Second class coaches

The usual grumble on campus is that athletic coaches get, if anything, too many goodies—but that’s not usually true for non-faculty assistant coaches, particularly in Pennsylvania, where between fourteen state-owned universities and the union that represents some 360 non-faculty coaches have broken down.

The state is proposing a three percent salary increase and merit pay—the union opposes the latter.  The coaches also will for the first time be required to pay a portion of their health care costs. The Associated Press quotes a union official: “The (system) is offering coaches less than what every other state union has already obtained through contract negotiations. . . . The coaches . . . are being treated as second-class citizens.”