YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State University Board of Trustees adopted a resolution to ratify a new three-year collective-bargaining agreement between the Ohio Education Association faculty union and the administration.

During a special meeting Friday in Tod Hall, trustees approved the new contract, which begins Monday and expires Aug. 20, 2026. The current three-year pact expires Aug. 27.

Eighty-nine percent of OEA members voted in favor of the new contract, according to the resolution.

Terms of the new pact call for 2 percent raises and $1,000 lump-sum bonuses for the first two years and a 2.5 percent raise in the third year, Jennifer Pintar, vice provost, noted.

Also under the contract, union members will pay 18 percent of their health care premium share the first year, 19 percent in the second year and 20 percent during the third year, she explained.

Pintar and others expressed gratitude that the agreement had been worked out “in a mutually advantageous manner” before the start of the fall semester, which is Aug. 28.

“I think there was a lot of ‘give’ on both sides,” Pintar said.

She recalled that the bargaining process began with a meeting in December 2022, followed by the start of negotiations in January.

Since then, both sides have met regularly — sometimes weekly — through the spring, which culminated in a resolution having been reached last month, Pintar recalled.

“It’s a great day for YSU and the Youngstown community,” she said.

Also at the session, trustees discussed the Plan for Strategic Actions to Take Charge of our Future, which board members endorsed in June 2020 to ensure the university’s continued vibrancy.

During the board’s next regular meeting in September, trustees anticipate a renewed plan that will take into account previous achievements reported to the board from various committees since the plan was endorsed.

The guidance draft report presented during Friday’s session also discusses enrollment planning that considers marketing as a “foundational strategy,” along with written reports regarding the fiscal year 2024 budget and “varied designs of the academic portfolio that aligns with the university mission, plan and the workforce needs of this region,” according to the report.