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USNH Board Ratifies Three-Year Contract with Keene State College Faculty

KEENE, N.H. 10/19/06 - The USNH board of trustees ratified a three-year contract with Keene State College faculty at today’s meeting on the KSC campus.

A tentative agreement between the administration and the Keene State College Education Association (KSCEA) was reached on Sept. 22, and the faculty ratified it on Fri., Oct. 13, with a vote of seventy-four to two. The approval of the new contract ended a mutual-gains negotiating process that began last spring.

“I am so pleased that a contract agreement has been reached,” President Giles- Gee said on Thursday after the vote. “The mutual-gains process reflects the spirit of community that permeates this College, and the agreement represents the desire we share to move Keene State College forward together.”

The new contract provides a three-year salary increase of 13% over the life of the contract. Also addressed are rising costs in medical benefits, paid parental leave, professional development, faculty review processes for promotion and tenure, and workload issues (including lab courses and advising commitments).

“The KSCEA is pleased that, after prolonged negotiations, we have been able to agree to a contract that is innovative in several ways and acceptable to both sides,” said Rosemary Gianno, an anthropology professor and president of the KSCEA.

According to Jay Kahn, vice president for finance and planning, all parties were concerned with maintaining competitive positions on compensation. “Increasingly, that means consideration of health benefits as well as salary,” he said. “Both parties agreed to changes in medical benefits, including a medical plan design change and an increase in the employees share of plan costs.”

“We are pleased that we have reached agreement at a time when forward-looking changes are taking place in both major and general education programs,” said Gordon Leversee, dean of sciences and social sciences, noting that this marks the fifth contract negotiation at KSC that did not involve mediation. “The mutual-gains or interest-based bargaining approach used was well suited to working out workload and faculty leadership issues in a climate of curriculum change, and our success has a lot to do with the positive working relationships on campus and in our bargaining teams.”

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Keene, New Hampshire 03435