After a negotiation with the Board of Trustees, the faculty and staff pay raise increased by three percent. This is the highest amount for a raise that has been given in several years.
Photo by Cat Gonzales
Tori lemon
Editor- in-Chief
A significant change was made leading up to the 2017 school year that affected faculty and staff members of the college.
On Friday, Aug. 27, the Board of Trustees, comprised of private citizens voted for by the citizens of Butler County, decided in a board meeting to approve a three percent pay raise for faculty and staff.
“The proposed contract was packaged by the Administration and Professional Employees (full-time faculty, advisors and counselors) negotiating team Friday, Aug. 11,” Union President Terry Sader said. “It was ratified by vote of the Professional Employees on Friday, Aug. 18.”
Sader, a philosophies and ethics professor, explained that salary raises, along with other changes, would become retro-active on Tuesday, Aug. 1 of this year.
Prior to this three percent raise, faculty and staff only experienced raises from 1.35, 1.5 and two percent consecutively, thus making this year’s pay raise the biggest faculty and staff has seen in several years.
Negotiations for pay raises are settled between the Union and the Board of Trustees. The Union is made up of faculty and administrative representatives.
“Faculty representatives and administrative representatives are the ones that meet together each year to negotiate a package that then is presented to the full-time professional employees- faculty and advisors- for ratification,” Negotiating Team
Member Gary Royse said. “If approved by the full-time professional employees, then the package goes to the Board of Trustees for final approval.”
In other words, The Board represents the institutional interests of the college and the community, while the Butler Community College Education Association (BCCEA) represents the interests of the professional employees. The BCCEA Executive Committee then decides who will be on their negotiating team. That team then takes issues to The Board of Trustees.
The negotiating team throughout this process was made up of Brad Beachy, Gary Royse, Kamille Freeman and John Jenkinson.
“Two years ago when we went to impasse, the two sides really struggled to understand each other’s perspectives,” Sader said. “Every negotiation is a challenge. The Board, Administration and the Professional Employees are all very keen to support the people that make Butler Community College great while also being good stewards of its resources.”
Since then, the two boards have found common ground and understanding regarding the needs of the college and its employees.
“There is always a lot of give and take,” Royse, academic advisor, said. “Sometimes compromise and consensus can be a difficult thing to achieve. I think all of us who are a part of the negotiation team, faculty and administrators, realize that we will never get everything we might want. However in recent years, the negotiation process has worked and both sides have come away with proposals that we could all support.”
For the union, a three-percent raise is a reasonable amount considering recent inadequacies in state funding, leveling off of enrollment numbers and health insurance increases.
“Both the faculty and administrative representatives try to function as one team in coming to these decisions,” Royse said. “Although the work is difficult, if we can come to agreement as a team, it is healthy for all entities at Butler Community College.”
