University faculty receive official reprimand over “excused” Professional Developmental Day absences
Published by May 9, 2018 | By Joshua Rosario
Kean Hall. Photo Courtesy of Zeete.
After being excused from attending Professional Development Days, several faculty members still received official reprimands from the University administration in February, according to the Kean Federation of Teachers President James Castiglione.
These faculty members attended some sessions and were excused from attending other sessions for reasons such as teaching, vacation time or requests by a supervisor to attend to other department needs.
“One hundred percent of their sessions are accounted for, yet they are being punished anyway,” said Castiglione in a February interview. “So they are being punished under false pretenses.”
Professional Development Days are for faculty and employees. These four days are filled with sessions to help train and teach new things that they can use with students or for their own use as professionals. The PDDs take place some time before and after the spring semester. Professors are currently not paid for these professional days.
“The University has made certain resources and support contingent on [employee] disciplinary history,” said Castiglione. “
Such as receiving money for travel to conferences, teaching overload classes, advising internships for students and so on.”
According to the official written reprimand issued to an employee by the Office of Human Resources and given to The Tower anonymously, the employee demonstrated “insubordination, conduct unbecoming, and other sufficient cause, which warrants disciplinary action.” This is due to their failure to attend available sessions and properly record their attendance with their University ID card.
Three faculty members who were reprimanded stated that there were occasions when attending the sessions that they were unable to swipe in with their ID.
“They told us all we had to do was sign in, so we signed in,” said one anonymous faculty member. “When I was at my HR meeting I asked where were the documents I signed in? No answer.”
The three faculty members have asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation by the University. All three have served the University for more than a decade and have never before received disciplinary action.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” said one of the anonymous faculty members. “I don’t want this on my record.”
Two of the anonymous faculty members shared emails sent to administrators explaining their situations. One faculty member also shared an email sent by her supervisor in her defense in December 2017. In the supervisor’s email, the supervisor informs the administrator that they were asked to stay put to meet a deadline made by the University.
“Professional Development Days are mandatory for all full-time faculty and staff,” said University spokesperson Margaret McCorry. “That is a policy that is well communicated across the University. We are not going to comment on disciplinary action taken against specific employees.”
As previously reported by The Tower in November 2017, all faculty are to attend 32 sessions of professional development. This article was published prior to the issuing of official written reprimand, according to a statement from McCorry.
In that article, The Tower spoke to one anonymous professor who reached out again after officially receiving a written reprimand.
“Alls that needed to be said was ‘you have been served’ because that is what it felt like,” said the anonymous professor when receiving the reprimand in February. “That was the very first thing I have heard since my human resources interview… in October.”
The professor described their letter similar to the one given to The Tower. They have not seen any punishment that is said to follow when you receive the reprimand. They think the reprimand is just in an effort to get them to attend the PDDs.
“I’m dying to ask the administration like Farahi and Toney, do you go to all the meetings or do you have something that’s more important that is keeping you from attending all the meetings?” said the anonymous professor.
The professor continued to state that the fundamental problem of the administration is a “miserable failure” at communication. When asking what to do in the event of missing future sessions, they were left to figure it out on their own. They were left with a lack of response from their supervisor.
“My morale toward Kean University is the lowest it has ever been,” said the professor.
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