Stay updated with breaking news from Ben schonberger. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Lou Corsaro, a Point Park spokesperson, said the university “respects the arbitration process and the decision regarding nonrenewal notices previously sent to 17 nontenured faculty members.” In his decision, Matthew M. Franckiewicz, the independent arbitrator, said that what Point Park was trying to do was clearly a reduction in force, “couched” in contract language meant to deal with individual faculty separations of employment. Franckiewicz also rejected what he called the university’s “somewhat convoluted construction” of contract language surrounding seniority. Franckiewicz’s analysis like the faculty union grievance that triggered it centers on two faculty contract provisions, Articles 18 and 31. Article 18, which is what the university cited in mid-February layoff notices to faculty members, says that the university doesn’t have to establish cause for not renewing someone who is not tenured if the nonrenewal is “due to a position elimination ....