COLUMBUS — The votes are in, and faculty unionization passed Wednesday, 391-to-293.

The State Employment Relations Board announced the confidential mail-in ballot results Wednesday afternoon following a tally at its headquarters in Columbus in front of representatives of the Faculty Association and the administration.

The polling period was held from Sept. 28 to Oct. 12, when ballots were secretly mailed to more than 800 eligible full-time faculty members, who then cast their votes to SERB.

Following the announcement, the FA celebration began and some members shed tears of joy.

“The victory is the culmination of thousands of hours of hard work by dozens of volunteers over a two-year period,” said David Jackson, FA president. “Faculty are eager to take a more active role in shaping the direction of the University and helping to solve its problems.”

The pending faculty union will not only affect the University, but other universities statewide and beyond, Jackson said.

“We hope this victory inspires faculty on other campuses in Ohio to pursue a similar count,” he said.

The vote followed a two-year campaign by the FA, a chapter of the American Association of University Professors, although this is the third time the University has voted on faculty unionization. The University now joins seven other Ohio four-year public institutions whose faculty unions are affiliated with the AAUP.

Once the votes have been officially certified by SERB, the next step will be transitioning the FA from an advocacy organization into a collective bargaining organization before spring semester begins, FA Secretary Candace Archer said.

Faculty members can then begin contract negotiations with the University as a collective unit concerning salaries, benefits and workload.

“We encourage faculty members to join the association so they have more say in the process,” Archer said. “The more voices we hear, the more we will be able to shape an organization that meets the needs of all faculty. We need to ask faculty what it is that they would like to see addressed in a contract, so it will take some time.”

Archer, a representative for the faculty, said the lengthy vote tally was nerve-racking, but it was worth seeing its exciting, positive result firsthand.

“It’s exciting to see so many people from different disciplines across campus to come together in this remarkable way,” Archer said. “We’re incredibly excited, particularly because it was a resounding victory and is clearly what the faculty want — more power at the University and the ability to shape BGSU into something better.”

Sean FitzGerald, the University’s general counsel and representative for the administration, said the negotiation process will take place in the near future, in adherence with SERB guidelines.

“We’re certainly grateful for all faculty who voted and took an interest in the election and thank SERB for running an efficient election count today,” FitzGerald said. “We’re certainly disappointed and hoped the outcome had been different, but it was an energetic campaign on both sides, and I’m now looking forward to working with the faculty union on a contract that works best for the entire campus community under SERB rules.”

In a e-mail released to faculty members, University President Carol Cartwright said the administration will keep faculty updated as negotiations move forward.

“While we would have preferred a different outcome, we respect the process and its result,” she said. “We must now commit to continuing the sound stewardship of the University in these difficult economic times. We have a responsibility to negotiate a contract that is in the best interest of Bowling Green State University.”

Prior disagreements between the FA and administration will not affect post-election decision making, Jackson said.

“We’re all in this together,” Jackson said. “Administrators are not the enemy and we look forward to sitting down with them to continue the hard work of shared governance.”