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Representatives of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, which represents the 5,500 professors at the 14 State System of Higher Education universities, counted ballots on Monday that were cast during the three-day strike authorization vote held last week.

(Submitted photo)

Faculty members at the 14 state universities sent a loud and clear message to their union leaders: Call a strike and we'll see you on the picket line.

The tally of the three-day strike-authorization vote, released on Monday, showed 93 percent of the 82 percent of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties members who cast ballots voted in favor of a strike. The union represents 5,500 professors in the State System of Higher Education.

"We will not set a date until we have at least one more chance to go to the negotiations table to ensure that we are doing everything we can do," said faculty union President Ken Mash.

Talks between the system and faculty negotiators are scheduled to resume on Friday, so students won't have to worry about a strike occurring until at least next week if at all.

"A strike remains the last resort," Mash said.

The faculty has been working under an expired contract since June 30, 2015. The sticking points that have emerged in the talks for a four-year contract have been over changes to health benefits and use of temporary faculty and distance education.

"The vast majority of faculty clearly grasp the seriousness of the situation," Mash said. "Chancellor Frank Brogan and the State System need to get serious very quickly."

System officials are seeking some changes to the faculty contract to accommodate its declining enrollments at many of the universities and financial challenges it faces with state support this year being at the same level it was in 1999 and a reluctance to continue to ask students to pay more in tuition.

They are offering a salary proposal of no retroactive raise for last year; a $600 cash payment this year; a 1 percent raise in 2017-18; and a 1 percent raise, plus a 2.5 or 5 percent longevity increase with junior faculty getting the higher percentage, in 2018-19.

The current base salary for full-time faculty ranges from $46,609 to $112,239. Part-time faculty members are paid a minimum of $5,838 per every three-credit course they teach, which the system has noted is more than twice the average nationally of about $2700 per course for adjuncts.

"The outcome of the vote doesn't change anything in terms of our financial condition," said system spokesman Kenn Marshall. "It doesn't change anything in terms of our commitment to bargain with the faculty and achieve a fair settlement. All it does is move the faculty closer to calling a strike, which would be extremely harmful to students and our universities. We look forward to continuing negotiating and receiving some proposals from APSCUF."

The union has given its leaders strike authorizations in each of the past four rounds of negotiations - in 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2012. Although its faculty has come close to going on strike, there never has been a walkout in the 33-year-old system's history.

A track record of having to resort to strike authorization votes every time a contract is up disturbs Kara Laskowski, president of the faculty union's Shippensburg chapter. She said negotiations shouldn't have to reach a point where that is routinely necessary.

But given the wide gap between bargaining positions this year, she said, "We hope it sends the message that we are prepared and if we are forced to take a collective action we are engaging in the steps that we need to to make that happen."

A walkout would disrupt classes for nearly 100,000 students enrolled at the State System universities, which also Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities.

The level of concern about a strike among students varied last week at Shippensburg University. Some said they were completely unaware of the faculty's labor unrest while seniors, such as Dylan Nichols and Madeline Kwarteng, worried about the potential impact a strike could have on their plans to graduate in the spring.

Gerald Fowler, a Shippensburg University associate professor in educational leadership, said while he believes the faculty union has some legitimate issues to address in this latest round of talks, he also is hoping the strike authorization is all for naught.

"I tend to always be hopeful that at some point both sides will realize they need to come together in the best interests of the students," Fowler said.

Having experienced a teachers strike in 1994 when he was superintendent of Carlisle Area School District, he said he knows firsthand that the impact of a strike can last far longer than the job action itself.

"It took years and years for relationships to be rebuilt," he said. "So as I said I'm hopeful it doesn't come to that."