Curry College - Curryer Yearbook (Milton, MA)

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Dare to do what you dream. Search your heart to know What you most desire; Then do it, For you can become By perseverance What you long to be. Dr. Samuel Silas Curry SSi0SB i ' ' flHi«

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President and Mrs. Reagan greeted Pope Paul II when he arrived in Miami to begin a nine-city tour of the United States. In the six years since Americans first heard of a mysterious immunity-robbing disease from which no one recovers, AIDS has killed nearly 25,000 Americans, millions of dollars have poured into medical research and President Reagan has proclaimed the plague Public Health Enemy No. 1. ■ ' •■■■W ' FOR, THl Station

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' MtUtryJ ■ LOWEST FACULTY TO STRIKE ' ? ' : ' Arriving on campus in the Fall of 1987. students were met with the threat of a strike. Faculty members still had not signed a contract for the upcoming year — in fact they had been without one since early summer. The faculty protested with picket signs and handed out informational flyers on opening day. Their job action, in the eyes of many, was justified. Their complaints and demands legitimate. Curry faculty salaries were the lowest of all salaries at comparable colleges in Massachusetts. The faculty were asking for a 7.5 percent increase which would put their salary in the si j m median range. Tuition at Curry, since 1979, had risen 1 15 percent, but faculty salaries had only risen 57.5 percent during the same period. Concurrently, there had been an increase in the use of part-time faculty, so that in the Spring of 1987. 59 percent of the courses were taught by part-time faculty. Despite increased enrollment and a tuition increase of 7 percent for the 87-88 academic year, the administration ' s offer on August . 1, was a 3 percent salary increase. On September 4. this was changed to 5 percent, which would still not change the faculty ' s status as poorly paid faculty. On September 10, however, the administration reduced its offer of a salary increase back to 3 percent. They refused the faculty ' s request of 7.5 percent, claiming that college had no money to pay them that amount. Students rallied in support of the faculty, even protesting a board of trustees meeting with their own picket signs, (see following pages and letter from the S.G.A. President) Through everything the faculty persevered. Following extensive negotiations, the faculty union and the administration did meet with an agreement, settling the dispute and ending the threat of a strike. The faculty received a three year contract and a 5 percent raise for now. In the next two years, it was agreed that faculty salaries would be increased to a range comparable with other small colleges in Massachusetts.