Get ready. The cost of a college education in Pennsylvania might be on the way up.

After 18 months of negotiations that included the threat of the system's first-ever strike, unionized faculty at the 14 state-owned universities are hoping that on Wednesday the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education board ratifies its four-year contract proposal.

The most controversial element of the contract has been the need to raise salaries without causing significant tuition hikes, said state system spokesman Kenn Marshall.

Related: List of salaries at Pennsylvania's state-owned universities for 2013

The deal calls for salary increases of 11.5 percent for senior faculty and 19 percent for junior faculty over the four years of the contract, with junior faculty members getting the higher increases. Faculty members now receive salaries ranging between $44,795 and $107,870 a year.

The contract, which covers 5,500 faculty members, freezes pay for the first year and provides for base salary raises of 1 percent in the second and third years and 2 percent in the fourth year.

In addition to those raises, the contract would allow incremental step increases in the second through fourth years of the deal. Senior faculty would get 2.5 percent raises each year of the final three years of the contract. Junior faculty would get 5 percent raises each year of the final three years of the contract.

If approved by the board, the contract is retroactive and replaces a pact that expired June 30, 2011. That means the deal would already be in its second year.

Members of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties overwhelmingly approved the contract last month, with 95 percent of voters supporting it.

"The economy didn't bounce back the way we thought it would, so we made concessions based on that," union spokeswoman Lauren Gutshall said.

Marshall said that because system officials were involved in establishing the parameters of the deal, the endorsement of the 20-member board is likely. The system board will hold a special meeting Wednesday to consider approval of the agreement.

The exact details of the contract have not been disclosed. What effect the contract, if it's approved, might have on tuition rates for students or pension costs for taxpayers in the future is not known.

"The governor has said he's keeping state funding level this year, so we'll be looking for ways to reduce costs," Marshall said.

If a tuition hike is needed, he said, the board will try to keep it as low as possible.

"We always try our best to make sure we offer affordable education, but we must also provide a quality education," he said.

Gutshall, the union representative, said higher wages aren't to blame for the balancing act the board must perform.

While the union has recently come under fire from some state legislators who are pressuring universities to justify faculty salaries, Gutshall said the real problem starts in Harrisburg.

"When the system was set up, about 67 percent of our revenue came from the state," she said. "Over the last 30 years, money from the state was taken away, and now tuition makes up two-thirds of our revenue."

RELATED: Cost at state-owned universities hover around national average

Although wages dominated contract negotiations, the deal included a few other details. Marshall, the board spokesman, said the two groups were able to compromise on some cost-saving initiatives.

Faculty will pay a higher share of the bill for some health care costs.

They also will be paid $25 per student to teach an online course, and will no longer receive separate payments to write the curriculum for an online course. In exchange for those concessions, faculty got a voice in dictating class size.

Gutshall said another money-saving effort agreed to by the union includes a retirement incentive of up to $30,000 for retirement-eligible faculty.

However, there was one issue that wasn't cleared up in the contract. The state system wants to offer future hires a defined-contribution retirement plan.

Besides Millersville, faculty affected by this contract teach at Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities.
Click here for a complete list of employee salary information statewide.

kshuey@lnpnews.com