 |
Photo By Jymi Bolden
|
Joe Fisher, president of the UC faculty union, says
teachers are moving “into strike mode.”
|
Health plan represents 'take-backs' from faculty
The leadership at the University of Cincinnati might get a lesson from faculty this year on the importance of a fair contract.
Negotiations between the university and faculty members represented by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) are stalled.
"Right now there aren't negotiations going on," says UC spokesman Greg Hand.
Faculty members plan to picket Thursday, the first day of class, distributing literature about university spending.
"We're going to move into strike mode," says Joe Fisher, president of the UC chapter of AAUP.
The picketing Thursday is simply a practice exercise for the possibility of a strike. Classes at the beginning of the school year will go as planned.
The university offered faculty a 2-percent salary increase for the current fiscal year and a 3-percent increase each of the next two fiscal years, according to Hand.
"The administration has said all along that although times are tight, we have to do something for our faculty," he says. "Ohio State University gave its employees less than a 1-percent increase."
But offers of wage increases have come in combination with offers of lesser health care benefits, according to Fisher.
"We're a long way apart at this point, because they're asking for $2 million in take-backs on the health insurance," he says. "They're offering with one hand and taking back with the other."
Hand acknowledges health care has held up agreement on a contract.
"One of the sticking points is undoubtedly health care," he says. "Effectively what we have asked the faculty to do is to accept the same health care package that the top administrators have."
A large part of tuition increases were the result of increased health care costs last year, Hand says. But Fisher says that even with the recent spikes in health care costs, the costs came up to less than what was allowed for in the 1995 faculty contract.
Hand says the average nine-month salary for a faculty member at UC is $65,000. The university's proposed plan for wage increases over the next three years would raise the average to above $70,000.
But Fisher says those raises won't even cover cost of living increases.
"In the last 12 years we've fallen 12 percent behind Ohio State in terms of faculty salaries," he says.
The effect on the university's ability to retain top teachers is predictable.
"This last year Ohio State stole two of our top creative writing professors from the English Department, and Penn State robbed us of another one," Fisher says. "UC is a quality institution, but the quality is going down quickly, I'm afraid."
The math department has dropped from 46 full-time staff down to 36.5 in the past few years, Fisher says. His travel budget this year is $150, leaving him virtually no money to travel to professional meetings to talk about research.
"The faculty morale is very low here," he says.
From 1998 to 2001, Miami University's faculty received a total wage increase of 15.8 percent, compared to 9 percent at UC, according to Fisher.
"We really took it on the chin in the last contract," he says.
But Hand says the university must do a balancing act to keep tuition down for students and pay what it costs to retain and recruit quality faculty.
An 85-year career
"One way to look at the cost of salary is what would this do to the salary of a particular faculty member," Hand says. "The other way to look at it is what does it cost the university, and a 1-percent increase in salary costs the university about a million and a half dollars."
In order to raise $1 million, the university has to increase tuition by 1 percent, Hand says.
The university can't expect much help from the state.
"Ohio has traditionally under-funded higher education, and throughout Ohio the tuition for public universities is higher than it is in other states," Hand says.
Tuition at UC went up 8 percent this year, and the university made $8 million in budget cuts.
"Without those budget cuts, the students would have seen something like a 16 percent increase," Hand says.
The state has told the school it will give UC $1.5 million less than last year, and next fiscal year they will get exactly the same amount of money as this year.
"If you raise tuition, students are paying more," Hand says. "If you cut the budget, students are getting less."
Some have asked how the university can afford new construction. State funds for UC come from two different state budgets, and money designated for construction cannot be used for operating costs. The Clifton campus has seen $1 billion in new construction over the past 10 years.
The state provides funds to cover much of the operating costs for the new buildings, and UC's financial contribution to operations has remained minimal, Hand says. This is due to the university's efficiency, which has been recognized by the federal government for measures leading to millions of dollars saved on energy costs, he says.
While saving money on the heating bill may make the state happy, saving on salaries doesn't excite the faculty. Fisher says that in the mid-1990s a joint committee of faculty and administrators developed a faculty compensation model.
Historically, Fisher says, professional salaries over a 35-year career will double a person's buying power. Faculty receive salary increases when they move from assistant to associate professor and then again when they become full professors. But Fisher says they would also need a yearly wage increase that would cover cost of living increases, plus an additional 1.5 percent increase, to double their buying power over the course of a 35 year career.
"We've beat the cost of living a bit, but the way it's worked out for us over the last 12 years is a faculty member would need an 85 year career to double their buying power," Fisher says.
Instead of being an expense, the faculty must be recognized as UC's most valuable resource, he says.
"Eighty-six percent of the income to the University of Cincinnati is generated either directly or indirectly by faculty effort," Fisher says. ©
