A bonus is a bonus at YSU

By Bertram de Souza (Contact)

Published April 13, 2011

Dr. John Russo, a veteran professor at Youngstown State University, has taken exception to this writer’s column of April 10 and contends that the faculty did not get enrollment bonuses in their last contract like the classified employees did. The column didn't say the faculty got enrollment bonuses, but they certainly snagged bonuses.

Russo’s disagreement with the column are contained in a response he sent via email to a slew of people on and off campus. However, his contention about the faculty needs to be clarified.

Here are the facts:

For the 2008-09 school year, there was a 2.5 percent increase in faculty base salary. But that’s not all. By rank, there was a bonus, which resulted in a full professor, for instance, receiving $1,800 that was added to the base salary.

Then, a member of the faculty union hired before June 1, 2008, received a longevity increase of $50 for each year of service. Thus, a faculty member with 30 years received $1,500 — that also was added to the base salary.

By some calculations, the entire first-year package resulted in an 8 percent increase for veteran professors.

In the next two years of the contract, faculty members received increases of 3.5 percent to their new base salaries.

Any way you cut, the folks at YSU made out like bandits in the last contract. They had better be prepared for a freeze or even givebacks in the next labor pact. Taxpayers aren’t in a generous mood.