C.W. Post, faculty reach deal; needs vote

Striking full-time faculty and administrators at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville last night reached a tentative agreement to end a four-day walkout, the school said.

Specifics of the proposed five-year contract weren't made public yesterday, except that it includes wage and health care benefits, school spokeswoman Rita Langdon said.

About 311 strikers, members of the C.W. Post Collegial Federation, are set to vote on the proposal today at 3 p.m., according to the union website.

The strike, the third walkout in a decade for the campus, began Wednesday. About 500 part-time adjunct faculty members -- who taught about two-thirds of classes in session during the walkout -- kept working because they belong to the campus' other faculty union. That union has a contract barring sympathy strikes. Classes taught by striking faculty members did not meet.

If the striking union members approve the contract, classes are to resume tomorrow, the school said.

Before the strike, the full-timers' union had rejected a five-year contract offer that included a wage freeze in the first year and a one-time payment equal to 3 percent of pay in the second year. The old contract had expired Aug. 31.

The president of the strikers' union, Harvey Kushner, a criminal-justice professor, could not be immediately reached for comment.

In a statement last night, C.W. Post administrator Paul Forestell, the campus provost, said: "We look forward to renewing our collaboration with faculty to serve the academic needs of our students."

He was also immediately unavailable for comment.