PA State System of Higher Education votes to freeze tuition for second consecutive year

HARRISBURG — On Wednesday, April 29, the Board of Governors for Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education for the first time in its 38-year history froze basic in-state tuition for a second consecutive year, even while confronting financial challenges brought on in part by the coronavirus pandemic.

Basic in-state tuition for undergraduate students at Bloomsburg University and the system's 13 other universities will remain at $7,716 for the 2020-21 academic year. Also remaining the same will be the system's technology fee for students, which stands at $478 for the academic year. The Board voted to freeze tuition and the technology fee unanimously. “We are united in believing that even under these historic, extraordinary circumstances, the State System must maintain its affordability and not pass the burden of these times onto our students," said Cindy Shapira, chair of the Board of Governors. “While the coronavirus has impacted so much of our society and economy, what remains the same is our mission to provide quality, affordable, accessible public higher education." Prior to last year, only once – the 1998-99 academic year – did the Board approved a year-to-year tuition freeze. It has never before frozen tuition for consecutive years. “Pennsylvania will recover from this pandemic, and our outstanding universities will have a role in leading the recovery," Chancellor Dan Greenstein said. “To be a leader will take courage, and the Board showed that kind of courage today by choosing to be on the side of students and affordability. We will be here to educate the business, healthcare, education, and community leaders of tomorrow by maintaining our place as the affordable higher education option for students of the Commonwealth."

“Yesterday’s decision by the Board of Governors (BOG) confirms its commitment to the students of the Commonwealth,” said Bloomsburg University President Bashar W. Hanna. “The BOG understands the financial implications of the coronavirus and its impact on students and their families.  At BU, we will continue to strive to ensure that a quality college education is accessible and affordable for our students, and we appreciate the leadership of the Board of Governors during these challenging times.”

For information on the BU admissions visit http://bloomu.edu/admissions.

In other board action: The State System approved a 10-year loan up to $6 million to Mansfield University, a measure that will support the 163-year-old institution with a path toward fiscal sustainability and accountability. Mansfield University must submit a fiscal sustainability report to the chancellor before the promissory note is executed and afterwards achieve clear cost-saving measures to be reviewed by the Chancellor. “This measure will help ensure the Northern Tier has the higher education and economic development resources it needs for the future," Greenstein said. “It comes with measurable outcomes and meaningful accountability, and I'm confident Mansfield's leadership already has this proud institution moving in the right direction." The Board also approved an extension of a retirement incentive program to five collective bargaining units, making about 460 employees newly eligible. The program now applies to qualifying members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union Local 668 (SEIU), Office and Professional Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania (OPEIU), PASSHE Officers Association (POA), and International Union, Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA). The board also granted the chancellor authority to develop similar arrangements for the other employees within the system. The program provides an enhanced sick leave payout if employees retire on or before Sept. 25, 2020. The program began earlier this year with the Association of Pennsylvania University State College & University Faculty, and 220 APSCUF members opted into the program. “This program honors, in many cases, decades of service to a State System university," Greenstein said. “Choosing to retire is a significant life decision, and we hope eligible employees will consider this incentive carefully."

[evoldir]

Job: CaliforniaU_Pennsylvania.InvertebrateEvolution

Position: Assistant Professor of Invertebrate Zoology (Tenure Track) Position listing: http://bit.ly/2pDRFW5 Position Type/Salary: This is a tenure-track faculty appointment in the department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. Salary is competitive and commensurate with academic preparation and experience. An excellent fringe benefits package is included. Job Summary/Basic Function: The successful candidate is expected to teach a variety of undergraduate courses for majors and non-majors which will include General Zoology, Design and Analysis, and courses in their area of expertise such as an upper level Invertebrate Zoology course. They will be responsible for developing an invertebrate teaching collection for the Department and an externally funded research program involving undergraduate students. In addition, they will be expected to assist in the development of research agendas and/or projects aligning with the mission and strategic plan of Cal U and enhancing the program agendas of the college and academic department. The successful applicant must be capable of and committed to teaching, community service and outreach, and to scholarship. The successful applicant must also have experience working with diverse populations. Additional responsibilities include involvement with departmental, college-wide, and university committees. Also, in accordance with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and APSCUF, the successful applicant might be assigned to perform work at off-campus sites, in the evening/weekend and/or provide instruction through distance education. Required Skills, Knowledge and Abilities: The candidate must be field ambulatory to lead field trips in the above mentioned courses. In order to be a leading applicant in this search, in addition to the aforementioned requirements, the applicant minimally must be fluent in the English language, be able to communicate well, demonstrate outstanding potential for excellence in teaching through a successful interview and/or classroom demonstration and be experienced in the use of innovative curricular approaches that are student-centered, inquiry-based, and hands-on oriented. Minimum of Education and Training: A Ph.D. in Zoology/Biology or related field is required by the time of employment, and college teaching experience is strongly preferred. Special Instructions to Applicants: Applications accepted only online at http://bit.ly/2IGsDOT. Physical applications will not be accepted. To be considered, applicants must submit the following: full curriculum vita; official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended (see below); letter of application highlighting the applicant's qualifications and teaching interests; 1-page statements describing research interests and teaching philosophy; and the names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of three current references who have knowledge of the applicant's abilities. References will be checked. Background clearances are required and will be conducted on applicants being considered. Unofficial transcripts acceptable for application, but official transcripts will be required for applicants being considered and due at the point of face-to-face on-campus interviews. Veterans claiming preference should submit a copy of their DD214 to the Office of Social Equity, 250 University Avenue, Box 9, California, PA 15419. Integrity, Civility and Responsibility are the official core values of California University of Pennsylvania, an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Women, minorities, veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Dr. Summer J. Arrigo-Nelson Associate Professor Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences Box 45, 250 University Ave. California University of Pennsylvania California, PA 15419-1394 Phone: (724) 938-5732 Fax: (724) 938-1514 Email: arrigonelson@calu.edu "Arrigo-Nelson, Summer" via Gmail

[myweddingsandevents]

Open SmartNews and read "Grad student cutting lawns to pay off college debt gives officials a lecture on Pa. state university mergers" here: https://share.smartnews.com/4ACKz

To read it on the web, tap here: https://share.smartnews.com/oU26a

[apscufku]

The New SAT: More Accessibility for Low-Income Students

On January 25th, the College Board announced that the SAT® Suite of Assessments will transition to a shorter online version. Priscilla Rodriguez, the Vice President of College Readiness Assessments at College Board, stated, “The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant… We’re not simply putting the current SAT on a digital platform—we’re taking full advantage of what delivering an assessment digitally makes possible.”

The overall test will be shorter; the new digital version will last two hours as opposed to three, and students will be given more time per question. The reading portion will change to reflect a wider range of topics to better represent the works students read in college and the sections will include shorter passages with one question per passage. The math portion will change to allow the use of a calculator on all sections. Because of its digital format, educators and students will receive their scores back in a matter of days rather than weeks.

This new format hopes to make the SAT—and college admissions by extension—more accessible. The College Board recognizes the inequities in access to technology and works to address this by providing schools with devices to students that need them. Students can choose between their own device, a school issued device, or a college board issued device. The test is also designed to save progress and time remaining if the students happen to lose connection. The online format also makes the tests easier to schedule during the school day, making it more available to low-income students.

Ronné Turner, Vice Provost for Admissions & Financial Aid at Washington University in St. Louis, said “It’s encouraging to see the positive feedback from students and educators who participated in the pilots for the digital SAT. The changes to the test are timely and clearly centered around improving the student experience.” Students who participated in the November global pilot of the new digital format were cited saying the testing experience was less stressful and the questions easier to pay attention to. Administrators were cited saying the new format was either easier or the same to proctor, and educators will no longer have to worry about packaging, sorting, or shipping testing materials.

When colleges went test optional during the pandemic, millions of students still took the SAT, and that trend continues with the class of 2022. Most students are interested in their scores and want the option to submit their scores to college admissions. Rodriguez explains, “In a largely test-optional world, the SAT is a lower-stakes test in college admissions. Submitting a score is optional for every type of college, and we want the SAT to be the best possible option for students. The SAT allows every student—regardless of where they go to high school—to be seen and to access opportunities that will shape their lives and careers.”

SAT scores are a way for students demonstrate what they know in a time where the share of students graduating high school with an A average has grown from 39% in 1998 to 55% in 2021 and other parts of college applications, including clubs, sports, and academic activities, often are costly and inaccessible for many families. In the class of 2020, 1.7 million U.S. students had SAT scores that confirmed or exceeded their high school GPA. More than 300,000 of those students were from small towns and rural communities, 600,000 were first-generation college goers, and 700,000 were Black or Latino.

The new SAT format will be delivered internationally beginning in 2023 and in the U.S. in 2024.

By Emma Streb

College Board. (2022, January 25). Digital SAT Brings Student-Friendly Changes to Test Experience [press release]. https://newsroom.collegeboard.org/digital-sat-brings-student-friendly-changes-test-experience

[jmbertonazzi]

My History with Unions

I have been a union member as a laborer off and on since 1986. I was a member of the UFCW when I worked at two separate grocery food chains, beginning in 1986. I have been a member of the AFT, both as a full member and partial member, at multiple colleges and universities since I began working as an adjunct instructor in 2002 and I was a member of APSCUF while I worked as a teaching associate at IUP. I have always supported unions, but I have also always critiqued them in order to preserve their ideals. I continue to support unions in order to protect labor rights, citizen rights, and human rights. 

[5ftgarden]

How to deal with a strike at your university:

Step 1: Show support to your teachers.

Step 2: Resign yourself to the fact that you will now have an impromptu pause to your school year. Rejoice, if appropriate.

Step 3: Clean your filthy apartment and deal with the rest of the life junk that has been piling up.

Step 4: Get some commission work done, you slacker!

Step 5: Pick any from the following list!      - Play dragon age      - learn how to draft a pattern      - make some progress on a goal      - make cookies for the picketers to take to them if the strike continues.      - post a rant about how the archaic institution is the enemy.      - draw a picture.      - write a lot of fanfic.      - write a lot of smutty fanfic.      - play more dragon age.

[jacketry]

My professors are voting to strike, and I support them.

Here's the deal:

Budget cuts are hitting higher education hard. The chancellor has offered this plan, which would affect the adjunct professors at my college, as well at 13 others. At these 14 colleges, adjunct/temporary professors have been working without a contract for 15 months. My college is made up of nearly 50% adjunct professors, many of whom have their doctorates. They're wonderful professors, and they are there because they love it. They're teachers first, and employees second. 

"The Plan"

Cut the average adjunct professor's wage by nearly 35%.

Class size would become unlimited.

Classes would be moved online, without regard for best teaching practices.

Benefits for adjuncts would be slashed.

Adjunct professors would be required to teach 5 classes a semester, instead of 4.

Some of my professors have families. A 35% cut in wages is reprehensible and unrealistic, especially considering that some of them are supporting children. Additionally, those who aren't supporting children still need to support themselves. Beyond the strictly financial detriment, I cannot imagine my learning experience if classes were of unlimited size. I have a class of 32 people right now, and there aren't enough desks to seat everyone (fortunately, there are usually a few absentees). Without sufficient, individualized attention provided for each student, the overall quality of academic integrity declines. There is a disproportionate percentage of women and LGBTQ faculty among the adjuncts. This action would only contribute to the wage gap.

On top of all that, if the adjuncts were all to leave, we would be left with few teachers. Who will take their places? New, hardly trained and barely prepared teachers? Unqualified, uncertified degree holders, some of whom have never taken an education course? The adjuncts deserve more than their current wage, not less. They deserve respect. 

If they strike, they have my support. Even if it sets me further behind on my education, they have my support. Even if it means that next semester there are no classes. I pay for my tuition out of pocket, and I deserve the best education that my money can buy. With the PASSHE's proposal, I wouldn't be getting that. 

[apscufku]

The Future of PASSHE

Consolidation for six Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities is coming closer day by day, with consolidated universities welcoming students as early as Fall of 2022. While consolidation of the selected universities is supposed to benefit the universities and put the PASSHE system on the right track, the impact of consolidation on morale, faculty, and retirements has proven otherwise. With consolidation less than a year away, I fear the future of PASSHE is looking bleak.

Two years ago, PASSHE universities were wrapping up a regular semester, not knowing that their future contained a pandemic full of zoom, hybrid classes, and a whole new teaching environment. Now, professors are still juggling the challenges of teaching during a pandemic while experiencing concern about how university consolidation will impact their futures. Dr. Chris Hallen, the vice president of APSCUF, shared his personal experience as a professor at Bloomsburg, one of the soon-to-be consolidated universities, during the December 1st Board of Governor's Meeting stating, "My colleagues and I wonder if we are doomed to a lifetime of overload, as retired (or retrenched) faculty are not being replaced, and somehow it makes more sense to pay me over twice what they could pay an adjunct for the same course, "My colleagues and I are wondering whether we are next — next to be retrenched as our department’s enrollments drop below a magical, moving-number target." This insight from Hallen exemplifies what it is like to be a professor on a PASSHE campus on the road to consolidation. Professors are not only experiencing uncertainty about the future but worry that their careers are on the line, all while taking on a larger workload to make up for the decreasing faculty numbers at their universities. With falling morale on campus, PASSHE should evaluate if the steps they are taking on the path to consolidation benefit those it affects or only the system's finances, which can also be questioned- but that is a whole extra blog.

In addition to low morale, retirement is on the rise for faculty members at PASSHE universities, and it appears that consolidation could be partly to blame. In the most recent round of retirement incentives offered to PASSHE employees, almost half of the 165 who signed up were from consolidating universities. By accepting the incentive, the participants will retire by the summer of 2022. The retirement incentive itself is a part of State System Chancellor Greenstein's goal to reduce PASSHE's workforce to 2010-11 levels. Knowing that this effort is in place, faculty may be more willing to retire, not knowing what their future could look like in the system. While the effort is to help maintain system efficiency, the impact on remaining faculty could do more harm than good. APSCUF President Dr. Jamie Martin shared that, "When you are losing senior faculty at that rate, it’s a significant loss not only for students but their junior colleagues.” She emphasized that through loss of senior faculty, “You lose mentors, people that can help you navigate all of the tenure promotion processes. For junior colleagues, you lose all of that.” Even though Greenstein is closer to his goal through retirement incentives, it does not mean that it will positively impact the individuals left on campus who are already stretched thin.  

As more information regarding the consolidation comes out, we hope to see concerns of faculty and students addressed. APSCUF will continue to advocate for the students, faculty, and coaches of the PASSHE system. From the ground level, Dr. Hallen speaks for himself and colleagues, "I’m tired of consolidation, and I’m not alone. And we have barely started with hundreds of issues that need resolution." The lack of morale and rapidly increasing retirements may only be the beginning of the consequences of consolidation.

To learn more about recent consolidation developments, visit APSCUF President Dr. Jamie Martin’s interview with Behind the Headlines: https://www.apscuf.org/martin-discusses-unanswered-consolidation-questions-in-interview/

By Erica Bottjer, APSCUF-KU Intern Fall 2021

Sources Referenced

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/11/faculty-retirements-at-pa-state-universities-are-double-the-number-of-a-typical-year.html

https://www.apscuf.org/see-dr-christopher-hallens-remarks-to-the-bog-dec12021/

https://www.passhe.edu/SystemRedesign/Pages/FAQs.aspx

[ragingchicken]

Out d'Coup Podcast for February 28, 2020

Out d’Coup Podcast for February 28, 2020

Out d’Coup | Coronavirus; SC Primary; Super Tuesday; Chris Matthews Fail; DNC Rules LOL; PA Lead for Bernie; KU Healthy Campus Town Hall; Mask Off Chancellor; Hill.TV’s Rising; Free Will Releases

CoronaVirus.

Tomorrow is the South Carolina Democratic Primary. Then three days later it’s Super Tuesday. This week things really heated up with disastrous debate and pollingthat is all over the map.…

[5ftgarden]

THE STRIKE IS OVER!!!

http://www.apscuf.org/news-center/press-releases/279-apscuf-makes-contract-concessions-for-quality-education-ends-strike

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Wait... crap this means that I actually have to DO my homework...

[katmath]

State university faculty frustrated with the lack of progress in contract negotiations on Friday gave their union leaders the authority to call a strike.