University of Hawaii faculty, represented by the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly — the exclusive bargaining agent for UH faculty members — have voted to approve a new successor contract that includes a 3.5% wage increase in the first year and a 3.79% increase in the second year.

Just last week Gov. Josh Green, UH President David Lassner and the UH Board of Regents reached a tentative agreement with the UHPA for faculty, over eight months before the current contract expires.

Faculty voted electronically on the tentative agreement from Tuesday through Thursday, with the contract receiving “overwhelmingly in favor” approval, according to a statement.

The current UH faculty contract expires June 30, and the new two-year contract, starting July 1, will run through June 2027 to align with the state’s fiscal year.

The new contract mirrors the past two years of the state’s agreement with Hawaii State Teachers Association, which represents and supports over 13,000 public school teachers statewide in collective bargaining.

“So now that we have ratified the agreement, we still obviously await a response from the Legislature,” UHPA President Karla Hayashi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “But at least we now know we have a continuing contract that will take us into June 30, 2027.”

Following the contract’s approval, faculty members now await the Legislature’s decision to approve and fund it.

Established in 1974, the UHPA has been the exclusive bargaining representative for 3,300 UH System faculty, including professors, teacher aides, librarians and researchers across 10 campuses statewide.

“I would like to thank the UHPA negotiations committee and all of those who worked so hard to get us to this point,” Hayashi said in a statement. “The faculty recognize there are many uncertainties at the national and local level and that settling early allows us to focus on teaching, research and continuing to contribute to the UH’s role as an economic engine for our state.”

Hayashi told the Star-­Advertiser that discussions for the successor contract began early — eight months before the current contract expires — due to uncertainties, including the election and transition to a new UH president.

On Thursday, Wendy Hensel, former executive vice chancellor and provost at The City University of New York, was announced to succeed Lassner as UH president.

Other local uncertainties included financial concerns, such as Green’s recently signed laws providing significant tax relief to working families. House Bill 2404, the largest income tax cut in Hawaii’s history, makes the tax code more progressive, while Senate Bill 1035 exempts medical services reimbursed by Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE from the state’s general excise tax.

“None of us knows what the implications of the tax cut the governor had signed into law earlier in the summer,” Hayashi said. “We don’t know yet what responsibility, in terms of money, the state of Hawaii has in relation to the wildfire in Lahaina just over a year ago. So those are all pretty big unknowns for us, and we were hoping that we would be able to reach some kind of an agreement ahead of all of those questions being answered, in order to give us stability so that we can continue to do the work that we are engaged in.”

On the national level, Hayashi expressed concern over the uncertainty of who will be elected president, particularly for public school teachers.

“There’s been a great deal of information about Project 2025, which is closely associated with supporters of former President Donald Trump,” Hayashi said. “There are some significant elements in there that apply to various issues, especially education.”

Project 2025 is a series of conservative policy proposals developed by hundreds of high-profile conservatives, which the participants hope Trump will adopt if elected.

The policy suggestions cover topics from foreign affairs to education, with a central focus on eliminating the Department of Education, a move Trump has endorsed.

“Public education has been a given for decades in the United States, and this applies whether it’s K through 12, whether it’s higher education,” Hayashi said. “Public education has been seen for many, many years as a public good, and now we have a candidate who is making statements about getting rid of the Department of Education. Well, what would that do to public education if that came to fruition?”