Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
After nearly three weeks, Wright State University’s faculty union strike is over, ending what board of trustees chairman Doug Fecher called the “last big hurdle that existed from the past.”
Now, Fecher said, the university will have to repair its brand for the future to ensure the labor dispute and other issues that have troubled WSU in recent years don’t further impact the school. In the last three years, Wright State has suffered from a financial crisis, had large declines in enrollment, and settled a federal investigation into visa misuse for $1 million.
“I think everybody is relieved that the strike is over but we need to understand that we’ve got a lot of work to do now,” Fecher said. “This doesn’t mean we don’t have big issues in the future.”
The board of trustees will meet in executive session at 5:30 p.m. today to discuss a tentative agreement made late Sunday with the Wright State chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
Fecher said the board will reconvene in public session to vote on the deal which also needs approval from the AAUP-WSU. The AAUP-WSU plans to circulate a summary of the proposed contracts today which will last a combined total of five years.
The AAUP-WSU strike is thought to be the longest college faculty strike in Ohio’s history, having totaled 20 days by the time Sunday’s resolution was reached.
