Employees at YSU are pampered

Reaction to last week’s column about the future of intercollegiate football at Youngstown State University was fast and furious. There were posts on The Vindicator’s website, Vindy.com, that ran the gamut of public opinion on the athletics vs. academics issue, emails (including one that led to an opinion piece below by Dr. Thomas Maraffa, retired YSU professor), telephone calls, and this:

Copies of documents that brought to mind that old saying in academia, “Payback, it truly is the B word.”

The premise of the Nov. 30 column was that financial challenges confronting Youngstown State, along with the decision by the faculty not to accept a three-year labor contract proposal, are forcing the administration and the board of trustees to take a long hard look at all of the major expenses on campus.

An analysis of the general fund expenditures for athletics compared with academics shows that the increase in spending for football and other intercollegiate sports in the last several years was much greater than the increase in spending on academics. The analysis was conducted by the faculty union.

Declaration of war

Not surprisingly, the us-against-them campaign by the Youngstown State University-Ohio Education Association unit is seen as a declaration of war by the many supporters of football on and off campus. To be sure, the return of James P. Tressel — as president — has brought back memories of those championship days when he was the football coach. Tressel also coached Ohio State to a national championship.

The contention of the faculty that YSU has a cockeyed view of higher education has gone over like a lead balloon, and has triggered a counterattack.

This writer was provided with copies of two documents, one that compares the sick leave payout at retirement of the 13 state universities, and the other that compares the benefits enjoyed by the six employee groups at YSU: classified employees included in ACE (Association of Classified Employees); classified employees excluded from ACE; faculty OEA; YSU police (Fraternal Order of Police); professional/administrative employees (included in Association of Professional Staff); professional/ administrative employees (excluded from APAS).

First, the sick leave payout. Of the 13, Youngstown State has the distinction of having a variable payout of up to 575 hours at retirement. The next highest is Central State with 1/3 up to 320 hours. Of the rest, eight pay out 25 percent up to 240 hours; Akron University pays one-fourth of a maximum 120 days, 240 hours; Bowling Green pays out 25 percent of a maximum of 120 days, 240 hours.

Once again, the concept of sick leave — you get time off when you are sick — has been perverted by the public sector.

As for the comparison of benefits, consider this doozie that applies to faculty:

“A faculty member who is assigned and completes an overload assignment shall be paid $1,250 for each work load hour of overload performed.”

If you aren’t chuckling at the word “overload” as it applies to faculty members, you’re blind to the reality that is higher education, not only in Ohio, but nationally.

If that item is too other-worldly for your non-academic brain, here’s one that will give you hives — financially speaking, of course.

Job well done

There’s a category of benefits called “Distinguished Service and Professorship Awards,” and what that hifalutin name simply means is that YSU’s employees are recognized for doing their jobs well. So, how are they recognized? With a pizza party? A handwritten note from the president? A pat on the back? Get real.

Consider how faculty are treated:

“Each year up to 24 persons shall be selected as Distinguished Professors and receive $2,000.” (That’s $2,000 from the university’s coffers.)

Remember the contract not so long ago when the classified employees received huge bonuses because the university’s enrollment grew significantly? Well, they too receive a financial reward for doing their jobs well.

By the way, the ongoing precipitous drop in enrollment has not resulted in the classified employees being penalized financially. Go figure.

There are other goodies in the “YSU Benefits Comparison” that has the effect of undermining the faculty’s war on athletics.