Two STRS Board Positions Up for Election

If you’ve not already, you soon should be receiving information in the mail about voting in this year’s State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) elections. Two Retirement Board positions are to be elected for four-year terms starting in September.

We are encouraging the election and re-election of Ben Pfeiffer and Dale Price, respectively.

The Ohio Conference has been a member of the Healthcare and Pension Advocates of STRS coalition (HPA) for many years. Our executive director Sara Kilpatrick and retired Wright State economics professor and AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum attend these meetings regularly. As members of HPA, we have worked with other employee organizations, as well as employer and retired educator groups, to communicate with STRS staff and Board members about secure retirements for those we represent.

While we have the utmost respect for the leadership of STRS and the fiduciary responsibility they have to the system, we have been disappointed by many of the decisions made over the last several years, which have relied too heavily on asking more of active educators and decreasing benefits for current and future retirees.

Mr. Pfeiffer and Mr. Price are both members of the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT). They understand the fiduciary responsibility that the Retirement Board has to the system, but believe those interests must be balanced with the real-world impact these decisions have on STRS members. The five key tenets of their platform are below.

1. We want STRS to take a positive approach to restoring the COLA.
2. We want more transparency on hedge funds fees.
3. We want elected STRS board members to communicate regularly with actives and retirees.
4. We want STRS to be responsible investors while protecting the defined benefit, addressing opioid crisis and other social and environmental causes.
5. We want to ensure that STRS construction contractors are union-friendly, and we want STRS construction work done by unions as much as possible.

We hope that you will take the time to vote in these important elections to help diversify the voices on the STRS Retirement Board.

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2018 OCAAUP Election Results

President, Secretary, At-Large Position elected
Thanks to our candidates and to all of our members who cast ballots. We are pleased to announce the results below.

President
John T. McNay (University of Cincinnati)

Secretary
Constance Kendall Theado (University of Cincinnati)

At-Large Member from a Private Institution
Chris Howell (Oberlin College)

Board terms for these trustees begin September 1, 2018 and end August 31, 2020.

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Two PACs Formed by AAUP-WSU

The Wright State AAUP chapter has established two political action committees (PACs) to raise funding to support candidates in elections for state offices in Ohio.

The two PACs have the same straightforward mission: to support candidates who have records of supporting public higher education and collective bargaining rights.

Both PACs will rely on voluntary contributions.

The AAUP-WSU PAC has been established for members of the AAUP-WSU bargaining unit.

The SmartALEC(k) PAC has been established for anyone else who wishes to support candidates who support public higher education and collective bargaining rights. In other words, any other AAUP member in Ohio could make a contribution to this PAC.

Because AAUP-WSU needs to submit records on contributions made to both PACs, no anonymous contributions are permissible.
Contributions should be mailed to:

PAC Name: AAUP-WSU PAC or SmartALEC(k) PACAAUP-WSU113 Medical Sciences BuildingWright State UniversityDayton, OH 45435

Questions can be directed to AAUP-WSU President Marty Kich at martinkich@gmail.com.