Faculty at CWU say they're underpaid

By JAMES JOYCE III YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Faculty members at Central Washington University argue that they're underpaid compared with their peers at other schools, and have asked their union bargaining team to continue pushing the school administration for better pay. That followed a rally on the Ellensburg campus Thursday involving more than 180 faculty members.

Contract talks began over the summer but have hit an impasse over compensation issues. The two sides reached a tentative agreement on two other issues that were on the table - non-tenure-track faculty and faculty evaluations.

The position of United Faculty of Central is that average CWU faculty salaries are below the average for peer institutions in the state, which ranged from $54,879 at Evergreen State College to $83,530 at the University of Washington in 2004-05, according to the state Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The union, which represents 150 CWU faculty members, further argues that salaries at the 8,000-student state school have not kept pace with peer institutions nationally. Over the past 10 years, average faculty salaries at Washington's public universities generally have dropped in relation to salaries in other states. "We're making roughly 90 percent of the mean of average salaries for peer institutions," said Robert Hickey, president of United Faculty of Central.

Neither side would disclose average faculty salaries at CWU, saying the salary range differs for each discipline.

The latest offer from the CWU administration spreads the state-funded 5.2 percent cost-of-living adjustment over two years, in four different compensation areas. Wayne Quirk, an associate vice president at CWU, declined to say if the administration offered more than what was funded by the state. "Wage discussions are best done at the bargaining table, not in the media," he said.

While the sides have not been able to agree on the compensation piece, neither side sees the need to bring in a third-party mediator at this point. "We have smart and well-meaning people on both sides of the table," Quirk said. "Solving the issue of wages for our faculty is our top priority right now. That will allow us to better focus on educating our students and developing our faculty."

The union membership hasn't even discussed the option of a mediator, Hickey said.

United Faculty of Central is affiliated with the United Faculty of Washington State, which includes unions at Western Washington University, Eastern Washington University, and Evergreen State College. This is the first time under the state's higher education collective bargaining law that unions at all four schools are negotiating contracts. Each campus is covered by a separate agreement.

Separate from the contract talks, CWU's faculty union filed a class action lawsuit earlier this year against the university seeking time and money for non-classroom work, such as research, advising and participation in university committees. They allege that they were not paid for time worked during the period in summer 2006 while they were moving to a collective bargaining agreement from the faculty code, which previously governed faculty work conditions and pay.
* James Joyce III can be reached at 577-7675 or jjoyce@yakimaherald.com.

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