Daily Egyptian Spring 04
Spring '04 Edition
Faculty Association, administration working toward settlement
Valerie N. Donnals
Daily Egyptian
University administration and the Faculty Association are working toward an agreement to settle grievances filed over College of Applied Sciences and Arts restructuring last month, though no decision has been reached.
Morteza Daneshdoost, president of the Faculty Association, said the administrators have been receptive to the union's concerns, understand their responsibility to the faculty and are working toward a settlement.
"They asked us what would make us happy or what would make the situation such a way that we would withdraw our grievance," Daneshdoost said.
The Faculty Association filed three grievances March 3 for the University's failure to submit plans for college program changes to the union. John Dunn, provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs, and Paul Sarvela, interim dean of the college, were named in the grievance for noncompliance with the union's contract.
Both Sarvela and Dunn were unavailable for comment after repeated attempts to contact them.
Daneshdoost said the administration offered a proposal to appease the grievance, but it did not meet their requests. The union made a counteroffer, but the administration has not responded. Daneshdoost said if they do not meet their requests, the union will proceed with the grievance.
"If we get something that is going to get everybody satisfied with the outcome of the settlement, we'll withdraw the grievance," he said. "But it has to be emphasized that our purpose here is to make sure the faculty's concerns are being addressed before a decision is made by the Board [of Trustees]."
Sarvela said previously the primary disagreement is over timing. He said the restructuring, which could combine and eliminate several programs in the college, has not reached the point where they are required to submit the proposal to the association for review.
The association asked for the official proposal in time to make an informed analysis and make a recommendation to the Faculty Senate before they vote on it.
Daneshdoost said he is unsure when a conclusion will be reached.
"We are both doing our best to respond to each other as soon as we can," Daneshdoost said. "We are in the process of having a settlement. We haven't reached it, and we cannot foresee what the outcome is going to be."
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