LIU Faculty Ends Strike

It's over.

Faculty members at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus voted Monday to approve a new contract, ending that left thousands of incoming students without their assigned instructors.

According to a report in The Brooklyn Paper, the agreement includes a 6.5 percent raise over a five-year period, with a one-time payment equal to 4 percent of salary.

The final deal represented a slight improvement over the administration's initial offer, which included a wage freeze for the first three years and a 2 percent annual increase for the final two years, according to professor of sociology Syed Ali, who joined his colleagues on the picket line last week.

LIU director of public relations Brian Harmon confirmed that an agreement was reached Saturday and that the university was notified at 3:40 p.m. Monday that the union had voted to approve the new contract.

Harmon said faculty began "trickling in" Monday night, with most teachers back on the job in classrooms by today.

The university estimates that students lost an average of two hours of class time, which will be made up with additional instruction during the current semester. The added time will not be taken from regularly scheduled school breaks, Harmon said.