Dear colleague,

                The Council of Higher Education (COHE), the faculty's bargaining representative, is gearing up for another round of tough negotiations with the Board of Regents.  In this letter, I am seeking your proposals for contract negotiation items.  Dues-paying COHE members received a similar request two weeks ago.  However, we are giving you, as a member of the bargaining unit, an opportunity to submit ideas as well.  I will assemble these proposals into a survey where COHE members and non-dues-paying bargaining unit faculty can prioritize the items.  The COHE Executive Board will review these results and make recommendations to the Bargaining Team.  Of course, they are likely to rely more heavily on the COHE members preferences.

                We anticipate bargaining will begin later this Fall and conclude during the Spring Semester.   We will keep you informed about the proposals and the final outcome via this email distribution system.  (If you would like to receive these messages at another email address, you may subscribe that address on our Website.)  When the negotiations are completed, all dues-paying COHE members will have an opportunity to vote on the proposed changes.  We approach these negotiations, as we always have, in good faith that the BOR negotiators will listen to our proposals and attempt to reach a compromise.  Of course, we will be tough and hold our ground.               

                 If you propose an item, please indicate the contract section number to which you are referring.  We would really appreciate it, if you could draft some language and/or a rationale for the change.  Of course, this is not required, but it would share the burden.

                Chief among the potential items that are likely to be addressed in negotiations is the lack of a pay raise in relation to performance formula.  The Regents recognize that faculty who have been exceeding expectations--as measured by the BOR-imposed standards--in these years with zero percent pay increase have not gotten any financial return for their efforts.  They are likely to offer some kind of proposal that will cover those back years.

My response would be "that is good, but you are missing the point."  As hard-working faculty, you know that when there is an increase in salaries, it is not a COLA or inflationary adjustment.  Moreover, we have tremendous salary compression and even inversion in some departments.  This is a more pressing issue!  One proposal is that we ask to "reset" the system by guaranteeing every faculty member a fixed percent of the Oklahoma Faculty Study (say, 85 or 90% of market).   

Another area of grave concern is academic freedom.  As you may be aware, academic freedom is under assault everywhere.  I am particularly concerned because a recent federal court ruling declares that a public university "is entitled to unfettered discretion when it restricts statements an employee makes on the job and according to his professional responsibilities."  (Hong v. Grant, 2007).  The court relied on the precedent of a U.S. Supreme Court decision about public employees (Garcetti v. Ceballos, 2005).   We are likely to offer contract language that expands our rights here.

We have also noticed a lack of strict adherence to contractual procedures.  In disciplinary/termination case and intellectual property disclosures, administrators have failed to follow their own rules.  We may offer a proposal to explore an adjudication process.

Well, the point of this letter is to solicit any contract proposals you may have.  However, I want to thank you for your good work in improving higher education in South Dakota.  I would also like to give you the opportunity to join your colleagues in COHE.  We fight for your rights, too!  However, we can have a larger impact when you add your voice to ours.   By joining COHE and defending faculty rights, we can ensure a bright future for knowledge-workers in our state.

If you have any contract proposals, please send a message with any of your ideas to my non-university email address, "garyaguiar1@gmail.com," before October 1.

In defense of faculty rights,

Gary

p.s. For more information, visit our website (sdcohe.org).