BGSU board gives Mazey 2% raise, ratifies police union contract; faculty protest not having contract

Catey Pioli, a Bowling Green State University graduate student, left, Scott Magelssen, an associate professor of theater, and Diana DePasquale, a graduate student and teaching assistant, join a large group of faculty members at a trustee meeting to protest the lack of a labor contract with the school.

The Blade/Dave Zapotosky
Buy This Image

Catey Pioli, a Bowling Green State University graduate student, left, Scott Magelssen, an associate professor of theater, and Diana DePasquale, a graduate student and teaching assistant, join a large group of faculty members at a trustee meeting to protest the lack of a labor contract with the school.

BOWLING GREEN — Not long after Bowling Green State University faculty members holding “fair contract now” signs left the trustees’ meeting Friday, the board approved a raise for the president and ratified a new contract with the police union.

President Mary Ellen Mazey was given a 2 percent increase in her annual salary of $375,120 or about $7,502, as well as a $50,000 performance bonus.

“I can honestly state that this board is 1,000 percent behind Mary Ellen. We just think she’s doing a great job,” William Primrose III, chairman of the board of trustees, said after the board emerged from executive session.

Ms. Mazey, the former provost and vice president for academic affairs at Auburn University in Alabama, became BGSU’s 11th president July 1, 2011.

She said she would give her bonus to the BGSU Foundation to support three student scholarships that she previously created with her own money.

“I certainly appreciate the board’s support, and over the last year and a half, it’s been an honor and a privilege to be president of Bowling Green State University and to work with all of the board of trustees, cabinet, and faculty and students and staff here,” she said. “I would like to say that at this time, we’re all about student success, and that $50,000 will be donated to student scholarships.”

The president’s raise and bonus were awarded at the same meeting where more than 100 faculty members filed into the room carrying bright orange signs that said “fair contract now” and “until we win.” They are members of the BGSU Faculty Association, which was formed in October, 2010, and began negotiating a first-ever contract with the administration in August, 2011. The chapter represents about 800 full-time faculty members.

Mazey.

Ms. Mazey said afterward that she thinks negotiations are moving along at a typical pace for a first-time contract. The first faculty contract at the University of Akron took two years to settle, she said.

“Everybody’s at the negotiating table, as I understand it, working well so I’m very pleased with how negotiations have gone,” Ms. Mazey said. “I’m surprised when I see them show up at a meeting because it takes time.”

David Jackson, president of the faculty association, did not return phone calls seeking comment. He and other union members walked out of the trustee meeting after Mark Earley, chairman of the Faculty Senate, gave his report to the board. Mr. Earley told trustees faculty morale was low, and that he hoped both sides would continue working toward a contract.

Also after the executive session, trustees approved a new three-year contract with the International Union of Police Associations Local 103, which represents 14 campus police officers and six dispatchers. They will receive an average raise of 7 percent over the life of the contract, although the amount is dependent on the employee’s level of training and years of service, said BGSU Police Chief Monica Moll. The contract is retroactive to July 1 and runs through June 30, 2015.

BGSU Spokesman Dave Kielmeyer said the raises for police were intended to “bring our officers close to the middle of their market value compared to their peers.” The officers, he said, had been “near the bottom” of the market range.

Nonunion administrative and classified employees at BGSU got a 2 percent raise that was effective Sept. 1, which affects just under 1,400 workers.

Also Friday, trustees approved moving forward with an estimated $28 million overhaul of BGSU’s Greek housing.

Under the plan, the 27 fraternity and sorority houses would be demolished and 34 townhouse-style buildings would be constructed along East Wooster Street where most of the Greek housing currently is located.

The new houses would vary in size, depending on the organization’s size, and would accommodate a total of 400 students.

Steven Krakoff, associate vice president for capital planning and design, said the houses, which were built between the late 1940s and early 1960s, tentatively will be vacated at the end of spring semester 2014 with the new houses scheduled to open in the fall of 2016. No decisions have been made about interim housing for fraternity and sorority members during the construction period.

Trustees also:

● Adopted a new inclusive early childhood education degree program that will give graduates dual certification, enabling them to teach typical and special needs PK-3 classes.

● Approved spending $1.47 million to replace the six elevators in Offenhauer Towers residence hall.

● Agreed to improve four parking lots on campus at a cost of $1.28 million.

● Approved a $900,000 renovation of the organic chemistry laboratory in the Physical Sciences Laboratory Building.

● Welcomed former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery to the board. Ms. Montgomery, a former Wood County prosecutor and 1970 BGSU graduate, said she was honored to serve on the board.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-724-6129.