First let me welcome you back from what I hope was a relaxing and productive summer; your negotiating team has certainly had a productive (if not so relaxing) summer. Since I hope you have been keeping up to date through our phone message (896-0092) and web page http://yang/aaup/index.html) I expect that you know that we have been making considerable progress during our weekly meetings with the University's representatives. As has been our practice in the past we began by working on those elements of the Agreement which we believed were most likely to lead to mutual gains. This approach has turned out to be successful as both sides approached these issues from a problem solving perspective. As a consequence tentative agreement has been reached on many of the outstanding issues. I believe particular note should be made of the progress achieved in "Intellectual Property Rights" where the parties have developed what I believe to be one of the fairest ways of handling this issue to be found at any University or College in the country. In addition considerable progress has been made in spelling out the rights of interdisciplinary programs including the right of such programs to control their workload and curriculum as well as the right to offer majors.
       The toughest periods of negotiations are still in front of us. We have just begun to discuss lay-off, where the University is proposing a complete gutting of the present protections that we have fought so hard to maintain. We also have yet to begin discussion of such key articles as Workload, Faculty Development, Compensation and Employee Benefits and Retirement. In other words, we have just begun to discuss the so-called economic issues and I must say that we have already begun to hear the old refrain. We have been told that the University had just passed through a "fiscal crisis" and that if faced with a similar situation in the future, the University must have the ability to lay-off based on "their business judgement." Anybody who has been on the campus as long as I have been knows that the cry of "fiscal crisis" is almost unending. In fact, in reviewing the University's pronouncements over the last twenty (20) years in preparation for the lay-off discussion, I was hard pressed to find a single year in which the University did not claim to be having a "deficit" of one sort or another. I must add I was equally hard pressed to find a single year (based on the University's audited financial statements) in which the net worth or the University did not grow. The facts notwithstanding, we can expect in the coming weeks to hear from the administration that the University is in financial peril and further given the President's comments at last year's convocation we can also expect that faculty salaries will be blamed for the University's financial plight. We have already provided the faculty with Dr. Weber's report on the University's finances in which he found a "financially healthy university showing definite improvement over the past three years." But what about this claim that our salary increases are responsible for the University's so-called fiscal crisis? Of course, it is a truism that if faculty were paid less the University would have more money to spend on other things, but the real question is how have we faired over the last five years. Have our increases been unconscionable? Well, here's a little quiz for you. Which of the following percentages is the closest to the negotiated percentage increase in faculty salaries over the life of the present Agreement (1994-1999)?

        a. 13.7%    b. 14.6%     c. 18%    d. 24%     e. 25%

        If you guessed "a" you are right and you move to the head of the class. But each of these other percentages represents an interesting statistic. Answer "b" (14.6%) is the percentage increase that would have been necessary for the faculty's after tax buying power to remain undiminished. Answer "c" (18%) represents the increase in all faculty salaries at private independent colleges across the country. This figure is always lower than the actual percent increase since it includes the savings realized by the replacement of higher paid faculty by lower paid ones through retirement. Answer "d" (24%) represents the percentage increase in continuing faculty salaries at private independent colleges across the country. And answer "d" (25%) represents the increase in Rider tuition during this period.
      I believe these numbers speak for themselves, but given the University's continuing cries of poverty we can expect some hard sledding ahead. By this point I am hoping that you are asking what you can do to help the negotiating team gain a fair and equitable Agreement. Well, for a start:

* Attend the AAUP meeting immediately following the President's convocation on September 2nd.
* Respond positively when the Action Committee contacts you about potential picket duty.
* Let your colleagues (including those in the administration) know that you support the negotiations team's efforts and that you stand in solidarity with all your colleagues.
* Remember that the best way to avoid a strike is to prepare for a strike.