This is the first fall semester since Penn State consolidated the administration of many of its campuses and offered voluntary buyouts to many employees on its campuses, and some faculty are continuing to raise concerns about the impact of those changes.
During a Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday, Kristen Pueschel, a faculty member from the New Kensington campus and chair of the caucus that includes members from the 14 campuses in the University College, listed some of the challenges reported by faculty. Those include higher advising loads, faculty advising students outside their areas of expertise, and gaps in student services such as tutoring centers at some campuses.
Interim Provost Tracy Langkilde said the specific information was helpful and the university is monitoring those areas.
“We are redeploying, providing backup support, approving backfills, meeting gaps and needs as we identify them," she said. "Generally we have it covered, but there are some specific cases that we need to be aware of and continue to look into.”
Susan Fredricks, a faculty senator from Penn State Brandywine, asked how the administration plans to better communicate the changes happening at the campuses.
“We are living in chaos," she said. "Some of the regionalizations, in my mind, make absolute zero sense.”
Langkilde said they will continue to work on how they can communicate the changes.
