Eastern Michigan University will extend its contract with professors for two more years. The extension was approved by the university's Board of Regents meeting Tuesday.
The professors’ union, the American Association of University Professors, conducted the negotiations. The agreement covers about 650 tenured and tenure-track faculty.
Geoff Larcom is EMU’s spokesman. He says a level of empathy from both sides helped negotiations.
"It stands as a fine example of collaboration among two sides that have been willing to put in the time to really hear each other out and then reach an agreement that they both felt quite good about at this point in time," says Larcom.
Judith Kullberg is the president of EMU's American Association of University Professors. She says the union wants a cooperative relationship with the university.
Kullberg says, "I think we all see this contract extension as providing the administration and the faculty an opportunity to work together to address some of the challenges that Eastern Michigan is facing right now."
The extended contract calls for the formation of a committee to look at professors' workload. Kullberg says the 24 credit hours per year that's currently in their contract is considered by many a very heavy teaching load. She says the union wants more opportunities for faculty to engage in research.
The agreement is effective September 1st 2019.
It includes salary increases, but there is no change to health care benefits.
