Wilberforce, Ohio

The administration claimed at a fiscal and political crisis left it with no choice but to take the actions it did. However, the Central State University (CSU) faculty union has won a series of legal victories over the past few weeks that could pose new financial problems for the state's only historically Black institution of higher education.

The issues of contention, which were settled by binding arbitration, involved salaries and layoffs. Although administrators said they are still assessing the potential cost of the decisions, CSU President John Garland acknowledged that there is not enough money in the university's $24.4 million annual operating budget to pay the back salary and other awards prescribed by the arbitrators.

But Garland has approached officials from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and assured them that he will explore other avenues to try to find the funds to resolve the cases.

In a separate case, the CSU chapter of the AAUP won an Ohio Supreme Court decision declaring unconstitutional a state law that dictated faculty workload.

Robert Marcus, president of CSU's faculty union, said the arbitrators' decisions regarding faculty pay and layoffs "enforce our contract, and that's what was important."

The contract between CSU's faculty union and the university calls for unresolved grievances to be decided by binding arbitration.

In one case, arbitrator Michael Paolucci ruled that eighteen former Central State faculty members who were laid off during a financial crunch in the summer of 1997 are entitled to as much as thirteen months back pay because the university violated a collective-bargaining contract when it terminated them. Paolucci did not order the university to reinstate the laid-off faculty members, and he ruled that the amount of back pay they received should be reduced by the amount they earned in other jobs between August 1, 1997, and September 1, 1998.

CSU officials told Paolucci that they were trying to comply with a state law that required them to reduce faculty to "appropriate" levels to correspond to a declining enrollment.

Garland, who had not yet been hired when the layoffs notices were given in July 1997, said the financial impact of complying with the decision could not be immediately determined until the university finds out how much laid-off faculty earned elsewhere. The combined annual salaries of the eighteen laid-off faculty members is approximately $740,000.

Another arbitrator's ruling ordered the university to restore a pay cut of 3 percent to 8 percent that took effect for all CSU employees, including faculty, in early 1996. That pay cut was not phased out in mid-1997, as was called for in a contract between the two sides.

CSU officials at the time told faculty members that the school did not have the money to restore the salary cuts. Additionally, the officials explained that they were not required to do so because the university's board of trustees had declared the school to be in a "state of fiscal exigency," or financial crisis.

Garland said this ruling could cost the university an estimated $500,000. The president said CSU has "not received adequate funding ... to pay for this decision from the arbitrator."

Another arbitration ruling ordered CSU to restore faculty pay raises that were negotiated and agreed upon but put on hold indefinitely in the midst of the fiscal crisis.

Some administration officials have wondered whether the faculty union would be willing to negotiate a settlement that would reduce the impact on the school's budget. However, Marcus said that would be for the AAUP members to decide.

Marcus also noted that the contracts involving salaries were negotiated with representatives of the Ohio Attorney General's office and other state officials, not just CSU administrators. And, the AAUP president said, everyone involved had complete understanding of the university's finances at the time the contracts were signed.

Marcus stressed that the salary and layoff disputes stemmed from actions taken prior to Garland's arrival in September.

RELATED ARTICLE: Ohio Court Strikes Down Faculty Workload Requirements

WILBERFORCE, Ohio -- While Central State University's chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) was winning arbitration cases against CSU's administration, it also was winning an Ohio Supreme Court case that affected public colleges throughout the state.

On September 30, the seven-member panel, by a 4-3 vote, declared unconstitutional a state law specifying the minimum faculty workload at Ohio's state-supported colleges and universities. The court ruled in favor of CSU's faculty union, that had challenged the 1993 law which removed faculty workload requirements from the list of subjects that could be determined through collective bargaining.

Central State's AAUP chapter had a contract in place that specified faculty workloads when the law took effect. However, CSU's administration adopted a faculty workload policy consistent with the new law in 1994. The administration then notified the faculty union that it would not negotiate on that issue because of the wording of the law. The AAUP challenged that decision in state court.

The Ohio Supreme Court decision, written by Justice Alice Robie Resnick, said the court "cannot find any rational basis for singling out university faculty members as the only public employees ... precluded from bargaining over their workload."

Resnick also said she found no relation between collective bargaining and a decline in teaching. The law was ruled unconstitutional because it violated the equal protection clauses of the Ohio and United States constitutions because it did not involve a legitimate public interest.