In another attempt to reassure students and their families that classes at the 14 state-owned universities will not be interrupted this Fall, the State System of Higher Education has repeated its offer to extend the terms of the recently expired contract with the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) through Dec. 31.

TheState System also promised that should a new agreement be reached by Dec. 31, any general pay increase would be retroactive to the beginning of the Fall semester.

System officials would like to remove the threat of a work stoppage while negotiations continue in order to assure the more than 95,000 students at the 14 universities their classes will not be interrupted.

“We are confident we will be able to reach an agreement with our faculty,” said Chancellor James H. McCormick. “We hope to be able to do so soon. In the meantime, extending the terms of the contract would help ease any concerns students and their families may have about the possibility of their classes being interrupted. Our students deserve such reassurance.”

Contract negotiations between the State System and its faculty union frequently have taken place in the Fall and even into early Spring. The contract with APSCUF that expired in June 1996, for example, was not renewed until February 1997.

TheState System’s current offer to APSCUF would grant salary increases of up to 16.5 percent over three years. The proposal would provide all faculty general pay increases of 2 percent each year in 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 and 2.5 percent in 2001-2002.

Eligible faculty on any of the seven steps of the current pay scale also would receive, in addition to the 2 percent general pay increase, an annual service increment of 5 percent for the 1999-2000 academic year. A new 15-step salary schedule, which would provide eligible faculty annual service increments of approximately 2.5 percent at each step, would be implemented in the second year of the contract. Faculty eligible for the service increments in each of the three years of the contract would receive a combined increase of 16.5 percent under this proposal.

Those faculty at the top of the new pay scale and not eligible for the service increments would receive, in addition to the general pay increases, cash payments of 2.5 percent in each of the second and third years of the contract, giving them the equivalent of an 11.5 percent increase.

APSCUF is seeking to increase the base salary of every faculty member by at least 17 percent over four years – 4 percent in 1999-2000, 4.25 percent each in 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 and 4.5 percent in 2002-2003.

The faculty union also is seeking to continue the 5 percent annual service increment, which provides automatic pay increases based on years of service, throughout the life of the next contract. These automatic pay increases are in addition to the general pay increases listed above and would result in some faculty members being eligible to receive combined increases totaling as much as 37 percent over four years.

State System faculty salaries already are very competitive when compared with those paid by comparable public institutions, both nationally and in the northeast, where salaries tend to be higher than in the rest of the country. The average nine-month salary for full-time faculty at all ranks as of Fall 1998 was $59,428. (That is about $8,000 higher than the national average for similar institutions, according to figures included in the Aug. 27, 1999 Almanac Issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.) The average nine-month salary for full-time instructors – the lowest of four faculty ranks – was $34,085, while the average nine-month salary for full-time professors – the highest rank – was $76,255.

Faculty members also receive a generous package of medical and other benefits. The System has not proposed any changes to the benefits package during the current negotiations.

Additional information on negotiations is available at the State System website at: http:\\www.sshechan.edu. Click on “What’s New,” then “Collective Bargaining Information,” then “APSCUF-Faculty.”

The State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Nearly 350,000 System alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and the University Center for Southwest Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. The regional centers are part of the Educational Resources Group, which is responsible for coordinating statewide programming.