PSU pushes ‘last best offer’

The administration’s most recent offer in the ongoing salary negotiations with Portland State faculty would increase salaries for all faculty to a minimum standard to keep PSU salaries in line with university faculty around the nation, administrators say.

If Portland State’s faculty union agrees to the terms of the offer, which the administration calls the “last best offer,” all full-time faculty would receive a 3.7 percent pay increase over their current salaries beginning a month after contracts are signed.

The minimum salary for a full professor who works during the nine-month academic year would increase by about $2,300, while the salary for an instructor would increase by about $1,100. The minimum salaries would remain at those levels until Feb. 1, 2009, according to the offer, when they would increase again: by nearly $10,000 for a full professor, and by about $3,200 for an instructor.

The administration’s offer also includes a sliding-scale plan to increase salaries for every individual faculty member to assure that salaries meet the newly established minimums. Faculty members could get as much as a 5 percent pay increase if their salary is equal to 80 percent that of the minimum salary for their ranking, or as little as a 1 percent increase if their salary is 95 to 99.99 percent of the minimum.

Members of the faculty union questioned the merit of the administration’s offer at an open forum Monday, stating that the offer benefits newer faculty more than those who have taught at PSU longer. Some faculty also brought up issue with Portland State’s benefits package, which administrators say is larger than the vast majority of universities and makes salaries seem low because the benefits package is costly.

The faculty union, the American Association of University Professors, held a rally for higher salaries outside of the Millar Library yesterday before marching to the open forum with administrators.