MSCA President-Elect Patricia Markunas
Speech Presented to Massachusetts Board of Higher Education
Salem State College
December 5, 2000
Good morning. Chairman Tocco, Chancellor Gill, members of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, state college presidents, staff, members of the community, and my colleagues from the Massachusetts State College Association, welcome to Salem State College. My name is Pat Markunas and I have served proudly as a member of the Salem State College faculty since 1979. I come before you today as the President-Elect of the Massachusetts State College Association, and I thank Chairman Tocco for graciously allowing me to address this meeting.
This is a critical time in the ongoing
negotiations between us to reach our next three-year agreement.
After what seemed like a stalemate, both parties have made
progress towards an improved financial package, procedures for
accountability, and protections for academic freedom. I recognize
and appreciate the willingness of the members of both bargaining
teams to meet for long hours, on quick notice, around the
Thanksgiving holiday to achieve this progress. But make no
mistake about it, Chairman Tocco -- we still have a long way to
go to reach our mutual goal of a settlement.
Two years ago at the bargaining table, we presented data that
demonstrated that our faculty and librarians would need an
immediate 18% salary increase in order to achieve parity with
faculty who teach at comparable institutions. Recently, our state
college presidents have prepared their own salary analysis, and
lo and behold, they have come to exactly the same conclusion!!
These statistics, whether the unions or managements,
do not lie. Our members are woefully underpaid, especially given
the cost of living in this beautiful part of the country. Your
most recent salary offer is a step in the right direction, but a
3% increase over the existing offer is just that - only a step. A
greater financial commitment must be made, now, in order to
restore our salaries to the level of national competitiveness
that existed in 1989. Chairman Tocco, that level in 1989 was 80th
percentile. Our salaries are now at the 20th percentile
nationwide.
On the issue of accountability, there, too,
have been steps towards mutually agreeable procedures. But
faculty care deeply about academic freedom and their ability to
innovate and experiment in their classrooms, laboratories and
studios. We believe that the proposals currently before us will
stifle that innovation and experimentation and cause faculty to
play it safe for the sake of their evaluations. The parties must
continue the dialogue on this critical issue, to resolve the
remaining evaluation issues in a way that protects and enhances
the intellectual vitality of our colleges.
As the incoming President of the MSCA, I look forward to working
together to improve public higher education in Massachusetts. Our
citizens expect that -- our students deserve that -- and the MSCA
membership wants that. But I am here today to affirm our position
that there cannot be a relationship of mutual respect and working
together, as long as our contract remains unsettled and our
salaries are stagnated at the bottom of the national salary
distribution. Chairman Tocco, I urge you to direct your
representatives to continue to improve the economic conditions
under which we educate our students while preserving the academic
freedom so vital to the entire educational enterprise. I know we
can do it. Thank you for your attention here this morning.