After a long, drawn-out process of negotiating with the University of Cincinnati Administration and Board of Trustees, the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Association of Unionized Professors ratified the tentative agreement for a new contract last week.

The tentative agreement was ratified by a vote of 390 to 117.

“Considering the difficult economic time we are going through, I am happy with the new contract and I think that the faculty is happy with the contract also,” said Joe. W Fisher, AAUP president, undergraduate program director and professor of mathematics at UC.

The nine members of the UC Board of Trustees will meet soon to make a decision to approve the tentative agreement.

“I trust that the board of trustees will approve the new contract,” UC spokesperson Greg Hand said. “Its only a matter of time.”

Hand explained the reason the board of trustees have not approved the new contract is not because they are unhappy with it but because it is the proper etiquette in a situation like this is to let the AAUP vote first.

From a economical standpoint, the AAUP and the administration agreed on an across-the-board 10 percent pay increase for UC faculty over the next three years.

An agreement was also reached which increased the salary minimums 26.5 percent over the next three years for some faculty – those in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College-Conservatory of Music, according to Fisher. However, it does benefit faculty salary at access colleges, which is what the AAUP had been pushing for.

Faculty experiencing gender, race and age inequalities – which is prohibited by article 4.1 of the contract – can apply for salary adjustment under article 15.

“The health plan is the weakest part of the contact,” Fisher said.

In the new contract, decisions regarding health benefits will be made later in the year, after the Joint Benefits Study Committee studies and makes a recommendation about health benefits for the AAUP to vote on. If the committee does not give a recommendation, the administration’s last medical benefits proposal will be imposed.

Some non-economical issues faculty and administration agreed upon mandated academic leave for librarians be the same as that of faculty, and faculty members who adopt a child will now be able to apply for special or emergency leave.

“Both sides have worked very hard to get an agreement that would be beneficial to both faculty and administration,” Hand said.

The prior three-year contract expired Aug. 31, yet UC faculty have kept working while bargaining for a new contract. Faculty plans to strike Jan. 3 were avoided, due to extra negotiations with a federal mediator present at all meetings.

“I don’t think we would have gotten much more by going on strike, with the way Gov. Taft is cutting the budget,” Fisher said. “In the end we have made steps forward.”