Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

KU agrees to raise GTA salaries

Other key issues see little to no change

KU depends on outside arbiter’s opinion before making changes. Arbiter advises limited changes for issues concerning tenure limits, union representation and problem solving procedures.

By Nathan Gill

Monday, April 9th, 2007

A 23-month contract dispute between the University of Kansas and its graduate teaching assistants is closer to an end. Provost Richard Lariviere said the University hoped to implement an independent arbiter’s recommendations, released in a report Friday, that sided with the University.

The dispute centered on four items: the 10-semester limit on GTA appointments, on-campus GTA union representation, GTA salaries, and the method in which grievances between GTAs and the University are settled. University procedure toward each non-monetary item will incur little or no change, while the University will increase its minimum salary for GTAs by $250.

Lariviere said the University would also give GTAs, on average, an 11.3 percent pay raise and offer GTAs returning next semester a merit-based raise to be determined by individual academic departments. He said the 11.3 percent increase reflected raises the University would have paid GTAs during the last two years, but was prevented from giving because of contract legalities.

“I’m just absolutely delighted that this is done,” Lariviere said. “It’s probably the most frustrating thing I’ve done here in my 10 months.”

Katy Martin, English GTA and member of the team that negotiated with the University, said in an e-mail that she was pleased to have a resolution to the dispute.

“I’m sure it will be a big relief to a lot of GTAs to receive a raise after all this time,” Martin said.

Concerning the 10-semester GTA appointment limit, the arbiter decided the University did not need to change its policy, but recommended it undertake a study to see if the limit should be revised. The arbiter decided that the University’s GTA grievance procedure should not be altered, though both sides offered slight amendments.

In regard to on-campus union representation, the arbiter suggested the University’s offer for GTAs to announce the time, date and location of union meetings at its August and January GTA orientation meetings. The Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition, a union whose members include some KU GTAs, had wanted its legal representative, the Kansas Association of Public Employees, to have the ability to present a 30-minute presentation and other information at the orientations.

Lariviere said that the recommendations were not legally binding to either party, but that the University would follow them because it had agreed to do so. He said that not having the ability to increase GTAs’ salaries for the past two years had been frustrating.

“This does real harm to the University,” Lariviere said. “Recruiting high-quality graduate students is essential for the mission of the University.”

Lynn Bretz, University spokeswoman, said the recommended changes would go into effect if the University got permission from the Board of Regents and the Department of Administration. She said the new contract would have a three-year term, beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year. Bretz said a provision to start negotiations by Spring 2010, before the third year of the proposed contract expires, had been built into the contract.

Kansan staff writer Nathan Gill can be contacted at ngill@kansan.com.

— Edited by Ashley Thompson

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