Dear TT Faculty members,

Negotiations continue, although at a very slow pace. The parties met for only the second time on September 10th. The administration has proposed an every-other-week schedule of negotiation sessions for the remainder of this semester. KSUFA has communicated our concern that this schedule is unlikely to yield an agreement before the end of the calendar year.

The administration shared with KSUFA the list of articles it plans to open for negotiations on Friday, August 29th. (KSUFA had shared its list at the August 7th session.) KSUFA was dismayed to learn that the administration intends to open all but five of the twenty-four articles of the CBA for negotiations. This too will extend the time it will take to reach an agreement. Although we will only have a clear picture of the administration’s strategy once they begin to make proposals, the administration’s extensive list of articles it plans to open is consistent with the “maximalist” approach taken in negotiations by the Lester Lefton/Bob Frank administration who sought to radically claw back Faculty contractual rights. Of most concern in this context is the fact that the administration has opened Article IV: Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility and Article XX: Intellectual Property Rights. Needless to say, KSUFA has no intention of bargaining away Faculty academic freedom or intellectual property rights!

At the September 10 session, KSUFA presented four proposals:

• a proposal for Article XIX (Faculty Professional Development) that raises the minimum budgets for the University Research Council (URC), the University Teaching Council (UTC), and the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL);
• a proposal for Article XI (Promotion, Tenure, and Reappointment) that would incorporate new and previously existing policies affecting the terms and conditions of employment for TT Faculty into the CBA; 
• a proposal for Article X (Retrenchment) reflecting the fact that SB 1 requires that the University have a policy on retrenchment (see section 3345.454) and, per SB 1 (see section 3345.455), retrenchment is no longer an appropriate subject for collective bargaining; and
• a proposal for Article XIV (Other Benefits) that would allow Faculty to elect to retire phased over three years. Notably, our proposal for Article XIV maintains the current tuition waiver benefit.

The administration presented counters to three proposals KSUFA had made on August 7th: Article I (Definitions), Article VII (Grievance and Arbitration Procedure), and Article XXIII (Miscellaneous). They also proposed entirely deleting Article X (Retrenchment) in light of SB 1.

KSUFA has created a section of our website (https://ksufa.org/index.php/tenure-track-unit/negotiations-2025) dedicated to the TT negotiations. This section contains links to all of the negotiation updates we have sent to our members and links to all proposals on all articles made by either party. From our homepage (https://ksufa.org), you can find the link to the negotiation update both under the TT-Unit drop down menu at the top of the page or just below the Surviving SB 1 section of the homepage.

Although the MOU extending the CBA expires on December 31, 2025, the provisions of the CBA will remain in full force and effect until a successor contract is ratified.

If you have any questions or concerns about negotiations, please don’t hesitate to contact me (dsmith@ksufa.org).

Sincerely,

Deborah Smith

President, KSUFA

Chief Negotiator, TT-Unit