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YSU to vote on pact report
Document
Salary minimums would remain the same at $75,674 for professors, $64,215 for associate professors, $51,238 for assistant professors and $38,689 for instructors.
Salary increases of 0 percent the first year, 1 percent the second year and 2 percent in year three.
Promotions in academic rank during the term of the agreement: from assistant professor to associate professor, $3,600; from associate professor to professor, $5,100.
Insurance benefits: Employees who enroll in a health-insurance plan will contribute 15 percent of the monthly premiums for family or individuals plans.
Source: Fact finder’s report
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
A fact finder recommends increases of 0 percent, 1 percent and 2 percent for a new pact between Youngstown State University and its faculty union and a reduction of pay for summer school instruction.
Fact finder Howard D. Silver, a Columbus attorney, issued the report this week. Both YSU trustees and members of the YSU chapter of Ohio Education Association are expected to vote to either accept or reject the report this afternoon.
Ron Cole, university spokesman, and Julia Gergits, union president, declined to discuss the report.
The current agreement expires Wednesday.
Silver heard testimony from the university and union about YSU’s financial condition, including the loss of state funding.
“Because the fact finder believes that local, regional and state economies are still recovering from a deep recession, and because Youngstown State University faces a $1.67 million operating deficit in the coming year, the fact finder is inclined to tread lightly among long-standing circumstances between the parties,” the report says.
The union had proposed a 1 percent increase in the second and third years of the contract for the salary minimums. There are four ranks among full-time teaching faculty: professor, associate professor, assistant professor and instructor.
YSU opposed the increases in salary minimum.
Silver recommends the salary minimums not be increased.
“The full-time faculty members who make up the faculty bargaining unit at Youngstown State University earn their salaries and deserve more,” he wrote. “The issue in this case is not how much the fact finder would like to pay the faculty but how much is available for these payments and whether there are resources and grounds to increase the present level of this compensation.”
The minimums will remain at $75,674 for professors, $64,215 for associate professors, $51,238 for assistant professors and $38,689 for instructors.
The fact finder also recommends salary increases of 1 percent and 2 percent in the contract’s second and third year, respectively, with no increase the first year.
The union had proposed those increases but with an additional $500 in the second and third years. YSU had opposed the increases.
The report also recommends salary increases for promotions occurring during the contract period: from assistant professor to associate professor, $3,600; from associate professor to professor, $5,100.
Another change is recommended in the amount paid for summer instruction, which is outside of the nine-month teaching contract for the regular school year.
The current formula multiplies 0.0375 times the number of credit hours taught during the summer session times the base salary of the faculty member.
YSU wanted the pay to be reduced, knocking the multiplier down 40 percent to 0.0225.
“The employer argues that the Youngstown State University faculty who teach during the summer are paid a much-higher rate than is paid by other colleges and universities in the region,” the report says.
The faculty proposed a reduction of the multiplier to 0.0360 or 4 percent.
The fact finder agreed with the union.
Silver, however, recommends the university’s proposal on health-care insurance coverage — which would require union members to bear 15 percent of the monthly health-care coverage premium for both family and individual plans.
Under the pact that expires next week, faculty members contribute 1.5 percent of their base salary for family health insurance and 0.75 percent for individual coverage.
The fact finder also recommends that parking continue to be provided free of charge to union members. The university wanted to end that provision.
“The hearing record reflects that the university provides about $531,000 in free parking annually, of which about $212,000 in free parking is ascribable to faculty bargaining-unit members,” the report says.