With 108 faculty at risk, APSCUF to fight for colleagues and students

Nov. 5, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Kathryn Morton, or 717-236-7486

Commonwealth University notified 108 faculty late last month that they may lose their jobs at the end of the 2026-27 academic year: 78 at the Bloomsburg campus, 14 at the Lock Haven campus, and 16 at the Mansfield campus.

The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, which represents faculty and coaches at state-owned universities, plans to file an unfair-labor-practice charge immediately against Commonwealth University and Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education, APSCUF President Dr. Kenneth M. Mash said.

The faculty collective bargaining agreement between APSCUF and the State System requires the System to alert tenured faculty by Oct. 30 if they are in danger of being retrenched at the end of the academic year. The contract outlines additional notification deadlines for other ranks, with the latest deadline being in March.

"What the State System and the university have done in this instance is nothing short of outrageous, cruel, and violative of our CBA," Mash said. "The contract lays out a deadline for the university to inform specific people, but the university cast out a net well beyond that, and well beyond the 70-something faculty positions they initially announced. All that means is that they are making hard-working people petrified unnecessarily. It is not at all clear that the university or the System has a clue about what they are doing, and APSCUF will do everything in its power to put a stop to this insanity."

In accordance with the contract, APSCUF has been working to avoid job losses since the summer, when Commonwealth University issued a notice of the possibility of retrenchment after previously asserting that they did not intend to retrench, Mash said.

"The university then squandered a contractual period to try to find alternatives to retrenchment," he said. "It is very hard to work with people whose only plan seems to be to try and absolve themselves of responsibility for financial stewardship and an obligation to provide the highest quality education to the students. Those students will likely now find themselves short of the classes they need to complete majors and graduate.

"Retrenchment is always crushing, and these letters are threatening to yank away livelihoods and healthcare in already turbulent economic times, after years of faculty going above and beyond to make the consolidated university work."

Receiving a retrenchment letter does not mean the faculty member definitely will not have a job next year. The union will continue to work at the state and local levels to find alternatives to faculty cuts, Mash said. Further, the APSCUF collective bargaining agreement provides opportunities for professors with retrenchment letters to move to other departments, if they are qualified to do so, or to transfer to other universities within the State System, if there are openings.

"The System has financial challenges, and we understand that," Mash said. "The Commonwealth has failed to fund our state-owned universities properly. That's why we were on the steps of the Capitol in September asking for a 15% funding increase for all of public higher education in Pennsylvania as well as the Pennsylvania Promise plan to make college more affordable. The following week, the State System announced it would ask for 5.5% to keep the status quo. The status quo is not working - or else more than 100 of my colleagues would not be facing unemployment, and our students wouldn't be shouldering thousands of dollars in debt while confronting the possibility of not having the opportunities they were promised. At this stage, if the System and the university wished to show true leadership, they would approach the legislature and the governor for the funds they need immediately. But that would require accountability. Instead they are choosing the most harmful course for the largest possible numbers in the university community. It is embarrassing."

Pennsylvania ranks at or near the bottom in every measure of public higher-education funding. For decades, governors and the legislature have underfunded public higher education in Pennsylvania. For years, U.S. News and World Report has ranked Pennsylvania 50th in higher education - not for quality but for cost and student debt. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania ranks near the top for college tuition and for student debt among recent graduating classes.

Students, alumni, faculty and community supporters who want to advocate against retrenchment can learn how to take action by visiting https://www.apscuf.org/students/#Retrenchmentstudents .

Union leaders from APSCUF, AFSCME, and SCUPA (an affiliate of PSEA) on Oct. 21 addressed the possibility of retrenchment and other job losses at Commonwealth University. In the East Wing Rotunda of the Pennsylvania Capitol, speakers discussed the failure of Pennsylvania's public officials to properly fund its universities and the lack of accountability for questionable decisions made by university and State System leaders. Click here to learn more about that event.

The Oct. 30 notification deadline was the first in a series for alerting faculty members that they could be retrenched. The APSCUF contract requires probationary non-tenured faculty members beyond the second year to be sent letters by certified mail or hand delivery on or before Dec. 1; second-year probationary non-tenured faculty members, on or before Dec. 15; and first-year probationary non-tenured faculty members, on or before March 1.

APSCUF represents about 5,000 faculty and coaches at the State System campuses: Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester.