The Kent State chapter of the American Association of University Professors have voted to ratify the tentative agreement on a new contract for the tenure and tenure track faculty members.

Chief Negotiator of the Kent State chapter of AAUP Deborah C. Smith announced the results of last week’s vote in an email to the tenure and tenure track faculty members of AAUP-KSU.

Smith said of the members who voted, “96.12% voted ‘yes,’” and said with a voter turnout of a little over 66% it was “a fairly strong showing for a vote conducted while faculty are off contract.”

The tentative agreement includes a 2% raise each academic year, excluding the 2019 to 2020 year, when the raise will be 2.5%. The added .5% will counteract the increase in healthcare benefits costs. A merit awards pool of funds in year 2021 to 2022 will be 2%.

Voting was held electronically through email and was open for AAUP-KSU tenure and tenure track members from Wednesday morning until Sunday night.

Smith said in an email AAUP-KSU “won’t have any comment until after the Board of Trustees has ratified the new contract.” She added “at that time, I expect that there will be a joint press release put out by AAUP-KSU and Kent State University.”

Executive Director of University Media Relations Eric Mansfield said in an email the administration could not comment at this time.

According to Smith’s email the Board of Trustees will meet on Wednesday, June 26 to vote on the Tentative Agreement.

Abigail Miller is the managing editor of Kentwired. Contact her at [email protected].