The Western Michigan University Board of Trustees approved a new contract between the American Association of University Professors and the university during its first regular meeting of the fall 2026 semester.
The WMU chapter of AAUP represents full-time faculty members at the university. The trustees voted unanimously to approve a new three-year contract during their Sept. 10 meeting.
“For compensation for year one, a 2% wage increase with a 1% research supplement. That will be applied retroactively since we're into the fall academic year already. For a year two, a 2% wage and a 0.75% research supplement. And for the final year, a 2.5% [increase] across the board for 28-29," said Jan Van Der Kley, WMU's vice president of business and finance.
Van Der Kley said she and three other university officials took part in the negotiations.
“We were the ones who from mid-May through almost mid-August who participated in negotiations. The prior contract ended at September 3rd. We were able to reach a tentative agreement on August 18th," Van Der Kley said.
The new contract has an effective date of September 4, 2026, and runs through August 31, 2029, and also includes changes to healthcare plans and salary requirements.
“The research supplement is calculated on the salary median and rank as of the prior fall semester. There were also some adjustments to salary minima and promotion increments as part of negotiations. We also worked together to review the healthcare plan design and made some changes to that and adjusted employee premiums," Van Der Kley said.
The trustees also unanimously approved a motion to award an honorary degree to Bronco alum and current Philadelphia Phillies president Dave Dombrowski.
