Wright State strike: Ohio chancellor says it’s time for WSU to ‘come together’

Reporter Max Filby will discuss the latest on this story LIVE during Miami Valley’s News at Noon on AM 1290 and News 95.7 WHIO.” 

---

The strike ended late Sunday after a tentative agreement on two contracts was reached between negotiators for the WSU administration and the Wright State chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

» RELATED: WSU board chairman: Strike was school’s ‘last big hurdle’ of the past

“The Wright State community can now come together to provide its best for the students who we all are entrusted to serve,” chancellor Randy Gardner said in a prepared statement today.

Gardner had been monitoring the strike over the last three weeks and has repeatedly encouraged each side to come back to the negotiating table after the strike started Jan. 22. Gardner also visited campus last week to talked to students impacted by the strike and he addressed dozens of AAUP-WSU members at the Statehouse on Friday during a gathering hosted by the group.

At 20 days, the AAUP-WSU strike is believed to be the longest college faculty strike in Ohio’s history. It’s an achievement Gardner previously said was “not the way that you want to make history in Ohio.”

» RELATED: Faculty strike could impact Wright State’s enrollment, finances

The board of trustees is expected to vote on the tentative agreements this evening while the AAUP-WSU will soon circulate the terms of the agreements today before bringing it to a vote by its members. The deal includes two agreements that are expected to last five years.

'The first people I thought about last night when I heard the news of the agreement were the students I met with Friday at the Statehouse," Gardner said. "I'm hopeful that their plans and goals for the future – and those of thousands of others as well – are restored."

FIVE FAST READS

• Easton to anchor expansion with new store in 2019

• WSU may face more scrutiny despite deal on federal visa investigation

• Heating costs could spike this winter as natural gas prices increase

• EXPERT: Wright-Patterson ‘crucial to avoiding a defeat if there’s a World War III,’

• What UD’s change in its China Institute says about shifts in higher education