Contract negotiations between the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education have screeched to a halt, with faculty members at state schools going on strike early Wednesday morning.

East Stroudsburg University, part of the union, saw multiple clusters of picketers throughout the campus on day one. Groups of tenured and adjunct professors, along with student supporters, thrust signs and chanted slogans as traffic passed by the ESU sign at the campus’s entrance on Prospect Street.Negotiations between the organizations collapsed on Tuesday evening with the state declaring it had made its final offer on contract negotiations. Topics of contention include salary and health care, but one of the most fundamental points is based on adjunct professors, who are temporary, nontenured instructors.“The state system has offered a fair package for salary, for people who are continuing professors,” said ESU English professor Allan Benn, chapter spokesman for the union. “But, they offered a very sad package for the people who need it most, people who are paid in the $40,000 range, even though many of them have a Ph.D., and many of them have years of experience in the classroom. Some of them who support families are approaching the poverty line. There are other issues, but that is the issue that sticks deepest in our craw.”The union’s website lists several contested pointsincluding the state’s plan to “substantially increase the use of temporary faculty in lieu of permanent faculty,” “make use of students with few graduate credits to teach courses,” and “cut the lowest paid faculty members’ salaries by 20 percent.”The state’s website as of Wednesday states: “While the two sides made significant progress in the talks that began Oct. 14, including reaching tentative agreements on more than a dozen issues, including distance education, recruitment and retention of high-quality faculty, and professional responsibilities of faculty outside the classroom, they were not able to reach overall agreement. The union rejected the system’s offer to provide raises to all permanent and temporary faculty and the identical health care package that other system employees have.”With the union representing about 5,500 professors, around 1,500 of which are adjuncts, across 14 state colleges, this has become a fundamental issue for the union.“Financially, it’s definitely going to make an impact on me,” adjunct English professor Stacey Burch said. “It’s going to stop my paycheck right now, which I rely on to support my family. But yet, I feel it’s important to be here and stand up for quality education. I see it as a temporary setback for long-term benefit.”Benn contends that slight increases for adjunct salaries are possible, considering the available budget that the state system has to work with.“Adjuncts are chronically at the low end of the pay scale, they cannot be promoted,” Benn said. “If anybody thinks that we are going to desert our adjuncts and sell them out, well, that’s just wrong. These are professionals, they’re being exploited as it is. This has to be rectified. It’s not a sort of thing that would break the bank.”Day one of the strike has garnered strong support for the union on campus, with clusters of students congregating around the ESU statue on Prospect Street.“The state won’t negotiate a fair contract with our professors. They want to take them all out, and bring in people who have less experience, and that’s going to give us a lesser quality of education,” senior criminal justice student T.J. Fox said. “We have a connection with these professors. We’ve known them three years, four years. They know the university, they know us, and they care about us and our quality of education. They do a lot for us, and that’s why we’re here right now.”ESU graduates like Azad Ebrahimi were also present,advocating for theirprofessors.“Four years ago, ESU was a great place to learn. Class sizes were smaller, tutoring was available,” Ebrahimi said. “Class sizes have gone from small, 30-people classes to the large lecture hall, where you can’t hear the professors anymore. We’re here fighting for the quality of education, not for more money. I’m here for my professors, who have always cared about us and fought for us.”Supportive honking from passing traffic has kept spirits high, even if the state has yet to come back to the bargaining table.“Being part of the union and standing out here, it’s just revitalizing in the sense that people value what we do,” said adjunct English professor Amanda Lagoe, who obtained her doctorate last December. “We actually do serve a purpose, you can’t just put lecture materials on D2L (ESU’s online learning platform) and have us replaced that way. It doesn’t work like that.”The feelingon campus seemed to be that of tension, with many students and professors worrying that an extended strike could pose serious problems for students.The state has instructed its more than 100,000 students to attend classes unless the university indicates otherwise.But many students said Wednesday their teachers had joined the walkout, leaving classrooms empty.Politicians in Harrisburg are expressing concerns for the students, who are being cited as the victims in the fight between the state and union.Benn, however, is still adamant about getting the issues resolved, and getting back in the classroom.“Let’s have the two parties sit at the table, exchange what they need to have, and find a way to get it done,” Benn said. “We don’t want to be here, we want to be in with our students, talking about English and other subjects.”The Associated Press contributed to this report