Remarks delivered by the WMU-AAUP team at the June 13 opening of salary and healthcare benefits negotiations with Western Michigan University

Good morning. The reopener to the 2021-26 Agreement for economic compensation and health care benefits and insurance arrives at a critical time for the membership of the WMU-AAUP. As the negotiation team has researched and prepared for collective bargaining, we have met with faculty over numerous listening sessions and surveyed the membership directly. The direction we received from the faculty is clear: there is a need to ameliorate the rising costs of living, to acknowledge the contributions and sacrifices faculty have made, and a demand for comprehensive, affordable health care for members and their families. The time is now to make an investment in faculty to ensure we have access to a comfortable standard of living and a secure future, an affirmation of the indispensable role of faculty, as scholars and educators, in making WMU a distinctive institution. 

The negotiation team looks forward to engaging in productive discussions with the administration to address these challenges that impact the day-to-day experiences of our membership. We believe a mutually beneficial agreement on compensation and health care is possible. After all, the well-being of our membership enhances the institutional and educational goals of WMU. In this opening statement we would like to spend a few minutes outlining the concerns and priorities of our membership, but first I would like to pause and introduce the members of the WMU-AAUP’s negotiation team: Dr. Regina Garza Mitchell, Dr. Jean Kimmel, and myself, Dr. Andrew Hennlich, chief negotiator. We are also joined by Erin Dornbos, WMU-AAUP attorney and Lori Maguire WMU-AAUP Operations Manager. 

Economics 

Simply stated, our membership needs real raises. Ones that respond to the years of declining value as the cost of living has increased. As the recent AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey shows, faculty at WMU have experienced a significant decline in earnings when adjusting for the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U), the US Department of Labor’s statistic for measuring changes in the cost of living. From 2015 to December of 2023, the WMU faculty have experienced significant declines in their earnings across all ranks, including: 

● 17.6% for full professors

● 15% for associate professors

● 15.5% for assistant professors 

● 8.8% for instructors

As we met with our members we have heard stories of the very real impact of those statistics.  During a chapter-wide listening session, one faculty member described the material realities many of us face: 

“Prices are going up in Kalamazoo, housing prices, etc. Property taxes. We have no control over these things, but we also have no savings or reliable increase in salary in order to maintain a basic living standard. . . . I am on worse than a fixed income. . . I am not only falling behind, I am falling into debt. . . . I want a quality of life and a salary where I can keep up with the changes that come at us from property taxes, water, tuition for kids in college, etc. . . .To be compensated in a way that is fair and equitable.”

This faculty member is not alone in feeling these pressures and the urgency of fair and equitable compensation. When surveying faculty we also heard another describe the heartbreaking decision of having to choose between healthcare coverage and groceries. We need to work together to find solutions to these challenges for faculty to feel security in their material conditions of living, and as members of the WMU community.

Keeping pace with inflation is not enough. The WMU-AAUP will call for additional adjustments to salary in acknowledgment of the diverse, unique talents of the board-appointed faculty.  Salary increases must also acknowledge the faculty’s creative energies, research acumen, and the passion and insight we bring to the classroom; contributions that are, fundamentally, what makes Western, Western. Despite declines in the overall number of faculty, President Montgomery lauded the externally funded research expenditures [that] saw a 24% increase over the previous fiscal year, totaling $35.3 million, which is a high in at least the past 21 years. Total awards, meanwhile, reached $41.9 million, an 18% increase over the previous fiscal year’ during his 2023-4 State of the University address.

These accomplishments directly contribute to the financial health of the institution, as President Montgomery notes, but it is important to acknowledge how the faculty enhance WMU in a multitude of ways beyond economic value: books and journal articles, performances, concerts and exhibitions, consultancy and public service, teaching and mentorship are a few of the myriad ways faculty contribute to Western. We deserve to be acknowledged for this work, and for the sacrifices we have made since COVID including confronting physical and mental health challenges for students and faculty alike, shifting to multiple instructional modes, student preparation, and significant decreases in administrative support for faculty work.

Salary adjustments must address both the cost of living and our performance as employees. Accordingly, we need to increase salary minima to address the acute impact the cost of living has on faculty who are on the lower end of salary at rank, and to enhance promotion increments in acknowledgement of the excellence these accomplishments represent. A robust, fair, and just compensation package for the WMU-AAUP is an investment in the institution’s well-being and its future, ensuring excellence in scholarship and in the classroom.

Administrative Finances

One of our tasks as a negotiation team has been to review the financial picture of WMU.  It remains clear, from comments made by senior administrators at WMU, through a budget analysis by Dr. Howard Bunsis on behalf of the WMU-AAUP,  and our analyses of WMU’s financial records that the fiscal outlook for Western is positive. Simply stated, the administration has the means to invest in faculty. Let’s take a closer look at the numbers: 

Overall, the institution continues to report positive excess cash flows in each year since 2014, WMU takes in more money than they spend. In other words, it turns a profit. Revenues have increased nearly $46 million since the COVID low point in 2021. Reserves have grown in excess of $381 million. And state appropriations are healthy (at a recommended 2.5% increase for 2024-25, which follows a 4.9% increase received for 2023-24 ). The WMU 2023 Audit Statement declared that the University was in a strong financial position, a sentiment echoed by President Montgomery in his State of the University Address. He noted that we are in the third year without a budget cut, and $3.5 million was returned to the colleges for their discretionary use. In addition, Empowering Futures is helping WMU grow by providing services and scholarships for students, which should make it easier to pay faculty what they are worth, something our President stated as a goal: “it’s estimated that by 2027-28, that midpoint, WMU would have an additional $32 million more in revenue. These additional resources will allow us to invest in our faculty and staff and to further our mission as a student-centered public research University.”

Despite enrollment challenges felt across the nation, WMU continues to grow. New student enrollment was up this year by 2%, including a 7.2% increase in graduate students and 1.1% increase in new undergraduate students. It is also worth noting that our first-to-second-year retention rate was 79.8%, and graduation rates have also increased. Faculty played a tremendous role in those changes. And yet, we note that Western has failed to make that investment in faculty. From 2016 to 2022 the salary for ‘Institutional Support’—IPEDS’ term for ‘for general administrative services, central executive-level activities concerned with management and long range planning, legal and fiscal operations, space management, employee personnel and records, logistical services such as purchasing and printing, and public relations and development’—increased by $1.1 million, while salary for instruction declined about $8.6 million. Though institutional support has declined marginally from 2019-23, it is nothing compared to the decline in spending for instruction. These data raise an important question: What are the administration’s priorities? Is it instruction and research or an ever-growing administrative class? Again, we emphasize that Western has the means to support faculty, the question is its willingness to do so. 

Health Care 

During our meetings faculty have naturally brought up concerns about their health care and insurance benefits. They remain anxious about rising costs of their health care contributions. The faculty and administration are motivated by the same concerns: a need to keep costs low, whilst ensuring quality coverage. Afterall, we are on the same health plan. In that spirit, we would like to remind the administration that it is necessary we have access to relevant health care data, and would like to ask the administration’s team when such information will be available for the WMU-AAUP negotiation team and its health care analyst. In addition to concerns about cost, we have also heard faculty describe challenges within the plan structure, and we intend to work on addressing them during collective bargaining. In every listening session we’ve held, faculty have brought up the need for changes in vision care: annual checkups and adjustments to vision plan coverage of eyewear that reflects the reality of current costs and standards for optical care. Faculty have also expressed frustration over the challenges of the current prescription drug plan, particularly for members who have tier four and five drugs. Likewise, there are concerns about dental costs and network coverage, and so we will ask for a request for bids for dental network providers, so that we can make an informed, collaborative decision about the best possible coverage. As we begin to examine costs, use and spending data for the HMO and PPO plans, the team anticipates further discussions about plan structure and costs. 

Conclusion 

Again, the team looks forward to constructive dialogue with the administration to address the challenges the faculty face in their day-to-day lives, as we hope you remember the fundamental importance of our membership’s contributions to WMU as a quality educational institution. Now is the time to invest in faculty to ensure that future. Today, during our first bargaining session, the team has a few goals in mind. One, we would like to agree to ground rules for future bargaining sessions. The team has reviewed the rules from the 2021 negotiations and found those rules amenable; we have circulated those for review. Secondly, we would like to set up an agenda for future negotiation sessions.

The team has a preference for beginning with Article 33, Health Care and Benefits. And finally, we want to set up a schedule for future negotiation sessions. Our side proposes two sessions per week, to meet on Tuesday mornings from 9-12 and on Thursday afternoons from 2-5. We would also like to discuss a long-range calendar for negotiations, as there are periods where our team members will be unavailable to meet. We look forward to working with you in the coming months to find solutions to these significant challenges to the faculty, and to reaffirm WMU’s stated intention to invest in its faculty as the core of the institution’s mission. Thank you.

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