By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Bowling Green State University trustees Friday signed off on the third contract between the BGSU-Faculty Association and the administration.
The three-year contract calls for 8.5 percent pay increases over the life of the agreement. At the time the agreement was reached, association president David Jackson said, it marked progress in bringing faculty salaries up to the middle of the pack in Ohio public colleges. “Our goal is not to become the highest paid faculty in the state. We’re trying to reach the median.”
The increases will be 3 percent in each of the first two years, and 2.5 percent in the third.
As with the previous three-year agreement, the negotiations went smoothly.
In presenting the contract to the trustees, President Rodney Rogers said that it was evidence of a “strong relationship” between the faculty association and the administration.
Board Chairman Daniel Keller said that the new agreement was “reasonable and equitable to all parties.”
The contract goes into effect on July 1.
Among the other terms, some of the cost of health insurance will be shifted to faculty.
Also at the meeting, trustees approved tenure and promotion actions for 53 faculty. They were: 23 being promoted to full professor; 15 granted tenure with promotion to associate professor; eight promoted to senior lecturer; and seven promoted to lecturer.
These actions are “momentous” for the faculty, Rogers said, and he urged them to take time to celebrate this milestone in their careers.
Also at the meeting, the trustees approved more spending for the renovation of the Technology Building. The board approved spending $6,303,731 for infrastructure needed for the project. This money will come from state capital funds, said Vice President for Finance and Administration Sheri Stoll.
As she has in the past, Stoll noted, this was not the kind of work that attracts students to attend the university. The money will pay for: “tunnel top replacement, heat plant controls, central chilled water manufacturing, centralized emergency power generation, electrical service upgrades, and building security related upgrades associated with supporting the pending Technology Building renovation and the northwest quadrant of campus.”
Still, keeping up on these upgrades does make the campus more attractive, even if people don’t notice, she said.
The Technology Building will cost about $13 million. The trustees have already approved the spending of $630,373 for the initial architectural and engineering services. Another $5.7 million is yet to be appropriated, according to the resolution acted n by the trustees.
Work on the 1971 structure is expected to begin later this year and completed in summer 2021.
The trustees also approved $1 million for a limited authority fund to allow either the university or Centennial Falcon Properties, Inc. to purchase real estate without coming back to the trustees for approval. The authorization is for 24 months. In the previous 24 months, money in the fund has been used to buy five properties on East Wooster Street, across from campus. Those were: 926, 930, 1014, 1024 and 1030 E. Wooster. The university has not announced plans for the property, which for now are being maintained as open lots.
The trustees also extended the Falcon Tuition Guarantee program to the Firelands campus. The program, which holds almost all college costs steady over the first four years that a student is on campus, was approved for the Bowling Green campus last year.
The trustees approved several namings:
- • The new resort and attraction management program at Firelands will be the Cedar Fair Resort and Attraction Management Program at Bowling Green State University.
- The quadrangle in front of University Hall is now the Bowen-Thompson Quadrangle in honor of Ellen Bowen Thompson, a 1954 graduate, and Robert Thompson, a 1955 graduate, for their support of many initiatives on campus.
• Steller Field will now be known as Steller Field at Gary Haas Stadium in recognition of Gary and Debra Haas’s support of BGSU and the baseball program. Gary F. Haas Sr. is a member of the BGSU Athletic Hall of Fame having played on the 1972 Mid-American Conference championship baseball team.
