What a busy semester! PSU-AAUP now has a new contract, which you can find on our website sidebar. Here’s the description of this achievement from AAUP National staffer David Kociemba from the Spring 2022 issue of Academe:
After eighteen months of hard negotiations, Plymouth State University–AAUP in New Hampshire ratified its second contract. The three-year contract includes important salary and workload gains, which the chapter won in the face of austerity measures sought by the university system office. Faculty received a 1.5 percent raise and a $1,000 bonus immediately upon ratification and will receive another 2 percent raise in July. The salary floor for assistant professors will be raised by 4 percent immediately as well. In 2023 and 2024, faculty will get 2 percent raises, along with another $1,000 bonus in 2024.
And pay for overload courses was increased by 10 percent, although overloads were limited to three to four credits per semester. Retirement matching for current faculty members will be reduced by one percentage point to 9 percent, while faculty members appointed in July 2022 will have an 8 percent retirement match. In fall 2022, chapter members will be enrolled in the same health insurance benefits plan as the rest of the university system. Finally, the new contract contains improved language on release time, low-enrolled courses, retrenchment, sabbaticals, and promotion and tenure.
https://www.aaup.org/article/plymouth-state-ratifies-new-contract
And in recognition of his indefatigable efforts leading negotiations, Prof. Scott Coykendall was awarded the Gary McCool Leadership Award at our most recent PSU faculty meeting.
Here’s the full text of the award:
The Plymouth State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors is pleased to present the Gary McCool Award for Faculty Leadership to our colleague Professor Scott Coykendall.
Professor Coykendall continues to distinguish himself as a faculty leader after more than twenty years at Plymouth State University. His leadership in the Ascent and Rebalance programs demonstrate his dedication to the success of some of our most challenged students. He is actively involved in faculty governance, serving as Faculty Speaker in 2011, and providing a guiding force on the Curriculum Committee, where he served for six years. His many accomplishments led his peers to award him the 2018 Award for Excellence in Faculty Service. Professor Coykendall’s dedication to his students is also reflected by his service as advisor to The Clock for twelve years. Students formally recognized his enthusiasm for helping them succeed in 2014, when he won the Distinguished Advisor Award.
These accomplishments alone would be enough to merit this award, but his service in the role of Chief Negotiator for the Plymouth State University American Association of University Professors is unequaled. In 2016, Professor Coykendall volunteered to lead the negotiations for the faculty union’s first contract. His leadership throughout the many months and countless hours of planning and active negotiations was thoughtful, fair, and encouraging. In the intervening two years between contract negotiations, Scott was a leader in forming the New Hampshire Public Faculty Coalition in December 2020, a collaboration of unions at all the University System of New Hampshire institutions. He led our second contract negotiation through some of the most difficult times our university has experienced in recent memory. Once again, his calm and reasoned leadership prevailed. All of us can benefit by his example, and we count ourselves lucky to be his colleagues.
