Increased compensation will not be a reality this year, but could be in the remaining three years of the proposed faculty contract.

Compensation was one issue of the tentative agreement union members heard Thursday. Faculty will have a chance to ratify the contract this week.

Negotiating teams for Eastern’s chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois and administration agreed on a contract Feb. 6.

All union members will receive information on the contract, if they attended Thursday’s meeting or not, and a mail-in ballot to vote on the contract. Completed ballots need to be mailed in by next Monday, said UPI president David Radavich.

Radavich said meetings have been held to keep finalizing contract language.

“This is it. This is the result,” he said.

Both sides identified issues of workload, faculty

and staff compensation and distance education as primary issues during the 11 months of negotiations.

The tentative agreement primarily includes provisions for Unit B or non-tenured faculty, intellectual property rights, compensation, including supplemental, merit pay, distance education, workload, faulty evaluation methods, sabbatical issues and benefits.

The issues

No salary increase was offered this year in the four-year contract, but a one-time bonus equal to a 1.5 percent salary increase will be offered if there is no state rescission by mid-May. The bonus will be equal to 1 percent if the rescission is less than $500,000.

However, in the second, third and fourth years of the contract salaries will be raised 2, 2.5 or 3 percent above state appropriations, according to the tentative contract agreement.

The contract gives Unit B faculty, including Academic Support Professionals, more money for salaries, said UPI chief negotiator Charles Delman.

It also adds “superior ranking and reconsideration requests in (the) evaluation process.

Before the current tentative agreement, there were no specific university guidelines for how income can be distributed for patent ownership between the university and faculty.

Eastern’s Board of Trustees’ policy dictates the “appropriate share” be given to the “inventor or discoverer.”

The tentative agreement specifies no less than 50 percent of the net fees and royalty be given to the inventor.

Delman said the administration partly focused on summer school costs during negotiations.

“From the beginning of negotiations, cutting summer school costs was key to administration,” he said.

The agreement says compensation will be remain at about 33 percent per credit unit of what would be their monthly salary.

For summer salaries to increase, cuts would have to be made in other areas of the university budget, said Bob Wayland, director of employee and labor relations.

“It was not specifically that we wanted to cut summer school costs,” he said. “If (the UPI) wanted an increase this year it was going to have to come from other costs.”

The agreement also specifies $80,000 will be given to summer research awards, Delman said.

Before the proposed contract, the administration was pushing for merit pay to be given out at the discretion of department chairs, the UPI said.

The agreement now only says Unit B faculty merit pay is increased to $35 per month.

Distance education has never appeared on the contract before, and faculty members still do not have the option of turning down teaching a distance learning course, Delman said.

“Unfortunately, we were not able to get the administration to agree that distance education is voluntary,” Delman said. “For them, it was really an authority issue.”

Wayland agreed expectations have not changed.

“We’ve said all along this is no different than teaching courses on campus. Administration has the right to assign courses to qualified faculty members,” Wayland said. “We consider it a management right.”

While a lot of courses cannot practically be taught through a distance environment, there are now about 35 distance learning courses, he said.

Workload for full-time faculty will remain at 18 to 24 credit units per academic year workload.

Unit B faculty with 18 or more credit units and with six or fewer for one semester, can still be considered part-time for that semester, according to the agreement.

Probationary faculty, those who have not reached tenure, cannot teach more than 21 credit units each academic year.

“In making these workload adjustments, we felt we should lead with our non-tenured faculty,” Delman said.

Another issue in negotiations was the possibility of tenure faculty to undergo an evaluation by the department chair every three years. Right now, faculty are encouraged to submit a self-evaluation to the chair for review every year.

The proposed agreement only cites provisions for probational faculty to “restore the third-year evaluation as required instead of optional.”

The mandatory evaluation for the tenure-track faculty was dropped a few years ago, Wayland said.

“They have to show progress as far as research, teaching and service,” he said.

Tenure-track faculty undergo a six-year probational period before they can be granted tenure.

A benefit under the settlement removed the top on non-compensable employee sick leave days.

It’s over

The contract received applause at the UPI meeting Thursday.

“The surprise to me was how excellent this contract seems to be,” said journalism professor Mary Wohlrabe.

Wohlrabe said the contract renewed her faith in the university’s administration.

“This contract says to me the administration does value teaching,” she said. “I’m back believing faculty are valued.”

The contract does not signify a gain or loss by either side involved in negotiations, Wayland said.

“I don’t really see any gains or losses by either party. We were finally able to peacefully resolve all of our issues,” he said. “We have a contract that’s in effect at least for another 3 1/2 years. It did restore some labor peace to the campus.”

Public higher education has faced “turmoil” this year, Radavich said in press release Friday.

He said he hopes the agreement can bring, “some stability so our universities can continue to prepare students to become knowledgeable and productive citizens and leaders of the future.”

If faculty ratify the tentative agreement, the BOT must approve the contract.