Members of the union representing 34,000 academic and professional employees of the State University of New York ratified this week a new, four-year contract that provides a 13 percent salary increase over the life of the contract.

Phillip H. Smith, president of United University Professions, said the agreement, which was reached with the state back in December, was approved by 97.5 percent of the union membership -- 10,297 members voted in favor of the pact, 249 voted against it.

Voting took place over a 30-day period beginning in February, after the union's negotiating team traveled around the state explaining the new contract to each union chapter, said union spokesman Don Feldstein. Voting concluded Wednesday and the vote was announced Thursday.

The new contract is to run retroactively from July 2, 2007 through July 1, 2011 and calls for 3 percent raises in the contract's first three years and a 4 percent raise beginning in 2010.

"The overwhelming vote in favor of the agreement is a clear sign our members agree that this is a good contract," Smith said in a statement.

Michelle McDonald, a spokeswoman for the Governor's Office of Employee Relations, said the salary increases were in line with other contracts negotiated by the state.

Other benefits in the contract include an increase in what's called the location stipend for, among other places, the downstate region, which includes New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester counties. The stipend, which recognizes a higher cost of living in some areas of the state, would rise in stages for employees at SUNY campuses in the region from the current $1,302 up to $3,026 next year, union and state officials said.