HARRISBURG — A faculty strike date that could affect Slippery Rock University students has been set for Oct. 19 by the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties.

About 5,500 faculty members and coaches from the 14 state universities have been working under expired contracts for more than 450 days.

During a vote in September to authorize a strike, more than 90 percent of the union members favored a strike, with roughly 85 percent of the 332 members from SRU voting in favor.

APSCUF announced the possible date Friday morning during a news conference, but APSCUF said it will not strike if the State System of Higher Education negotiates a fair contract, according to a press release from the union.

Previously, APSCUF proposed entering binding arbitration to allow a three-person panel to end the contract dispute, but the State System did not agree.

Instead, the State System said earlier this week it would rather enter into a nonbinding fact-finding report with a Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board arbitrator, but Kenneth Mash, president of APSCUF, said the board turned down that request.

The State System said five days of marathon negotiations concluded Wednesday. There was no information released on when talks might resume.

The State System has requested negotiations resume this week but claimed in a press release on Sept. 23, that APSCUF has refused to meet until October.

Mash said during Friday's conference: “We are unhappy when (the State System) spread(s) an untruth saying that we refuse to meet with them. We do not refuse to meet with (them). The State System and whatever game they were playing gave us dates that included this weekend when we had told them months ago that we were not going to be available to meet ... At the same time, they have yet to respond to five dates that we gave them that we are willing to meet.”

Colleen Cooke, a professor of recreational therapy and the vice president and media spokesman for the Slippery Rock University branch of APSCUF, said the faculty members feel their hand is forced.

“We don't want to go on strike. We would prefer that we settle and get a fair contract,” she said. “It's uncomfortable for us ... but we're being forced into a circumstance where we have to strike. We just want a fair deal.”

But that will not stop Slippery Rock University's faculty from striking.

“We will walk. If there's no contract, we're on strike,” Cooke said definitively. “I haven't heard anybody say that they're not going to strike, and the expectation is that if one of us goes, we all do. We expect that all of us will strike.”

Despite the possibility of a strike, Cooke feels there is significant student support at the university.

“The students that are talking to me are definitely supportive of the union and can't believe that we've gone this long without a contract,” she said.

In fact, a number of the issues with negotiations would affect the quality of education that future students receive, according to Cooke.

The State System is seeking to allow individuals without graduate degrees to teach undergraduate classes, which Cooke said will “decrease the quality of education and the value of the degree” for future students.

Another State System proposition is to reduce compensation for the professors who teach lab courses, and Cooke admitted that she did not know what the rationale for that proposal was.

“That's a big one because we need to be able to recruit professors in the STEM fields, and if they reduce pay, we're not going to able to attract quality people,” she said.

Other issues include giving administrators the freedom to move faculty between departments and campus locations, requiring adjunct professors to teach more courses to be considered full-time — essentially leading to a 20 percent pay cut for current adjunct faculty — and completely eliminating the funding for faculty development, according to Cooke.

“Our concern for students affects everything we do, even the negotiations we're in right now,” she said. “We not only worry about the students we have now but the students we're going to have and their ability to get the education they deserve. We worry about the value of degrees for our alum.”

SRU administration had no comment, deferring to Kenn Marshall, the media relations manager for the State System.

Marshall says a “strike by faculty runs counter to everything that higher education stands for.”

Other state system schools in the region include Clarion University and Indiana (Pa.) University.

<b>THE BACKDROP</b>Enrollment at the 14 State System of Higher Education schools has dropped more than 14,000 since 2010. Both sides attribute the declining enrollment, in part, to lower Pennsylvania high school enrollment. Tuition and fees pay for the majority of university operating costs.<b>SALARY, HEALTH CARE</b>The state system says it offered faculty a one-time $600 cash payment this year and a 1 percent raise in January 2018 and January 2019 in exchange for health insurance changes and an increase in the teaching load for some faculty. It says the offer also included a step increase in 2019 of 2.5 percent or 5 percent, depending on seniority. Base pay for full-time faculty ranges from $46,609 to $112,238.The union says the proposal is unacceptable. President Ken Mash says the raises would not make up for costly health care changes or address large disparities in the pay scale.The university system wants employees to pay about $7 to $14 more every two-week pay period toward the cost of their health insurance premiums.<b>WORKLOAD</b>The state system is asking non-tenured and non-tenure-track faculty who work full time to teach an additional course each semester in exchange for reduced research and university service requirements. The union says the proposal would only mean a higher workload.<b>IF A STRIKE OCCURS</b>Classes would stop without faculty. But a system spokesman says the universities have “strike response plans” and would remain open.<i>By The Associated Press</i>