The Faculty Senate voted to approve the Fordham Administration’s latest salary and benefits proposal on Friday, Oct. 10, after almost a year and a half of active negotiations.

According to Andrew Clark, Ph.D., associate professor of French and comparative literature, vice president of the Faculty Senate and chair of the faculty salary and benefit committee, the resolution passed unanimously through the Senate.

Members of an ad hoc committee of the Faculty Senate have been in negotiations with the Fordham Administration since spring 2013, after John Lordan, senior vice president and chief financial officer , proposed the elimination of Cigna, the University’s current health care plan, as well as increasing faculty cost-sharing to 15 percent across the board.

The Faculty Senate raised allegations that the Administration was negotiating in bad faith, which culminated in a censure of Lordan at a Faculty Senate meeting on Friday, Sept. 12. Three days later, Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University, announced in a statement to faculty and staff that Lordan was stepping down as vice president and chief financial officer.

Since Lordan’s departure, members of the ad hoc committee have negotiated directly with McShane, Thomas Dunne, vice president for the Administration, and Frank Simio, vice president for finance. According to Clark, these negotiations have been “productive and much more amicable. Rhetorically, there’s been a desire to try to ensure that everyone is acting in good faith, that everyone is speaking, at once, honestly and respectfully.”

The Faculty Senate and Administration have come to agree on terms regarding cost-sharing, salary increases and other benefits, such as retirement. Cost-sharing for faculty and staff will increase to 15 percent, in four to seven years, based on yearly salary increases, according to Clark.

Another provision in the package is that to “increase transparency and increase cooperation in the future” between the faculty and Administration. “The acting chief financial officer is going to meet with all the chairs and all the different division heads in order to respond to their questions, to explain, but really listen to and involve faculty more in the process of trying to understand the budget and what the challenges are,” Clark said. “He has also offered to do that for the faculty at large in small groups. “

Click here for more coverage of the Faculty-wide meeting concerning health care. 

Click here for more coverage of John Lordan’s departure from Fordham.