Bowling Green State University faculty
members are in line for a 15 percent raise over the five-year life of their newly proposed contract.The
faculty voted to form a union in the fall of 2010, and announced Monday that the first contract had been
agreed upon with administration.Some details of the tentative contract were revealed Friday on salaries,
benefits, job security and shared governance."We didn’t get everything we wanted," Dr. David
Jackson, president of the BGSU Faculty Association, said Friday. But he added, "There’s more about it
to like than not like."For example, faculty members will now know their salaries for the next three
years. "So people are able to plan," he said."We think the raises are fair," Jackson
said. "We’re trying to get BGSU salaries at least comparable to the other three corner
universities," referring to Kent State, Ohio and Miami.The BGSU-FA hopes to have the text of the
proposed contract finalized and ready to be released in its entirety by March 29.Then there will be a
BGSU-FA meeting, open to all union members, the first week of April. Jackson said a vote on the contract
will likely be held by mid-April. Only faculty union members may vote on the contract.The BGSU Board of
Trustees are expected to vote on the contract at their May 3 meeting.Jackson is hopeful the faculty members
will support the contract which has been endorsed by the negotiating team and union leadership."It’s a
product of compromise," he said. "It’s overall a good package."Some of the provisions in the
contract include:Compensation• 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 raise: 6.5 percent total, combined, for these two
retroactive years. All of the raise for 2011-2012 and most of the raise for 2012-2013 will be paid to
faculty in a lump sum in the May 20, 2013 paycheck. All of this raise will be added to base salaries before
the 2013-2014 raise.• 3 percent raises each year for 2013-2014, 2014 to 2015, and 2015 to 2016 (1 percent
across-the-board, 1 percent for all faculty meeting or exceeding expectations according to unit merit
evaluations, and 1 percent traditional merit varying by individual).• An additional fund of $1.8 million to
be managed by the provost but with advisement on how to disburse the funds by a joint administration/BGSU-FA
committee to bring BGSU salaries to three-corner average (Kent State University, Ohio University, and Miami
University) and address salary compression and market equity issues.• Minimum salaries. For 2013-2014:
$65,000 for professors, $55,000 for associates, $45,000 for assistants and senior lecturers, $40,000 for
lecturers, and $35,000 for instructors.• Increases in promotion raises: $9,000 for full (currently $5,000),
$5,500 for associate (currently $3,500), $4,000 for senior lecturer (currently $2,000), and $3,000 for
lecturer (currently $1,000).• The 100 faculty being cut by BGSU get the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 raises above
if they have been at the university since fall 2011.• Compensation for summer 2014 courses will be 1/34 of
base salary per credit hour, and for summer 2015 will be 1/38 of base salary per credit hour.Job security
and respect for non-tenure track faculty• Promotion policies for all full-time non-tenure track faculty.•
Seniority system for non-tenure track faculty in the event of job cuts.Benefits• Individuals will pay 15
percent of health insurance premiums, families will pay 20 percent.• First-ever paid parental leave policy.•
Spousal/partner hire policy.• Preserves many rights and benefits that faculty have had access to like
tuition fee waivers for dependents.Shared Governance and Academic Freedom• Strong academic freedom
language.• Shared governance language.• Joint BGSU-FA/administration committees to study the need for post
tenure review and the costs of faculty improvement leave for non-tenure track faculty, respectively.• A
joint BGSU-FA/administration committee will be established to consider ways to limit health care costs while
maintaining coverage (coverage cannot be changed during the contract without further negotiation agreed to
by both parties).Faculty Protections• A grievance policy with independent arbitration.• Fair share for all
members of the bargaining unit, to ensure the BGSU-FA’s ability to support arbitration, future bargaining
and other faculty efforts.