The P&A Senate Advocates for All P&A Staff Iin MinnPost Open Letter 

Shortly after the start of the 2019 Fall semester, an opinion piece published in the Community Voices section of MinnPost recommended cutting P&A positions as a University cost-saving measure. In response, members of the P&A Senate collaboratively drafted an open letter, which was submitted to MinnPost by Noelle Noonan, chair of the P&A Senate and P&A Consultative Committee and published online. As an example of the P&A Senate’s continued advocacy for P&A employees, we invite you to read the letter in full and some highlights below.

“The author, a fellow U of M employee, stated that we don’t teach or perform research. This is false. In reality, the P&A job titles with the largest overall numbers of employees are directly in the areas of teaching, research, and student development and support.”

“[Y]ou will find P&A employees deeply involved across the University’s mission, [working on] reforming the criminal justice system, addressing the opioid crisis, preventing the spread of invasive species, [and] building and managing IT infrastructure.” 

“Simply put, P&A employees are woven throughout the University’s fabric and are critical to the success of this great institution.”

The original opinion piece is available from the MinnPost website.