Dear TT Faculty members,

The parties met for just the eighth time on January 28th, 2026. I am happy to report that the administration has accepted our proposals of January 14th for Article I: Definitions and Article IV: Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility. Once signed, the Tentative Agreements (TAs) on each will be available on our website. Additionally, the parties seem to have an agreement in principle for Article VIII: Sanctions for Cause and are working toward agreement on specific language.

At this session, KSUFA made initial proposals for Article XII: Salary and Article XIII: Medical Benefits. (The administration has yet to make initial proposals on either Article.)  

KSUFA’s proposal on Article XII: Salary recognizes the very real financial challenges facing the University at this time, but reflects three key principles: i) Faculty salaries should keep up with rising inflation, ii) the University’s budget priorities should reflect its academic mission, and iii) 12-month Faculty salaries should be 12/9ths of 9-month Faculty salaries rather than the current 11/9ths. KSUFA’s proposal includes:

• 3% standard increment raises (i.e. across the board, cost of living raises) for each of AYs 25/26, 26/27, 27/28, and 28/29 (the standard increment for AY 25/26 would be retroactive to the beginning of the AY);
• A salary adjustment for 12-month Faculty in AY 26/27 to ensure that their salaries are 12/9ths of 9-month Faculty salaries;
• $1,000 increases to each of the Promotion Increments; and
• A 5% increase to the Salary Minima (i.e. floors) by rank.

KSUFA presented data going back to AY 19/20 comparing the standard increments received by Faculty in that AY to the rate of inflation (CPI) in December of that AY. In aggregate (and not taking into account compounding), TT Faculty received cost of living raises totaling 13% between AY 19/20 and AY 25/26 inclusive, while the aggregate inflation rate over that same period was 26.2%.  

KSUFA also presented data comparing Administration & Professional salary expenditures to TT Faculty salary expenditures and to full-time faculty (TT & NTT) salary expenditures between 2015 and 2025. The University currently spends more on Administrative & Professional salaries than it does on all full-time faculty salaries. Actual revenue and expenditure data for FY 2024 and FY 2025 reveals that expenditures across the colleges were actually cut by 2.24% in FY 2025, while expenditures in the rest of Academic Affairs and in all other administrative Divisions (with the exception of the President’s Office and Scholarships and Fellowships) grew by double digits. This raises serious questions about the University’s budget priorities in these challenging financial times.

Given KSUFA’s focus on ensuring that Faculty salaries keep up with inflation, our initial proposal does not include any provision for either additional Merit Awards or President’s Faculty Excellence Awards over the life of the new CBA. However, we communicated to the administration team that, if the University believes there are sufficient funds to provide merit-based awards in addition to standard increment raises that keep up with inflation, KSUFA would not be opposed to including them in a future proposal.

For Article XIII: Medical Benefits, KSUFA has proposed adding Employee Plus One Dependent coverage to our Medical and Prescription plans in addition to individual coverage and family (two or more dependents) coverage. We have also proposed altering the formula for employee contributions toward the healthcare premium. The new formula involves a nine tier salary schedule and fixed percentages of the premium to be paid by employees at each tier. (Currently, the schedule has twelve salary tiers and only the percentage paid by employees in the salary tier that includes the median University salary is fixed. Contributions at other salary tiers are calculated based upon a complex formula that is beginning to prove problematic—especially for employees in the lowest salary tiers.) KSFUA’s proposal is designed to be revenue neutral for the University. That is, the University would recoup the same aggregate amount toward the premium from employees on our proposal that it does given the current formula.

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