YSU ends response to panel's proposals

Union leaders said YSU hasn't complied with the panel's recommendations.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University's president said a contract settlement with Vice President John L. Habat completes the administration's response to a labor-management panel's recommendations for labor peace on campus.
Now, it is up to the unions to step forward to implement the portions of the panel's findings that pertain to them, said Dr. David C. Sweet.
The faculty and classified employee unions have a different view of the situation, however.
They announced in a joint February press conference that their union leaders would step down as the panel recommended, but only after Habat, vice president for administration and finance, and Hugh Chatman, executive director of human resources and labor relations, were no longer working for the university, and after Christine Domhoff was rehired by YSU.
Domhoff, president of the 400-member Association of Classified Employees union, had her job eliminated last year shortly before the start of contract negotiations. The review panel recommended she be rehired, but that hasn't happened.
Union leaders said Thursday they haven't changed their position.
Two are reassigned
Sweet announced in February that Chatman was reassigned to a new post of executive director of regulatory compliance. He revealed Thursday that Habat will be reassigned to a new post of vice president for special projects, effective July 1.
The university will honor its contracts with both men, he said. Chatman's contract runs until August 2008, and Habat's contract runs through June 30, 2007.
Habat has been working from his Cleveland-area home for the past month, and that arrangement will continue, Sweet said.
Sweet appointed the review panel to find out what led to strikes by both the faculty and classified employee unions just before the start of classes last fall and what can be done to improve labor relations on campus.
The panel came up with a list of 24 recommendations, including a suggestion that Habat and Chatman could no longer serve the university in any capacity, blaming them for much of the labor unrest that led to the strikes.
Negotiating an arrangement with Habat to move him out of his current post completes the administration's response to the review panel recommendations, Sweet said.
"I urge the unions to also give serious consideration to expeditiously implementing the panel's recommendations. It is time to put this behind us and fully focus on our reason for being here -- the education of our students," he said.
Noncompliance alleged
"Completing your response is different from complying with the recommendations," said Dr. Julia Gergits, president of the 380-member faculty union. The union stands by its February position, she said.
Domhoff noted that ACE and the university recently have been able to resolve 13 or 14 grievances out of 35 that seemed headed for arbitration when Chatman and Habat were in control.
Dr. Thomas Shipka, a member of the review panel and chairman of the YSU Academic Senate, had been critical of what he thought was the administration's slow response to the panel's recommendations as well as what he perceives to be a slow response from the unions.
Shipka said he was briefed on the Habat agreement Tuesday, and it is his feeling that "all parties can live with it, no one will be fully satisfied with it, and it is an important step in the right direction for this institution."
The agreement allows the university to respect Habat's contract in a financially prudent manner while avoiding any future litigation, Sweet said.
Habat will retain his title as vice president for administration and finance through June 30 but will undertake special projects for the university.
He will continue receiving his $148,378 annual salary and benefits through June 30, 2007. He won't have any university employees reporting to him, and he will lose his $6,000 annual car allowance July 1.
If he leaves
Should Habat find other employment before Dec. 31 of this year, the university will provide him with his salary and benefits for the period from the date he obtains full-time employment through Dec. 31, plus an additional payment equivalent to his salary only for the period from Jan. 1, 2007, through June 30, 2007.
If Habat doesn't find another job by June 30, 2007, he can remain employed by YSU as a senior adviser with special assistant duties at the same salary and benefits through Dec. 31, 2007.
Sweet said one of Habat's first special projects will be to serve as YSU's representative on an Ohio Inter-University Council committee focusing on a proposed state tax expenditure limitation amendment that could go before voters in November, a measure that would cut higher-education funding in the state by $400 million a year.
gwin@vindy.com