Board Ratifies New Faculty Contract
Faculty association requests for a housing allowance fund and higher pay during sabbatical leave were granted April 16 when the association and the University of San Francisco Board of Trustees ratified a new five-year faculty union contract. Other issues on the table—domestic partner benefits and early retirement incentives—will be further reviewed by committees of administrators and faculty.
The university also agreed to present a plan for an on-campus childcare facility to The City by June 2003. Faculty proposals for an increase in the university’s pension contribution and an increase in dental benefits were turned down. Salary increases—recognized by both sides as necessary—will increase at a negotiated rate of 3.5 percent this year and 3.75 percent in 2003 and 2004. They then reopen for negotiation in 2005.
“I think the end result is very satisfactory,” said Alan Heineman, English professor and president of the faculty association. “The university clearly understands the need to attract and retain the best faculty. On the one hand, resources are limited and on the other hand the cost of living is substantially higher than anywhere else in the country. These are challenges that all parties recognize and all parties are doing their best to meet.”
The ratified five-year contract extends from July 1 through June 2007, with childcare subsidies and sabbatical pay, in addition to salary increases and other issues, open for renegotiation after three years. Sabbatical pay will increase from 50 percent to 75 percent of pay for a full year. A faculty housing allowance of $200,000 per year for the next three years was approved in light of the university’s decision to convert Loyola Village to primarily student housing. The money will be used first to help faculty rent units at the Village. Other uses of the fund will be discussed and approved by a committee.
University proposals for faculty assessments of student learning, faculty participation in overseeing and revising the curriculum, and an expedited promotion and tenure denial grievance procedure were also approved. If the university upholds a denial for tenure or promotion by a peer review committee, a faculty plaintiff has to show the university was substantively unfair to get an arbitration hearing. The agreement potentially represents a large savings for the university in artbitration costs, said Dan Julius, associate vice president of academic affairs and labor relations.
The university asked for time to study the faculty association’s proposal for domestic partner benefits, both to define who would be covered and how much it would cost, Julius said. The proposal was included in the faculty union’s proposals at the behest of USF Pride, an alliance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender faculty and staff. “This is about equitable benefits,” said Jack Lendvay, assistant professor of environmental science and an originator of the proposal.
USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. also is setting up a task force to study the issue for the university as a whole. “This is an issue of broader scope than just the members of the faculty association, and the issues should be reviewed by a group representative of all those affected,” he said.
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