University faculty gets new contract

NEWS RELEASE

LAKE SUPERIOR STATE UNIVERSITY

************************* LSSU board approves faculty contract

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – Lake Superior State University's board of trustees approved a three-year contract with the LSSU Faculty Association during the board's regular meeting on campus October 12.

The three-year agreement was one of the first orders of business in President Rodney Lowman's first meeting with the eight-member board, and in board member Barbara Cliff's first meeting as chair.

Cliff introduced Lowman [shown] after acknowledging and thanking Betty Youngblood, recently retired, for her five years of service as president.

In his remarks, Lowman continued on a theme he started one day earlier at a community reception on campus.

"I am privileged to be here as president and to be part of the most important enterprise that there is – higher education," he said. "To be able to educate students as we are able to do it here, and make a difference is the lives of students, some of whom are not always as privileged as others, is a special blessing.

"The task at hand is simple," Lowman continued. "We need to grow the institution in size and stature, and we need to increase the fiscal resources that are coming in to the university."

Lowman said the university needs to accomplish this while keeping its eye on providing the best possible education for its students.

"As we move forward, we need to focus on doing an excellent job educating our students, educating the communities with whom we work about the challenges of publicly funded higher education in Michigan, and working in partnership with our communities in creating something special here at the university.

"I've already been impressed with what I've seen here," Lowman added, and he thanked the board for its dedication to LSSU.

In addressing the faculty contract, Joe Herbig, vice president for finance, said most of the new elements in it are changes to language, and he said that it includes pay increases of three percent for the first year and two percent for the second and third years.

In addition, the contract included an increase in faculty members' share of health insurance premiums, from 10 percent to 14 percent of the university cost.

After lengthy discussion, including concerns raised that the contract did not include a share of the risk should the state further cut its funding to the institution, the board approved the contract and thanked both negotiation teams for putting it together.

In other business, the board discussed its 2009 capital outlay request to Lansing.

For the past couple of years, the request has included a proposed new building for the School of Business and Economics and Legal Studies.

For the next request, the board is exploring the possibility of including two building projects.

"The likelihood of funding for a large project right now is low," said Lowman. "Maybe a smaller-ticket item, in particular, the aquatic research laboratory, could be added."

Lowman said administration will explore it further, and received board approval to proceed.

"If the money is there only for a smaller project, we'd like to at least get something," he said, "but the first priority is the School of Business, Economics and Legal Studies and we don't want to derail that."

The board was informed of the pending sale of a building and 25 acres of property in Barbeau that was donated to the university several years ago, and formally accepted the building that was donated in September by Edison Sault Electric Company and Wisconsin Energy for LSSU to expand its Aquatic Research Laboratory.

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