The Eastern Michigan University faculty union's new three-year contract was unanimously approved by the EMU Board of Regents during its regular board meeting on Oct. 15, 2026, making the contract's terms effective immediately.
New provisions in the contract include gradual salary increases, adjustments to the healthcare program, allocations for a voluntary severance incentive program and changes to paid leave, according to Curt Ellis, EMU's chief human resources officer. Ellis was the lead negotiator for the university on all three contracts that were approved by the regents on Thursday.
Nathan Ford, who serves in the role of board chair, offered his thanks and congratulations to the faculty negotiators after the vote passed. The Board also approved of a new contract with the Police Officers Association of Michigan and another with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.
Psychology Professor Thomas Waltz told The Eastern Echo before the meeting that he considered the contract's preservation of retirement contributions to be very important.
"It's one of the cheapest ways for EMU to compensate us," Waltz said.
In a similar vein, faculty salaries are set to increase by $2,200 in the first year of the contract, followed by a 2% and $500 increase in year two. A final 3% increase will occur in the last year, according to a recommendation letter to the regents signed by Ellis.
Despite those income boosts, Waltz said that it has been a challenge to keep faculty wages in line with rising national inflation.
"Our previous contract didn't keep up with the rate of inflation," Waltz said. "There's a high risk of it not keeping up this time given the way energy prices are impacting inflation."
Ellis told The Echo that "the challenge to us is that the university doesn't get cost of living increases; And so – while the comments that are made about the price of bread going up and the price of gas going up – while those are all real, those also affect us, and they limit our ability to do that, and so we tried to come up with proposals that were as aggressive as they could be, given the circumstances."
The contract was negotiated on behalf of the faculty by EMU's chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Matthew Kirkpatrick, the EMU-AAUP's president, previously told The Echo that they had ultimately fought off significant changes to healthcare that were proposed.
Read more: EMU AAUP ratifies new 3-year faculty union contract - The Eastern Echo
Waltz said that shifts in the healthcare program have put a greater cost onto faculty members, but noted that that challenge is not unique to EMU.
When asked about the healthcare changes in the contract, Ellis said that faculty members are given four options for healthcare plans, and that one is free and another has a premium of less than $10 a month.
"There are two choices that are very, very reasonable," Ellis said. "I would argue they might be best in class, in terms of cost. There are two that are really, really rich plans that the faculty wanted to maintain, and so we increased their cost of the share for that. So I would say that if that's what meets the needs of that faculty member and their family, they have the option to do so, but there is definitely a cost to that, and we understand that, but we also have options for folks that are really, really inexpensive."
Ellis, Kirkpatrick and Waltz all said that they believed the negotiations went reasonably well given the economic and logistical circumstances, including low enrollment and other financial stressors on the university.
Ellis said that there were concessions on the university side as well.
"When you have a balanced contract, both parties walk out thinking boy, I wish I'd have gotten this or I wish I'd have gotten that, and certainly we do as well, and I have no doubt that the other groups do," Ellis said. "But I think at the end of the day, I feel real good about the ability to look across the table and say to the people that were there that we achieved something that both parties thought was fair."
Asked about the specifics of what the university left on the table, Ellis brought up EMU's R2 doctoral research classification.
"There's a fair amount of release time that's given to faculty to pursue their research interests," Ellis said. "That release time is a cost, and so we always wrestle with, what's the right balance there? So that was an area where I think we came in with maybe one goal and objective, and through the natural part of negotiations, we ended up not making significant changes there, but that will continue to be a focal point going forward to make sure that we're utilizing our resources to the best of our ability."
Despite economic constraints, this year's contract negotiations avoided a repeat of the 2022 faculty strike. When Waltz was asked if his colleagues in the faculty union agreed with his contentment, he replied, "Well, we're not outside protesting."
The Echo requested comment from 20 other faculty members from various departments, all of whom either declined to comment or did not immediately respond. To share your thoughts on the faculty contract, email news@easternecho.com.
