Faculty approved their new Master Agreement on Monday with 80.6 percent of faculty approval and 19.4 percent of rejection.
Joe Sopcich, President and CEO, explained what happened with the untimely dean raises.
“The bottom-line is we went through the interview process for the dean of business …and the decision was made to select Dr. Cox,” Sopcich said. “As a part of that selection, an increase in salary within his range was proposed, and the college accepted that proposal, then…it begins a chain reaction with regards to the other deans …and so that led us to making those changes in those other [dean] salaries and we had to do that in a rather accelerated practice.”
According to Sopcich, giving salary raises to the deans was his decision, and that he knew it would cause controversy.
Becky Centlivre, vice-president, Human Resources, clarified some details on why the board chose a three percent raise.
“The Board of Trustees and Administration commissioned a salary study, which the Faculty Association participated in, prior to the negotiations process,” Centlivre said. “The Board of Trustees and Administration continued researching current compensation trends during the negotiation process and confirmed that a three percent increase to faculty salaries was fair and would allow the college to remain competitive in recruiting and retaining faculty.”
Centlivre mentioned that the college did not perform a salary study before the deans’ adjustment, since deans are still in a contract cycle; instead, an internal market analysis was made prior to the decision.
The three percent will be an average annual increase and will last until June 30, 2021. Included with the salary raise are a few other benefits, such as:
- Accrued sick leave may be used up to 12 weeks as part of the parental leave and spouses may each take 12 weeks of parental leave, simultaneously or consecutively;
- Faculty pay for teaching Honors and Applied Music Lessons were substantially increased; and
- The calendar will reflect 10 fewer teaching days beginning academic year 2020-2021.
The list of all the benefits is listed on the October board packet, page 35.
With the new Master Agreement passed by faculty, the final step is now on the hands of the Board of Trustees, who will either approve or dismiss the new contract on their next meeting, October 16.