This week, The Globe continues its coverage of ongoing contract bargaining between Point Park’s full-time faculty union and administration.
With negotiations dragging on into their third month since they began in June, of course we want to be fair. It is in our ethos as journalists to try and cover all sides as fairly and accurately as possible.
However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to cover the contract negotiations fairly. This is not because of the biases of any staff writer or editor at The Globe, but rather it is due in large part to a severe lack of transparency from administration.
University officials will decline to provide further comment on issues like wage increases and default to canned statements such as, “We continue to negotiate in good faith with our faculty.”
When asked, President Brussalis said he thought negotiations were going very well and that they would wrap up soon. Still, there is no agreed upon contract.
The Board of Trustees wrote a letter in response to the faculty union’s no confidence vote. The letter chose to default to celebrating the achievements of Brussalis.
Recall that one major point of contention among negotiating faculty was a lack of transparency from administration. According to the full time faculty union, most of the achievements listed under Brussalis’s leadership were never run by faculty, namely the 12 new faculty hires touted by several admin representatives.
The only direct voice from the administration willing to say anything meaningful is their public relations director, Lou Corsaro. Corsaro is doing a phenomenal job at providing The Globe with as much information as he is allowed to provide.
Sadly, that is not cutting it anymore.
If the administration wants a fair and balanced story on the ongoing contract bargaining, then they need to tell us information that we can publish, instead of deflecting and resorting to the dreaded “no comment.”
Letters from the Board are not enough when union members are available at a moment’s notice to provide statements to us. Why are members of the Board of Trustees not as open and available as the full-time faculty union members?
Honesty should be a leader’s first priority, but Point Park’s administration seems to be incapable of it. They are thus forced to hide behind their PR people who cover for them with meaningless deflections.
There is a clear reason why bargaining is still ongoing. Admins refuse to cede better wage increases to their faculty, and the faculty do not intend to passively accept that.
As long as that is the case, our coverage will continue to show it. As reporters, it is our duty to report on what we are told and what we can verify — if information is not given to us, we can’t report it or cover every side of an issue. It hinders not only our work, but can distort reality.
Let’s continue to be accurate and truthful.