BGSU administration and faculty still at odds - ToledoNewsNow.com: News, Weather & Sports for Toledo, OH

The Bowling Green State University (BGSU) administration and faculty association are at odds over faculty cuts and contract negotiations, as well as a membership list of the faculty association.

Now both sides have filed an unfair labor practice complaint, and the school's image may be caught in the middle of the whole debate.

"The last thing we want to do is tell students they shouldn't come to [BGSU]," said David Jackson, president of the faculty association. "BGSU is still a great university, but the administration is making decisions that will make it more difficult for students to graduate on time, make classes larger, make it more difficult for students to have one-on-one relationships with faculty, and we are trying everything we can to prevent them from making this big mistake."

The school is planning to cut 100 employees in the near future. They have now asked the faculty association for a list of its members, but the association fears the list will be where the cuts come from.

"We do not believe the administration has any right to have a list of our membership," Jackson said.

But he added that they also think they are doing the administration a favor by denying the request.

"If they don't have our membership list, then it makes it more difficult for somebody to claim that they were retaliated against and fired because of their union membership," he said.

Both parties will meet February 23 to continue contract negotiations.

University officials sent this statement:

"The BGSU administration continues to negotiate in good faith with the BGSU faculty association for our first collective bargaining agreement with the goal of reaching a mutually beneficial contract. Negotiations have now moved to fact-finding. In keeping with our commitment to the faculty association to negotiate at the bargaining table, and not in the media, BGSU will not be commenting further."

Copyright 2013 Toledo News Now. All rights reserved.