Representatives of both full-time faculty and the University met on Thursday, March 17 to begin the collective bargaining process aimed at a contract for full-time professors.

After a decisive vote in June 2004, Point Park’s full-time faculty joined The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, making it the first Newspaper Guild local to represent faculty at a university. 

 Michael A. Fuoco, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, said, “We presented the university with our proposal and we’re setting up meetings in the near future to really get into negotiations. It was a cordial meeting and we are confident that cordiality will continue and we’ll be able to work cooperatively to achieving a fair proposal for both sides.”

The university shares that same optimism.

Lou Corsaro, managing director of marketing and public relations at Point Park said in a statement, “The faculty presented an extensive set of initial proposals. The University is working diligently to provide an initial response prior to the next scheduled meeting on May 3.”

“University leadership chooses to respect the collective bargaining process with full-time faculty and will confine negotiations to the bargaining table,” Corsaro said.     

“We are very confident we can see eye to eye because we both have what’s best for the students in mind,” Fuoco said. “We were pleased [University administration] were relatively quick to get an adjunct contract done, the first ever, and we’re hoping to carry that same spirit of cooperation to these negotiations.”