YSU administrators dispute union claims

YOUNGSTOWN

Two Youngstown State University administrators disputed, in a memo distributed this week, classified employees and faculty union assertions about the budget, layoffs and administrative structure.

Neal McNally, interim vice president for finance and administration, and Kevin Reynolds, chief human resources officer, in a memo sent Thursday to YSU department heads and members of the executive and administrative staff council in response to recent news coverage and a news release from one campus union, say that while the administration has “refused to bargain these contracts in the news media, we are committed to ensuring that the administrative staff on campus is kept well informed of the facts and to setting the record straight when the facts have been misstated or omitted.”

The Vindicator was able to obtain the memo.

In a June 5 news release that followed an announcement of layoffs due to budget cuts, the Association of Classified Employees, which is suffering the brunt of the layoffs expected to begin this month, wrote that the positions abolished were chosen based on salary/benefit amounts for the positions.

Both ACE and the YSU-Ohio Education Association, are in contract negotiations with the university.

“That is a completely inaccurate, out-of-context and counterproductive reading of what the ‘rationale’ actually says,” McNally and Reynolds’ memo says. “The identification of positions for layoff was based on a careful analysis by each division vice president and was not hinged on salary/benefit amounts. If ACE is going to quote administration documents in the future, we would appreciate that they would do so accurately and constructively.”

Connie Frisby, ACE president, stood by the statements in last week’s news release.

Read the complete story in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.