Dear Colleagues,

The University of Oregon and United Academics continued mediation last week with two sessions during the statutorily required “cooling off period.” As we continue to work toward a fair agreement with United Academics, the university has sought to put our best offer forward, one that provides salary increases to our faculty that are better than the AAU average even as we face significant headwinds from actions at the federal level. This message outlines the university’s offer and provides more details about it.

Highlights of our offer to United Academics:

• A one-time payment of $1,700 (prorated based on 9-month FTE) for all active bargaining unit faculty members upon ratification.
• A 4% increase to base salary for all active bargaining unit TTF, Career, Pro Tem, Visiting, and Retired faculty upon ratification.
• A 3% merit increase pool for TTF and Career faculty effective January 1, 2026.
• A 3% merit increase pool for TTF and Career faculty effective January 1, 2027.
• A 13.5% increase to salary floors effective July 1, 2025, establishing a $50k Career instructor floor.
• An increase to the first post-tenure/continuous employment review for meeting expectations from 4% to 8%.
• A new 8% floor rank differential for Career faculty to offset compression from increased salary floors.
• Increases for Limited Duration faculty (excluding Postdoctoral Scholars who are on their own salary schedule) of 2% in both 2026 and 2027.

These proposed annual increases are higher than the average increases announced by other AAU institutions in spite of the difficult funding situation UO faces. We are proposing this investment in faculty despite the considerable financial uncertainty and challenging issues we are facing because of our commitment to faculty and the vital role they play in the university’s mission.UA is proposing 7.5% salary increases each year (22.5% over three years), which is more than double the average FY25 AAU annual faculty increase (3.38%).

Details and context of the offer to United Academics:

One-time payment of $1,700 (prorated): Implementing retroactive pay can be very challenging. However, given that negotiations about faculty compensation have extended for such a long time, we wanted to provide faculty with immediate compensation to recognize the fact that we were not able to implement salary increases as early in the year as we had hoped.  

Salary context: We’ve previously highlighted that the 4% across-the-board salary increase proposed for the current year is above the AAU public average of 3.38%, and contractual increases at the UO have been in line with other AAU publics over the last several years. Accounting for average across-the-board, merit, and promotional increases, faculty salaries at the UO have seen an annual average growth of 3.9% over the past decade. This outpaces both average annual net tuition revenue growth (2.95%) and inflation for this time period (Consumer Price Index over this time period averaged 3.3% for the West Coast and 2.8% for the entire country). Merit pools of 3% in years two and three of the proposed contract, combined with continued eligibility for increases associated with promotion, post-tenure review, and career continuous employment review, keep faculty on or above this pace. UA's offer of 7.5% each year is more than double inflation. UO remains committed to investing in faculty while maintaining affordability for students.

Salary floors: The vast majority of represented faculty are paid well above CBA salary floors, but there are some faculty at the salary floors. The most recently expired CBA provided a salary floor increase to the 9-month Career instructional salary floor of 13% on July 1, 2023 (from $39K to $44K). During this round of bargaining, UO’s final offer proposes an additional 13.5% to all salary floors effective July 1, 2025, establishing a $50k Career instructor salary floor for a standard 9-month academic contract. This will represent a 28% increase to the floors over a two-year period. This offer also includes higher floors for promoted Career faculty to avoid any compression that might be caused by these increased salary floors.

Differentials between GE and faculty salary increases: In the weeks leading up to bargaining with UA, the university and the GTFF graduate employee (GE) union signed a new contract offering historic increases of 20.5% to 41.8% to GE salaries over a three-year period. Going into GTFF bargaining, the pay for the minimum GE appointment of $762 per month was increased to $1,040 per month in the new agreement, a 36% salary increase. The new standard GE base rate received a 20.5% increase over the three-year contract period, with the current average salary of $22,252 across all GE appointments. These numbers highlight that the average faculty appointment and salary are not comparable to those of a GE. When looking externally, Rutgers, following a strike, agreed to increases for both graduate employees and faculty around the same time for their current contracts. Graduate employee increases were 32.6% over four years, while faculty increases were 14% over the same four-year period (3.75%, 3.5%, 3.25%, 3.5%). This settlement emphasizes that faculty positions and salaries are not comparable to GE packages.

Funding constraints: The UO's final offer provides annual salary increases to our faculty that are above current inflation rates, above the average increase in net tuition revenue at the UO, and above most of our AAU public peers. Revenue is constrained. The governor has recommended a budget with a 2.8% increase in FY2026 for higher education funding, which is substantially below the cost of maintaining current spending levels. There is significant uncertainty around federal funding, and the UO board of trustees is set to hear a tuition increase recommendation at their March meeting of 3.25% for undergraduate non-resident tuition and 3.75% for undergraduate resident tuition. UA’s proposal for salary increases of 7.5% each year for the next three years is beyond the cost that students or the university can bear, given the financial situation.

Upon ratification increase and payment timing: The university’s offer provides timing contingencies as it takes time to operationalize an agreement. If ratification takes place on or before the 15th of a month, the increase will be applied back to the 1st of the ratification month. If ratification occurs after the 15th of a month, the increase will be applied to the 1st of the month following ratification.

Sincerely,

Christopher P. Long
Provost and Senior Vice President 

Mark Schmelz
Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer