On 27 November, UFC and CWU reached a tentative agreement (TA) on wages. As such, we have TA'd everything and this round of bargaining is complete.

Articles 1, 10, and 20 were reopened, as were wages. Copies of the TA'd documents are attached -- the current version of the CBA can be found at http://www.cwu.edu/~avpfa/cba.html . I will note that the bargaining team is very happy with the final product, and that it is a significant upgrade to the CBA.

Note, before these become 'real,' they must be ratified by the UFC membership and the Board of Trustees. More on the ratification process below:

To provide a quick summary of the highlights:

• Wages:
  • 7% COLA for all faculty over the biennium (remember, the State funded a 5.2% COLA)
  • Performance awards: Level 1: $1500; Level 2: an additional $2000. These awards are added to base salaries.
  • 6% increase in chair stipends.
  • $250,000 in one-time money to be distributed on a prorated faculty FTE basis (estimated as about $500 for a full-time faculty member). This includes ALL faculty and will be based upon the faculty member's load during winter 08 quarter.

• Article 1: A definition was reworded such that NTT faculty effectively lost access to the tenure-track complaint process. However, see Article 10.
• Article 10: NTT Faculty.
  • To help protect NTT faculty, wording was added to this article to require more specific contract letters (hopefully avoiding misinterpretations, etc that in the past could have led to complaints).
  • In a similar vein, we also improved the procedures and recourse regarding what happens in the case of a negative performance review. In essence, we created a more expedient complaint process for NTT regarding performance review.
  • The potential for multi-year contracts now formally exists in the CBA.
  • NTT faculty (no qualifiers) will be listed in all print and online catalogs.

• Article 20: Reappointment, Promotion, Tenure, and Post-Tenure Review (RPT/ Post-TR)
  • Requirement that the Deans provide all tenure-track faculty with copies of all university, college, and departmental criteria with initial contract letters. Whenever criteria change, affected faculty will be notified. Should the criteria change during a review period (ie -- the tenure track or Post-TR periods), the faculty member and chair will develop a plan that reflects both the old and new criteria for the remainder of the review period (in plainer English, this wording is in here to both help ensure that changes are not applied retroactively and to recognize that changes do occur and must be accommodated).
  • We tightened up the wording and procedures for Post-TR, particularly those for how to deal with a "continued with reservations" decision.
  • Early Tenure and promotion are now options.
  • Faculty now become eligible for promotion to full professor during their fifth year as an associate professor. This is one year sooner than was listed in the original CBA.
  • The composition of the college personnel committee was cleaned up to ensure small departments could still be represented.
  • During the RPT/ Post-TR review process, language was included which requires department evaluators (personnel committees, chairs) to provide a response to letters requesting corrections to errors of fact.
  • The wording of the personnel actions for Post-TR were reworded such that 'termination' is not listed as a potential result of Post-TR. To be terminated, the administration must start a formal disciplinary action and meet just cause standards (see article 22). This is a strong improvement in the protection of tenure.