The state and 285 faculty members of the Vermont State Colleges reached a tentative agreement Friday on a new three-year contract.
Under the tentative deal, full-time faculty would receive wage increases of 4 percent, 3.5 percent and 3.5 percent over the three-year agreement. Faculty will vote to ratify the agreement in the fall.
The tentative agreement was reached Friday afternoon at the Chancellor’s office in Montpelier, according to an announcement issued Monday by the AFT Vermont, the union representing the faculty from the five-college system.
Vermont State Colleges include Vermont Technical College, Community College of Vermont, Castleton State College, Lyndon State College and Johnson State College.
The agreement, according to the union, was reached following months of negotiation. The contract runs from 2014 to 2018.
The union said the new contract will help preserve faculty job security, intellectual property and academic freedom. The agreement also provides additional compensation for developing and teaching master’s level courses, according to a press release from the union.
“We are proud of the work our members have done to win a strong contract that respects faculty and their commitment to students,” said Linda Olson, a bargaining team member and outgoing president of the union.
Jeb Spaulding, chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges system, said the faculty have not received increases for the past two years, so the 11 percent increase is actually spread over a five-year period.
“I feel that the tentative agreement that we reached with the full-time faculty is good for both sides,” Spaulding said. “We both had to compromise. I think they understand the financial realities that we’re facing.”
The state college system has been under economic pressure. Enrollment is down, and the colleges have eliminated about 100 positions, mainly through attrition.
Spaulding said the contract negotiations were in part based on a national compensation formula. Under that rubric, faculty would have received a 7.75 percent increase in the first year. The VSC administration pushed for a lower increase.
“We were successful in having the faculty understand that we just could not afford to do that,” Spaulding said.
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