Negotiations toward a first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the new Bargaining Unit consisting of the non-tenure-eligible "NTE" faculty began on Monday, March 11. Negotiations continued on Mondays through the end of the spring semester and will move to Fridays for the summer session. Below, you will find a roster of the AAUP-WSU negotiating team; brief reports about each Monday's negotiation session; and an article-by-article summary table with links to detailed information about each individual article that either party proposes to include in the CBA.

AAUP-WSU Negotiating Team

In these negotiations, AAUP-WSU is represented by the following team. All members of AAUP-WSU, and especially those among the NTE Bargaining Unit, are most welcome to contact team members about any issue that will or might arise during negotiations. See also the list of Executive Committee members on our Officers page.

The administration's counterpart of our Chief Negotiator Dr. Rudy Fichtenbaum is Dr. Bill Rickert.

Session-by-Session Reports

May 3, 2013

Negotiations began with a brief examination of the administration's proposal for Article 19 (Workload). Our team's acceptance of it will depend upon progress in workload discussions.

The teams then discussed the administration's proposal for Article 10 (Faculty Involvement in Governance). After extensive discussions and a long caucus, our team agreed to the key idea in the administration's proposal: that the parties postpone settling governance issues until a later date, e.g., after the new CBA is ratified.

The administration's counter proposal on Article 7 (Faculty Rights and Responsibilities) was next. Thus far, the administration has offered nothing in the way of summer teaching rights for NTE faculty.

The two negotiating teams used the rest of this session on AAUP-WSU counterproposals for Article 13 (Appointment and Promotion) and, very briefly, Article 15 (Termination of Appointments). Among the many crucial issues in two articles, the parties covered at length only one: our proposal that all NTE faculty outside CoNH and the Lake Campus should be appointed in identified academic departments. To facilitate progress on these two articles and the related Article 17 (Retrenchment), the parties agreed to have an overview discussion of the three of them at the next negotiating session.

April 22, 2013

As expected, the parties' Chief Negotiators initialed -- "TA'd" -- Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 22, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, and 38, thus signifying tentative agreement on these articles. Please see the right hand column of the article-by-article summary table below for links to pdf files showing the TA'd articles.

The parties then turned to the administration's proposal for Article 20 (Intellectual Property), agreement on which will apparently hinge on the related issue of Article 21 (Distance Learning).

Next came the administration's proposal for Article 30 (Leaves). There, the parties simply reviewed the proposed changes from the current CBA for tenure-eligible and tenured (TET) faculty.

On Article 31 (Other Benefits), the administration's counterproposal to our March 11 original was discussed; and, the administration's proposals for Appendices A (Candidate Review Statement), B (Guidelines for Evaluating Leadership), and C (Record of Promotion Votes and Recommendations) were briefly examined.

To close the session, the two negotiating teams discussed informally Article 10 (Faculty Involvement in Governance), even though neither party has yet produced a formal proposal for that article. At the heart of the matter is how to bring NTE faculty into the bylaws system brought into being by the current CBA for tenure-eligible and tenured (TET) faculty.

April 15, 2013

The parties agreed to and formally signed the following ground rules:

Ground Rules

1. Meetings -- A schedule of meetings will be jointly determined. Starting and ending times for each session may be altered as the need arises, by mutual consent. Meetings will not be audio or video recorded. Computers are permitted for note taking.
2. Quorum -- The presence of the chief negotiator and at least one other team member from both the AAUP and the University shall constitute a quorum for all meetings.
3. Agenda -- The agenda for each session will be mutually determined in advance insofar as possible, usually as the last item of business at the previous session. The agenda may be modified during the course of a meeting by mutual consent. This does not preclude a party from raising an issue that does not appear on the agenda. When such issues do arise, the parties may agree to pursue them; however, the "surprised" party need not respond in detail at that session. In addition, neither party is obligated to discuss changes received less than 72 hours in advance of the session, as set forth in paragraph 4.
4. Document Exchange -- March 25, 2013 both parties will exchange a list of articles and appendixes that they propose to include in the CBA. Counter proposals will be in writing and, whenever possible, exchanged 72 hours in advance of the session at which they are to be discussed to minimize possible confusion or misunderstanding and give each side sufficient time to understand the position of the other side. Exchange of proposals and counter proposals will be done electronically between chief negotiators. Electronic files will be segregated by article; that is a single data file will contain only one CBA article or appendix.
5. Bargaining Team Membership -- The parties are free to amend the size and membership of their respective teams at the bargaining table. The other team will be advised of changes in advance. All participants will abide by these ground rules.
6. Proceedings -- Each chief negotiator will be responsible for the recognition and participation of each member of her/his team. All questions by team members or resource people should be directed to or through the chief negotiator.
7. Recesses and Caucuses -- Either chief negotiator may call for a caucus whenever she/he deems it necessary, with time limits set and changed by mutual understanding. If either side feels it has the need for an extended caucus it can inform the other side and postpone negotiations until the next scheduled session.
8. Minutes -- There will be no joint minutes. Each party will be responsible for keeping its own record of the negotiations.
9. Temporary Impasse -- If the parties fail to reach an agreement on a particular item, negotiations will continue on other items and the parties will subsequently return to the item that was not settled. If a temporary impasse arises, both parties may agree to turn the issue over to a sub-committee for additional settlement efforts with any possible solutions reached brought back to the full table for discussion.
10. Tentative Agreements -- Once both parties have reached agreement on all language in an article or appendix, that tentative agreement will be confirmed at the table in writing by having each chief negotiator initial a copy of the article or appendix. All such agreements remain tentative pending completion of a total agreement. Only the chief negotiators may make a commitment for their respective parties.
11. Communications -- Both parties have the responsibility to keep their constituents informed about the progress of negotiations. Each party has the right to make periodic progress reports to the party's constituencies; such reports shall be truthful and designed to be informative of the bargaining process.
12. Confidentiality -- If both chief negotiators agree that a conversation will be kept "off the record" then no notes will be taken and all elements of the "off the record" exchange will be kept strictly confidential.
13. All negotiation sessions shall be closed to the public, including WSU students and the media.
14. It is the intent of both parties that negotiations be conducted at the bargaining table and in good faith towards achieving a contract mutually beneficial to all.

Please note that the parties had previously agreed to handle the matter of workload for NTE faculty separately.

The two negotiating teams then agreed that they could "TA" -- Tentatively Agree to -- Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 22, 27, 28, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, and 38.

Our team gave a counterproposal for Article 8 (AAUP-WSU Rights) featuring a less extensive increase in course releases available to AAUP-WSU officers.

The parties examined the administration's initial proposal for Article 11 (Annual Evaluation). It is reasonably likely that annual evaluations will be done in accordance with past practice for this one-year agreement, and that the parties will attend to an overhaul of annual evaluation for both bargaining units at a later date.

On the critical Article 13 (Appointment and Promotion), the parties began to discuss the administration's opening proposal in general and the major issue of employment security for NTE faculty in particular.

April 1, 2013

The parties began this session with an opening discussion of workload, as has been expected. About that, please see our workload page.

They then turned to an expected agreement to frame the matter of workload and to ground rules. For the former, AAUP-WSU proposed the following:

• The parties (the University and AAUP-WSU) will discuss and work to attain a workload agreement applicable to faculty in the NTE Bargaining Unit.
• These discussions will be separate from the CBA negotiations now taking place.
• Any agreement resulting from these discussions will not be part of the CBA.

Assuming the above language or equivalent is agreed to, the parties expect to agree on ground rules which do not mention workload.

The administration submitted a proposal for Article 3 (Non-Discrimination), that is the same as the version proposed by AAUP-WSU save only technical changes regarding terminology used to refer to NTE faculty. The parties then agreed to extend their mutual obligations under this article (about which see our Article 3 report for April 1).

The administration submitted a counterproposal for Article 5 (Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibilities) with minor changes in wording.

On Article 8 (AAUP-WSU Rights), the administration put forth a counterproposal featuring no release time (beyond that allocated in the current CBA for tenure-eligible and tenured (TET) faculty) for AAUP-WSU officers.

Our team briefly interrupted the parties' progression through the articles by asking the administration if its intent was to negotiate a one year initial CBA for the NTE faculty, since the administration had prepared no counterproposal for Article 38 (Agreement Duration), which is where the one year term is specified. The administration confirmed that it does intend for there to be a one year agreement.

The administration submitted an unobjectionable counterproposal for Article 9 (Academic Calendar).

The administration put forth an initial proposal for Article 12, Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching. The administration's proposal offered no protection, regarding the mis-use of numerical student evaluation scores, for any NTE faculty akin to that now available to tenured faculty.

In Article 14 (Discipline), the administration submitted a counterproposal featuring revised wording in a section pertaining to tenure removal.

The administration put forth Article 15 (Termination of Appointments), an article that one may regard as vaguely analogous to Article 15, Termination and Unpaid Suspension, in the current CBA. Briefly put, the administration's proposal provides for considerably less protection for NTE faculty than does the current CBA for TET faculty.

The administration submitted Article 17 (Retrenchment), which again would provide NTE faculty with substantially less protection that does the current CBA for TET faculty. The ensuing negotiation, though hardly encouraging, perhaps provided a glimmer of hope that the administration might be willing to move on this issue.

The administration submitted minor counterproposals for Articles 22 (Outside Employment), 27 (Life and Disability Insurance), 28 (Vacation and Sick Leave), and 33 (Retirement), in which it simply adopted the parties' decision in Article 2 (Recognition) about how to refer to NTE faculty.

On Article 34 (Emeritus), the administration put forth a counterproposal that it described as being functionally the same as ours.

To close the session, the parties agreed that they would next negotiate on Monday, April 15 -- thus having a two-week gap between sessions -- due to scheduling constraints of two of our team members. They also agreed to come to that session with lists of articles that they believe can be "TA'd" -- tentatively agreed upon.

Monday, March 25, 2013

As expected, the parties began this session by exchanging lists of articles and appendices they proposed to include in the CBA. The outcome was also as expected: one party or the other listed every article in current CBA for tenure-eligible and tenured (TET) faculty or suitably renamed versions thereof, and likewise every appendix. See the Table of Contents for the semester-based half of the current CBA. In effect, then, the parties have agreed to follow the current CBA in developing the new one for NTE faculty. They also agreed that article names (titles) could be decided upon later, if need be, after substantive negotiations about article content.

Regarding the ground rules (a written agreement to govern the negotiations themselves) and the crucial matter of workload, the parties came to the following understanding.

• Workload: This matter will be dealt with in separate discussions, and the resulting agreement will be outside the CBA for NTE faculty, just as was the case for the workload agreement applicable to the TET faculty. AAUP-WSU expects to use precisely the same negotiating team for these discussions, whereas the administration expects to use Bill Rickert and Associate Provost Henry Limouze (both of whom serve on the administration's CBA Negotiating Team), and Deans or representatives thereof. Workload will be dealt with starting at 4pm on Monday, April 1, with CBA negotiations to follow that, and likewise on subsequent Mondays.
• Document exchange:
  • The parties will establish no formal deadlines for the exchange of initial proposals.
  • The parties will endeavor to share proposals and counterproposals electronically 72 hours before a given negotiating session.

The administration put forth proposals for Article 6 (Management Rights), Article 25 (Additional Compensation), and Article 36 (No Strike / No Lockout), stating that its proposals were taken from the current CBA.

The administration also gave a counter-proposal on Article 21 (Distance Learning) that engendered extensive discussion about support (especially computing and other technological support) for the work of WSU faculty, whether distance learning teaching assignments can be imposed on faculty, and the effects of external parties (MOOCs, for example) on distance learning issues at Wright State.

Monday, March 18, 2013

At this session, the parties began with a brief discussion pertaining to Article 38 (Agreement Duration), in which the administration team stated that "as far as they knew" (approximate quotation), the one-year duration proposed by AAUP-WSU would be acceptable.

In the above paragraph and elsewhere, please see the links to the individual articles to learn more.

Our team then raised the idea that the parties could postpone the topic of annual evaluation (leaving past practice for annual evaluation intact for one more year) and its effect on merit-based pay raises, assuming that the administration would agree that this one-year CBA would, roughly speaking, include only across-the-board pay raises for NTE BUFMs. We believe that the administration is receptive to this idea.

The parties then returned to Article 2 (Recognition), examining a counter-proposal brought to the table by the administration. Notably, the administration proposed that the final section (2.6) in the initial AAUP-WSU proposal be extended to read as follows:

The parties agree to cooperate with each other in the enforcement of this Agreement and recognize that in all matters of negotiation with the University, the Bargaining Unit will join with the TET Bargaining Unit as a single entity.

Thus, the administration may not oppose a goal strongly espoused by the AAUP-WSU Executive Committee: merging the two Bargaining Units into one!

There was brief discussion of Article 9 (Academic Calendar).

In this context, our team noted that some provisions in the new CBA might well call for changes in the current CBA for TET faculty, and we recommended that the parties keep a list of all such provisions so that all such changes could be dealt with in a single Memorandum of Understanding. Our team also reminded the administration that although minor changes to the current CBA could be agreed to by our Executive Committee, major changes required a vote of our members in the TET bargaining unit. (See the chapter Constitution and Bylaws, Article V A 2 o.)

Similarly, after even briefer discussion of Article 14 (Discipline), the parties noted that they should eventually check the various cross-references in the new CBA. Our team stated that when one party brings glitches of this sort to the attention of the other, it should not be regarded as bargaining in bad faith. Albeit silently, the administration team apparently agreed.

On Article 18, Institutional Environment, the administrated took note of our proposal to provide professional development funds to NTE faculty. On Article 21 (Distance Learning), the brief discussion led the parties to observe that they had expected to formulate a new agreement on this topic by June 2012 but had failed to do so.

Article 31 (Other Benefits) engendered a discussion of wellness programs and whether the administration had already begun one.

The parties touched briefly upon Articles 22 (Outside Employment), 27 (Life and Disability Insurance), 28 (Vacation and Sick Leave), 32 (Dues Check-Off and Fair Share), 33 (Retirement), 34 (Emeritus), 35 (Separability), and 37 (Amendments). It seems unlikely that any of these will be controversial.

Regarding Article 38 (Agreement Duration), the administrated reiterated its expectation to agree to our proposal for a one-year initial CBA.

The parties then returned to the AAUP-WSU proposal for Article 7 (Faculty Rights and Responsibilities). Importantly, a discussion of summer teaching rights for NTE faculty was begun but not concluded.

Monday, March 11, 2013

At this session, the members of the two negotiating teams began by introducing themselves.

The administration provided copies of the Ground Rules -- which are simply a written agreement to govern the negotiations themselves -- that the parties adopted in 2011 when negotiating the current CBA for tenure-eligible and tenured (TET) faculty. Our team, which had already drafted Ground Rules for the current negotiations based in large measure on the 2011 version, distributed our draft along with initial proposals for twenty-one CBA articles.

Here are the Ground Rules we proposed:

1. Meetings -- A schedule of meetings will be jointly determined. Starting and ending times for each session may be altered as the need arises, by mutual consent. Meetings will not be audio or video recorded. Computers are permitted for note taking.
2. Quorum -- The presence of the chief negotiator and at least one other team member from both the AAUP and the University shall constitute a quorum for all meetings.
3. Agenda -- The agenda for each session will be mutually determined in advance insofar as possible, usually as the last item of business at the previous session. The agenda may be modified during the course of a meeting by mutual consent. This does not preclude a party from raising an issue that does not appear on the agenda. When such issues do arise, the parties may agree to pursue them; however, the "surprised" party need not respond in detail at that session. In addition, neither party is obligated to discuss changes received less than 48 hours in advance of the session, as set forth in paragraph 4.
4. Document Exchange -- March 18, 2013 both parties will exchange a list of articles and appendixes that they propose to include in the CBA. The deadline by which either party may put forth an initial proposal for an article or appendix is May 6, 2013. Counter proposals will be in writing and, whenever possible, exchanged 48 hours in advance of the session at which they are to be discussed to minimize possible confusion or misunderstanding and give each side sufficient time to understand the position of the other side. Exchange of proposals and counter proposals will be done electronically between chief negotiators. Electronic files will be segregated by article; that is a single data file will contain only one CBA article or appendix. The two deadlines in paragraph 4 may be changed by mutual consent.
5. Workload -- Discussions regarding workload will be included in negotiations, although the parties agree that an agreement on workload will be in the form of a memorandum of understanding and will not be included in the CBA.
6. Bargaining Team Membership -- The parties are free to amend the size and membership of their respective teams at the bargaining table. The other team will be advised of changes in advance. All participants will abide by these ground rules.
7. Proceedings -- Each chief negotiator will be responsible for the recognition and participation of each member of her/his team. All questions by team members or resource people should be directed to or through the chief negotiator.
8. Recesses and Caucuses -- Either chief negotiator may call for a caucus whenever she/he deems it necessary, with time limits set and changed by mutual understanding. If either side feels it has the need for an extended caucus it can inform the other side and postpone negotiations until the next scheduled session.
9. Minutes -- There will be no joint minutes. Each party will be responsible for keeping its own record of the negotiations.
10. Temporary Impasse -- If the parties fail to reach an agreement on a particular item, negotiations will continue on other items and the parties will subsequently return to the item that was not settled. If a temporary impasse arises, both parties may agree to turn the issue over to a sub-committee for additional settlement efforts with any possible solutions reached brought back to the full table for discussion.
11. Tentative Agreements -- Once both parties have reached agreement on all language in an article or appendix, that tentative agreement will be confirmed at the table in writing by having each chief negotiator initial a copy of the article or appendix. All such agreements remain tentative pending completion of a total agreement. Only the chief negotiators may make a commitment for their respective parties.
12. Communications -- Both parties have the responsibility to keep their constituents informed about the progress of negotiations. Each party has the right to make periodic progress reports to the party's constituencies; such reports shall be truthful and designed to be informative of the bargaining process.
13. Confidentiality -- If both chief negotiators agree that a conversation will be kept "off the record" then no notes will be taken and all elements of the "off the record" exchange will be kept strictly confidential.
14. All negotiation sessions shall be closed to the public, including WSU students and the media.
15. It is the intent of both parties that negotiations be conducted at the bargaining table and in good faith towards achieving a contract mutually beneficial to all.

[Note: the parties adopted final ground rules on April 15.]

Our team noted that although our proposal was based upon the 2011 Ground Rules, there were some differences. We of course adjusted the dates for Document Exchange (item 4); we added a new item 5 on workload; and we indicated in item 11 that the parties would actually initial tentative agreements (with the expectation that establishing this practice would serve the parties well when the two Chief Negotiators, who have long served their respective parties, have fully retired). We also deleted an item from the 2011 Ground Rules that restricted the dates on which a Fact-Finder's report could be received.

The administration replied that it could not officially agree to anything until the new Provost, who takes office on March 18, can be consulted.

Our team confirmed that our proposals for actual CBA articles were largely based on the current CBA for TET faculty. The administration stated that the Faculty Handbook offers another possible starting point. Our team replied that our team might be satisfied with some provisions of the Faculty Handbook, if our NTE members are -- but that we intended to "plow some new ground" , e.g., with respect to employment security for NTE faculty (though we were not prepared to make proposals along those lines at this session).

The parties then focused on the Ground Rules. After extensive discussion, the parties agreed to replace the first two sentences of our item 4, Document Exchange, by these:

March 25, 2013 both parties will exchange a list of articles and appendixes that they propose be included in the CBA. The deadlines by which the parties will put forth initial proposals will be determined on March 25, 2013.

Regarding our item 5, Workload, the administration stated that it had no authorization to negotiate workload as part of the new CBA and that it expected that it would subsequently receive no such authorization. The administration noted that as of March 18, WSU will have had three Provosts in well less than one year. Our team replied that our message to the Provost and the Board of Trustees is that it is very unlikely that we could reach an agreement on economic issues if the administration will not talk about workload, though we would not object to separating CBA negotiations per se from discussions about workload for NTE faculty. We reminded the administration that NTE faculty have felt a significant workload increase after the transition to semesters. We also stated that the summer pay schedule for TET faculty, agreed to as part of the grand bargain over workload for TET faculty, provided the administration with a semester hour of teaching for the same that a quarter hour used to cost them -- and that we fully expected the administration wanted to apply the same summer pay schedule to NTE faculty with no corresponding NTE workload consideration.

The administration stated plainly that they wanted us to withdraw our item 5, Workload, from the Ground Rules. After extensive discussion and a caucus by our team, we stated that we could take 5 out if we had an agreement for a mechanism for the parties to talk about workload.

The administration accepted our item 11, Tentative Agreements, and the parties had no disagreement about the other items.

The parties then turned to preliminary discussions of some of the proposed CBA Articles submitted by AAUP-WSU, touching upon Article 1 (Preamble), Article 2 (Recognition), Article 3 (Non-Discrimination), Article 4 (Affirmative Action), Article 5 (Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibilities), Article 7 (Faculty Rights and Responsibilities), Article 8 (AAUP-WSU Rights), and Article 38 (Agreement Duration) before running out of time. Most of these articles and the others we proposed at this first session are not likely to produce much controversy; see the links to individual articles provided in the previous sentence and in the article-by-article summary table below to view the actual proposals and to read about the mostly low-key discussions that ensued.

Article-by-Article Summary Table

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This page was last modified on Sunday, May 5, 2013. Corrections, comments, and suggestions are most welcome. Contact the webmaster for this page (Jim Vance) at jimvance.wsu@gmail.com, telephone 937-775-2206. To contact the chapter, please see our Staff, Officers, and Committees page.