photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

A member of the crowd at KU's State of the University speech is pictured on Oct. 16, 2025. The sign is urging KU to reach a contract deal with its faculty union.

UPDATED 5:25 P.M. MARCH 6

KU and the labor union representing the university’s approximately 1,600 faculty members have reached a tentative agreement on wages, working conditions and a host of other issues, the union announced Friday morning.

Leaders with the United Academics of KU said the agreement — the first ever between the university and the union — will ensure “dignified compensation for all,” but the announcement did not provide details about a guaranteed general wage increase for KU faculty members.

Wages had been a major point of contention between the union and University of Kansas management. KU management last week gave the union its “last, best and final offer” on wages. That proposal from KU could leave some faculty members receiving a wage increase as little as 1%, though KU leaders contend many faculty members will receive a greater increase — an average of 13%, KU leaders said– if their positions are deemed to be at wage levels that are below prevailing wages in the region for similar positions.

In the Friday press release, UAKU also referenced that 13% figure, saying that the agreement will “establish a minimum salary structure that provides a median raise of 13% for several hundred workers on the lower end of the pay scale.” The statement didn’t address whether the tentative contract includes a general wage increase for faculty that is greater than the 1% that KU management proposed in its last offer.

Late Friday afternoon, a KU spokeswoman confirmed via email that KU management had reached a tentative agreement with the university on all 37 areas of negotiation in the contract. Next steps will include a vote by union members to ratify the contract, and a vote by the Kansas Board of Regents to approve the contract. Dates for those actions weren’t released on Friday.

“This accomplishment represents enormous dedication and time spent by everyone involved in the negotiation process and sets the foundation for continued partnership and support for faculty moving forward,” spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said via email.

Her statement did not provide details on the wage provisions that the parties have agreed to, nor details on other parts of the tentative agreement.

The UAKU statement said the tentative contract includes “ironclad protections for academic freedom,” important provisions for a shared governance structure that gives faculty a voice in university decisions, and items related to job security and due process rights of employees.

“Every step of the way we have seen the power of collective action, united across rank, position and title, in order to strengthen our institution and deliver the best possible education for our students,” said Marsha McCartney, UAKU’s co-lead negotiator and an associate teaching professor in psychology.

The tentative agreement comes after a tense week of in the negotiations. In addition to giving the union its best, last and final offer on wages, KU management also gave the union seven days to accept the offer or prepare for the negotiations to enter a period of impasse. If state officials agreed to declare the negotiations at impasse, the two sides would have had to go through mediated negotiations for 40 days. However, if an agreement wasn’t reached at the end of the 40-day period, Kansas law could have given the Kansas Board of Regents the power unilaterally impose a contract on the union.

The seven-day period for UAKU to make a decision expired on Friday morning.

The week also included a pair of faculty leaders sending out an online survey to the university community asking whether they had confidence in the leadership of Chancellor Douglas Girod and university chief financial officer Jeff DeWitt. The results of that survey were scheduled to be released on Wednesday, but organizers said they were keeping the survey open until next week.

While the union’s statement says the two parties have a tentative agreement in place, the statement also expressed concern about how the university conducted negotiations. The union said in its statement that a tentative agreement had been reached “(d)espite the KU administration’s ongoing demonstration of disrespect for faculty and repeated union-busting delay tactics.”

Faculty members in April 2024 overwhelmingly approved the formation of a union to represent approximately 1,550 full and part-time employees who are faculty members or academic staff members. Negotiations began shortly after the union was approved.