Saturday, October 21, 2017
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State University administration and the faculty union have ratified a three-year contract.
University President Jim Tressel said he is happy his staff is able to get back to doing what it does best: working with students.
“We are definitely in a better spot to more effectively address the university’s challenges together,” said A.J. Sumell, union president and economics professor.
“One of the challenges we are looking forward to is working together on the importance and impact of higher education,” Tressel said.
During Friday’s special board meeting, YSU’s board of trustees unanimously approved an agreement for a three-year contract with the faculty union for 2017-2020.
This decision comes after the faculty union’s approval earlier this month for the three-year contract with YSU.
On Sept. 20, university trustees rejected a fact finder’s report for the faculty union’s contract, citing a technicality. Provost Martin Abraham said at the time that the board was not allowed to approve an amended fact finder’s report.
The amended report is the result of changes by both faculty and administration.
The agreement includes many of the same items listed in the amended fact finder’s report such as: base salary increases; increases for minimum salaries; new ranks; summer compensation changes; a flattened employee insurance contribution; and two side-letter agreements regarding academic rank bonuses and a safeguarded faculty workload agreement.
The base salary increases are 2 percent this year and 2.5 percent in each of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years.
The fact finder’s report, issued Sept. 12 by Susan Grody Ruben of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals of Cleveland, recommended eliminating the role of instructors and creating senior lecturers and lecturers and establishing new salary minimums for all five ranks.
Summer compensation in the ratified agreement states: “Faculty teaching undergraduate courses with enrollment of 15 or more as of 6 a.m. on the first day of the class shall receive $2,250 per teaching hour.”
“Faculty teaching undergraduate courses with enrollment of 11 through 14 as of 6 a.m. on the first day of the class shall be paid $1,900 per teaching hour. Undergraduate courses with enrollment of 10 or fewer as of 6 a.m. on the first day of the class may be canceled or compensated as a conference course. If the course is offered, faculty shall be paid $1,550 per teaching hour.”
Faculty members teaching graduate or swing courses will be paid the same based on enrollment.
Employee insurance contributions are readjusted in the agreement to be a flat 15 percent starting the second year of the contract.
One of the side-letter agreements in the deal regarding a safeguarded faculty workload agreement states: “During the term of this Agreement, should the Board of Trustees amend University policy titled ‘Faculty workload’... to increase the standard workload [which includes teaching, research and service] for all full-time faculty bargaining unit members [excluding Lecturers and Senior Lecturers] beyond 24 workload hours per year, excluding summer sessions, all full-time faculty shall receive an immediate one-time 10 percent increase to base salary. This provision is triggered solely upon a change to the Board’s ‘faculty workload’ policy regarding the number of workload hours, or through other policy changes that accomplish the same result, and not a change to any individual faculty member’s workload.”
After seeing more then nine years of contract negotiations, university Trustee Chairman Leonard Schiavone said this round of contract negotiations was – by far – the best negotiations he’s been through.
“I’m glad I’ve been there where we have people able to work through issues without things getting personal and tense,” he said. “We have a good working relationship.”