Inside the Johnson Theatre last Tuesday, President Huddleston spoke enthusiastically about a decade's worth of change. Outside, the mood was quite different among the faculty who had gathered to protest.
The faculty union and UNH administration have been at an impasse about faculty salaries since mid-November. Even after a mediation session in mid-December, the two sides aren't any closer to finding a solution.
"The next step is fact finding," said Dale Barkey, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) chief negotiator.
The administration's offer to faculty is a 1 percent raise with .5 percent merit, which amounts to 1.5 percent increase. This increase would have been effective Jan. 1, 2010, but the AAUP felt this increase wasn't fair.
"The average raise among our comparator list was 2.5 percent effective July 1, 2009," Barkey said. "These schools are in much worse financial condition than UNH. Plus, revenues at UNH are up 3.25 percent this year."
The AAUP is proposing a 3.2 percent raise, an additional $470 per faculty member and a merit pool for faculty researchers of $180,000. These propositions would amount to a 4 percent increase overall. Since the raise wouldn't have taken effect until Jan. 1, 2010 rather than July 1, 2009, the university would have saved about $1.2 million.
With a loss of $200,000 in the salary base last year, the increase under this plan would be 1.7 percent, far less than the rate of growth in revenues.
Although the AAUP believes their proposition is a reasonable offer, the administration doesn't agree.
"The current economic context is one in which the university has considerable financial constraint, but the union is not persuaded of this fact," said Candace Corvey, the AAUP vice president for finance and administration.
The union, however, argues that it's the administration that has been unreasonable.
"The university backed up from 2 percent to 1.5 percent during negotiations, which is regressive bargaining," Barkey said. "President Huddleston announced some extravagant initiatives in his speech yet continues to freeze staff salaries and resist a fair raise for faculty."
Resolution may still be months away. The fact-finding is expected to take place in March, with a report to follow.
"The report is non-binding so neither party is required to accept it, but we hope the recommendations will create a clear pathway toward settlement," said Corvey.
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As I walked into the building for the speech, I estimated maybe 20-30 people outside protesting.
Even if I am off considerably in my estimation, this is still a far cry from the near-capacity crowd inside Johnson Theatre (capacity of over 600) to hear President Huddleston.
The faculty union tries to present itself as a unified voice of nearly all of the UNH faculty. The reality is that the recent decisions calling for Work To Rule and the Summer School Boycott have been made by barely two-dozen people. Unfortunately, AAUP-UNH does a remarkably poor job of reaching out to its membership and actually getting their opinions on issues, yet the faculty are legally forced to financially support the union regardless.