In my email regarding negotiations I sent out yesterday (below), I obviously was not clear enough on the "career increment" item listed below as several of you have inquired about it.  Let me try to provide some additional clarification:

As it stands now, the salary schedule has 3-4 steps at the end of each class which are deemed "career increment" steps.  You have to be on each of these steps for five years before moving to the next one.  During this round of negotiations, we would like to 1) eliminate the five year wait by stretching out the schedule so that there is at least some movement each year, and 2) add more money to these new stretched steps so that they are as close to 2.75% between each step as are the other (non-career increment) steps on the salary schedule.  

The eventual goal would be to have a schedule with as many steps as possible, all with 2.75% between each step, and with a one step per year movement.  It will take us several years to get there because this is a relatively expensive proposition, but in the end we feel it would best serve the interests of all of the faculty.

I hope this provides some clarification.  Please don't hesitate to ask if you still have any questions.

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From: Jim Mahler <aftjim@pacbell.net>
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 08:07:13 -0700
Subject: Upcoming Faculty Negotiations

Dear Colleagues,

As our academic year draws to a close, I wanted to thank all of you who invited me to your department meetings this semester to discuss the upcoming faculty contract negotiations.  Based upon your input, here is a brief summary of the main items we will be attempting to negotiate during this next round of negotiations: