Administration’s July 14 responses to Faculty compensation and workload proposals are “disappointing”

The Faculty and Administration bargaining teams met for about two hours on July 14, and the Administration provided their responses to the Faculty proposals for Workload (presented by the Faculty Team on May 30) and Compensation (presented by the Faculty Team on May 31).

Faculty Team Co-leader Greg Klein said, “We’re deeply disappointed by the Administration responses we received today. Their proposals for Compensation and Workload don’t address a lot of the significant concerns the Faculty Team described in detail when we presented our proposals 6 weeks ago.”

Faculty Team Co-leader Julie McLaughlin added, “At the moment, the Faculty and Administration proposals for Compensation and Workload are very far apart, and there seems to be a lack of full understanding by the Administration of the faculty concerns that need to be addressed in the next contract.”

“If the College wants to continue to attract and also retain faculty who are passionate about serving our students with the highest level of care and quality, it’s essential to resolve problems, and invest in future solutions,” Greg said.

No bargaining is scheduled during the week of July 17. Sessions are scheduled for July 24, 25, 26, and 27.

The Faculty Team will be working next week on responses to the Administration’s most recent proposals, and hopes both teams will use the week of July 24 productively to try to resolve remaining contract articles.

The State Employment Relations Board (SERB) has informed the two teams that a mediator has been appointed who can assist both sides during bargaining. Mediation is one of the steps built into Ohio’s collective bargaining law, and is intended to help achieve settlements that are acceptable to both sides.

The Faculty and Administration teams agreed to reach out to the mediator about his schedule, and may be asking the mediator to attend future bargaining sessions.