Youngstown State’s faculty union approved a contract with the university Sunday, ending its strike the night before classes were scheduled to begin, said Ron Cole, manager of News and Information Services at Youngstown State. The Board of Trustees Internal Affairs Committee approved the contract Saturday.

Faculty at Youngstown State voted to strike last Tuesday, the same day Kent State settled negotiations between the university administration and the Kent State Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

The Youngstown State faculty union began its strike at 12:01 a.m. last Tuesday, according to a press release from the university. Cole said all 390 of the university’s full-time faculty are a part of the union.

The faculty union rejected a previously proposed contract calling for faculty to contribute to their health insurance premiums, according to the press release. Youngstown State did not require their employees to do this in previous years.

Health care costs were also a hot spot in the negotiations between Kent State and the AAUP-KSU, said Cheryl Casper, president of the union.

Four hundred Youngstown State employees, from groundskeepers to secretaries to computer programmers, also went on strike Aug. 16, Cole said. No agreement has been reached between the staff workers and the university.

Contact administration reporter Rachel Abbey at [email protected].