Faculty contract negotiations begin July 11 at the University of Cincinnati with money in short supply and both sides contemplating the possibility of a strike after classes resume in Septem ber.

        The General Assembly gave state colleges and universities no money for raises, UC has initiated a partial hiring freeze and budget cuts, and President Joseph A. Steger is pleading poverty.

        “We're in a quandary,” UC spokesman Greg Hand said in a recent interview. “We want to do something for our faculty and we know how important the faculty are to the university” but “this is easily the worst budget year in a decade.”

UC MINIMUMS

Annual UC faculty* salary minimums on all five campuses in the American Association of University Professors contract have been unchanged since 1996:   • Full professor, $43,000.   • Associate professor, $35,000.   • Assistant professor, $29,000.   • Instructor, $25,000.   • Senior librarian, $43,000.   • Associate senior librarian, $37,000.   • Associate librarian, $34,000.   • Library assistant, $29,000.   • Beginning librarian, $25,000.   * Librarians are considered faculty under the AAUP contract

        UC already has raised tuition and eliminated the $1 million rainy day fund it created in case legislators appropriate even less money.

        The union representing 1,990 teachers and librarians (who are considered faculty under the contract), the American Association of University Professors, has heard similar laments before.

        In 1998, Dr. Steger sweetened UC's offers with 9 percent salary increases over three years when faced with the likelihood of a strike.

        Confident there is money in various UC funds, AAUP is expected to:

        • Seek an across-the-board pay raise of at least 5 percent in the first year of the three-year contract and inflation plus 1.5 percent in each of the following years.

        • Push for increases in salary minimums that have been unchanged since 1996.

        • Defend benefits as UC — like many employers — tries to trim unexpectedly high health costs.

IF YOU GO

Using pay figures supplied by the University of Cincinnati, the American Association of University Professors calculated these median salaries for members of bargaining units on the five campuses (numbers of staff in each category are noted in parentheses):   • Librarians (61) $56,179   • Arts & Sciences (333) $65,270.   • Business administration (67) $86,933.   • College-Conservatory of Music (97) $58,534.   • Clermont (39) $35,000   • Allied Health Sciences (18) $60,209   • Applied Sciences (42) $63,829.   • Medicine (122) $96,152.   • Nursing (36) $61,325   • Professional practice (13) $55,726   • Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (79) $60,224.   • Education (88) $60,636.   • Engineering (140) $77,592.   • Law (20) $98,932   • Pharmacy (21) $76,606.   • Raymond Walters (104) $46,204.   • Social work (9) $49,019.   • University College (91) $50,793

        Union president Joe W. Fisher said this contract is an opportunity to “catch up” to faculty at Ohio State University, the state's other public research campus.

        In 1989, Dr. Fisher said, average salaries at the two schools were comparable, but UC now lags by more than 12 percent.

        AAUP has struck twice, in 1979 and 1993. In May

        AAUP members authorized another strike if necessary.

        “The whole intent of negotiating is to avoid a strike and to come up with a contract that satisfies everyone,” Mr. Hand, the UC spokesman, said. “It's just going to be a lot tougher this year.”

        The current contract expires Aug. 31. It covers all five campuses and includes these annual minimums — in place since 1996:

        • Full professor, $43,000.

        • Associate professor, $35,000.

        • Assistant professor, $29,000.

        More telling than minimums are median annual salaries. Using UC pay data, AAUP said these range from $35,000 at Clermont to $98,932 in law.

        In other words, UC pays half of the teachers at Clermont $35,000 or less and half of the law faculty $98,932 or more.

        Some colleges — law, medicine and business administration — have relatively high salaries, while others — Raymond Walters, Clermont — have relatively low salaries. Then there are disparities within colleges and departments.

        AAUP's focus on across-the-board raises rankles younger tenured faculty members whose sala ries are closer to contractual minimums. Some call for higher minimums plus larger across-the-board raises than those allocated to better-paid — and often older — colleagues of the same academic rank.

        Disparities also are reflected in top pay. Some colleges fared much better than others: medicine and nursing, $209,034; engineering, $153,121.

        Others paid top professors relatively poorly by UC standards: Clermont, $66,667; Raymond Walters, $74,259; University Col lege, $77,634; Social Work, $87,910; and Education, $99,211.

        Faculty members say it is aggravating that Raymond Walters and Clermont are among the lowest-paid two-year public colleges in the nation.

        That is even more shameful, said James Cebula, a history professor at Raymond Walters, because it compares them to community colleges, not branches of a major research university.

        “We leave it to the colleges and we leave it to the market,” Mr. Hand said.

        How tough is it?

        Two years ago, Charles Emenaker, an associate professor of math at Raymond Walters, was offered a high-school teaching job with a $15,000 raise. That was more than 40 percent over his UC salary as an assistant professor.

        Dr. Emenaker stayed because he likes the students and said he was “content” at Raymond Walters. Since then, he has been promoted to tenured associate professor with an automatic 10 percent raise.

        Were the offer repeated, now that he and his wife have a child, “I'd have to give it some serious thought.”

        Dr. Emenaker considers himself someone who has been treated very well at Raymond Walters. But pay disparities remain painful.

        “Six years ago, when I accepted the position here with a Ph.D., my salary was the same as my wife with a master's degree who teaches first grade in Butler County,” he said.

        “I have received two merit pay raises and a promotion in rank in addition to normal raises. I now make less (perhaps as much as $2,000) than my wife, who has received the normal yearly pay raises for teachers in her school.”

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