Editor’s Note: This is the first installment in a series of articles covering the 12 main points negotiated for the UPI 2012-2016 faculty contract. 

A tentative four-year faculty contract was reached in July, months earlier compared to the previous contract, with summer pay-rate changes on the horizon among other agreements. 

Members of Eastern’s chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100 negotiated with administrators during the summer using a different bargaining method than the traditional model. 

During an informational session on the tentative agreement Thursday, UPI Lead Negotiator Grant Sterling, a philosophy professor, described the new interest-based bargaining as when the two contracting teams sit down and try to reach a consensus of mutual gain instead of just focusing on one side’s interests. 

UPI President Ann Fritz, a biology professor, said the new interest-based bargaining technique garnered fruitful dialogue that might not have otherwise occurred in traditional bargaining. 

“The atmosphere was discussion-intensive, and we focused on ways to meet our common interests,” she said. 

Fritz said changing the summer class structure served as the largest new task in the contract. 

The agreement states that faculty will be paid an equal rate for all summer classes. Faculty would receive 78 percent of his or her monthly salary for the first three years of the contract, and that amount would increase to 80 percent in the fourth year.

Sterling said university officials calculated that a 76-77 percent rate would cause the university to break even, so the pay rate is a slight increase overall. 

Normally, a faculty member’s pay rate would depend on what type of class taught, such as online or through the School of Continuing Education. The pay rate also varied, as some faculty would receive 100-percent pay whereas others would receive the “overload” rate, which is less than a faculty member’s standard pay rate. 

“The upshot is that the figure would be equally applied to everyone teaching summer courses,” Fritz said.

With the equal rate, faculty receiving 100-percent pay would face a decrease and those receiving overload pay would see an increase. 

Jennifer Stringfellow and Christina Edmonds-Behrend, both assistant professors of special education, said they came to the informational session to receive more clarification on the summer changes. 

“Before making a decision on what to think about the changes, I think we need to pull more faculty in and collaborate,” Edmonds-Behrend said, adding that both she and Stringfellow teach summer courses. 

In addition to the pay-rate change, Sterling said all classes will be offered to faculty according to the department’s summer rotation list, meaning senior faculty would be hired over lower-paid faculty and adjuncts. 

However, he added that a faculty member who created or significantly revised a course would have priority to teach the course for the first two years. 

The agreement also includes an across-the-board pay increase of 1.5 percent for each year of the contract. 

Two clauses were built into the contract for each side to have the opportunity to call for renegotiation of the pay increase. 

If Eastern falls into a financial emergency, the administration can call for renegotiations, and if the university experiences a dramatic increase in revenue, then the UPI can request renegotiations during the last two years of the contract. 

Fritz said the ballots to ratify the contract have already been sent out to UPI’s some 650 members, and are due by Sept. 14 to David Carwell, chairman of the UPI balloting committee. 

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or rjrodgers@eiu.edu.