Some Oakland University faculty members are not happy with the 2009-12 employee contract, but the contract is likely to remain.

The faculty members approved the contract with a margin of 6 to 1 on the vote that ended Oct. 8. To be made fully official, the contract needs to be approved, or ratified, by OU’s board of trustees, and this may not happen until the board’s next meeting Nov. 4.

Out of 683 faculty members represented by OU’s chapter of American Association of University Professors, 372 voted to approve the contract, and 60 voted against it, said Joel Russell, chemistry professor.

Russell was president of OU’s AAUP while the contract negotiation was ongoing. His term in this position has ended, but he is still the president of the Michigan Conference of the AAUP.

University administration members involved in the negotiations declined to comment about specifics other than to say they are glad to have classes resumed and would like to move on.

But AAUP said that animosity still remains for some faculty members who didn’t like some of the changes made in the contract.

“People are upset with the wage freeze the first year, especially with the president’s cabinet’s raises last year,” Russell said, referring to the zero percent raise faculty received in 2009 under the contract. They will also receive a 1 percent raise in 2010, and 3 percent in 2011.

OU announced this summer that the president’s cabinet and about 500 other administrative employees not covered by a union will have a wage freeze — not receive raises — in 2009. Other university employees, such as OUPD officers and sergeants, also agreed through contract negotiations that they would not receive raises this year.

Throughout the faculty negotiations, AAUP said academic issues were more important for the faculty, and that the money was not a high priority, but also said OU could afford to give them raises.

Russell said those academic and governance issues were resolved, but others lingered.

He said he heard some faculty did not like that in the new contract, the Blue Cross Blue Shield health care option does not cover same-sex domestic partners of faculty, although other options do. They also didn’t like that faculty can no longer take grieve leave for the deaths of their same-sex domestic partners. Russell said this is discriminatory toward gay and lesbian faculty.

Same-sex marriages are not recognized in Michigan, and a state law prevents public institutions, such as Oakland University, from providing benefits to same-sex partners of their employees. But OU and some other universities like University of Michigan got around this by using different language such as “other qualified adults” rather than “same-sex partners.”

Russell said nothing at the moment is being done to contest the contract terms, and that it’s likely to pass.