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Sam Dunaway | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n Western administrators and faculty convened for the first time this year on Jan. 23 as part of the faculty bargaining process, a series of meetings where the faculty contract is negotiated between the Western Oregon University Federation of Teachers Union (WOUFT) and Western\u2019s administration. The groups met periodically throughout winter and spring term, with the last session scheduled for June 21.<\/span><\/p>\n The faculty\u2019s three-year contract, extending until 2020, was, in its conception, agreed to be re-opened and certain articles negotiated every year. The articles that manage salary and faculty development were re-opened for negotiation, and the faculty decided to review an article outlining the assignment of duties for faculty members.<\/span><\/p>\n As it stands, faculty are required to spend a certain number of credit hours teaching every term, but another part of the job description is service to the institution by taking part in various committees, senate bodies and advising students.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur concern was that in the last couple years we\u2019ve been asked to do more and more institutional service, which is important and it\u2019s part of shared governance, but it\u2019s not teaching, and that\u2019s the primary thing that faculty come here to do,\u201d explained bargaining team chair Dr. Emily Plec. \u201cWe\u2019ve found that the institutional service load is really taking time away from teaching for many faculty and making them feel as though they\u2019re not giving their students the full attention that they\u2019d like to give.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n WOUFT initially proposed a reduction in the teaching load from 36 credits to 24, to help offset some of the extra work many faculty members were doing to keep up with their institutional service projects. When the administration rejected this proposal, the conversation turned to increasing salaries.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s begun to boil down to salary,\u201d Plec explained. \u201cIf (the administration) can\u2019t give us relief in our working week, we expect a better salary offer than the one that we\u2019re seeing to compensate us equitably.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Western has historically fallen behind peer institutions in salary. Now, after the revelation of the nearly $3 million savings in the university budget, many WOUFT members, like non-tenured track instructor Karla Hale, wish to see that money invested in both tenured and non-tenured faculty. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201c(Western) salaries fall far below other local comparative community colleges and universities,\u201d Hale explained. \u201cCurrently many of our non-tenure track faculty have to work part-time jobs \u2014 often at other colleges \u2014 to supplement their wages. I currently teach at Chemeketa part-time and get paid more per credit to teach there as a part time instructor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The administration team has offered tenured faculty an average increase in salary of 4.2 percent for 2018-2019 and 3.7 percent for 2019-2020. Additionally, non-tenured faculty have been offered a 3 percent salary increase for 2018-2019 and a 2.25 percent increase for 2019-2020. Carson Campbell, Associate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, believes this is a generous increase for the resources that the university has.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOver the two-year period, these percentage increases outpace the recent historical data on national average in faculty wage increases by a fair bit,\u201d Campbell described. \u201cAdditionally, (Western) has offered a 25 percent increase, $50,000 annually, to the dollars invested in faculty development. All told, the University\u2019s proposal carries a cost of nearly $1 million in 2018-2019 and $1.5 million in 2019-2020.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n WOUFT president Scott Beaver hopes that the administration provides both tenured and non-tenured faculty with competitive and fair compensation.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo one gets into teaching at any level to get rich, but our faculty works very hard to provide (Western) students with a top-notch education and should be compensated accordingly for their diligent and thoughtful efforts,\u201d Beaver said. \u201cOur workload has increased but our pay has not kept up. We would like to see management put more of the millions they recently uncovered toward both non-tenure track and tenure track faculty salaries to help us attract and retain the best faculty for our students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n Photo by: Paul F. Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sam Dunaway | News Editor Western administrators and faculty convened for the first time this year on Jan. 23 as part of the faculty bargaining process, a series of meetings where the faculty contract is negotiated between the Western Oregon University Federation of Teachers Union (WOUFT) and Western\u2019s administration. 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