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NEWS
| FEBRUARY 06, 2004
Faculty/Staff
Merit pay distributed by deans
Part of promised increases will
be based on faculty performance as determined by administrators.
By Kate
Bolen
The Shorthorn Staff
Administrators say they are optimistic a 2 percent faculty salary
increase that went into effect this semester will help keep pay
here competitive with other universities. Some faculty members say
the raise is welcomed, but don’t think deans should decide
who deserves merit raises.
Tuition increases provided enough funds for the raises, interim
Provost Dana Dunn said. She said deans were asked to allocate 1.75
percent of the pool and to make recommendations for the other .25
percent for merit and equity raises.
“We wish there could have been a larger pool, but I think
everyone understands the difficulties we had getting even this amount,”
Dr. Dunn said.
Dunn cited an across-the-board 2 percent as one of the university’s
most critical needs of tuition increases being considered then.
The faculty to student ratio is already considered high and administrators
have said stagnant salaries are partly to blame for an exodus of
more than 100 tenure- and tenured-track professors in the last year
and a half.
Liberal Arts interim Dean Beth Wright said each faculty member has
an activity report that is turned in along with recommendations
from department chairs. Deans, based on this information, give merit
raises to those who are “the most deserving or had an unusually
productive year.”
Wright added that she has not received complaints from faculty,
and many people have been saying they are pleased with the increase.
Andy Anderson, Art and Art History Department chair, said the process
of distributing raises has been the norm and successful. With recent
budget cuts, however, Dr. Anderson said he is forced to offer lower
salaries and cannot control to whom raises will go.
Anderson also said a majority of his faculty have taken on extra
classes to keep programs going, and not everyone got the extra amount
for merit.
“It didn’t feel right because all of our faculty have
shared the burden, so they should all share the results,”
he said.
Art assistant professor Leighton McWilliams said the small salary
increase doesn’t bother him.
Everyone always wants more money, he said.
“And if you are really money oriented, would you be teaching
art?” he said. “So, no. I don’t have a problem
with it all.”
Biology professor John Bacon said he believes the chairs should
be in charge of distributing the money as they see fit and not the
deans. Department chairs have a better understanding of an employee’s
efforts and can decide where the raise goes, he said.
“This is such a small raise,” he said. “It is
hardly worth the effort getting disturbed about it.”
Dunn said an additional 4 percent increase will improve faculty’s
salaries in the fall.
However, Bacon said he feels differently.
“It’s better than nothing, but it still isn’t
enough,” he said.
CORRECTION
This article should not have implied that
Art and Art History Department Chair Andy Anderson was dissatisfied
with the process of allotting merit raises. Quotations were used
out of context which may have led some readers to believe Dr. Anderson
thought negatively of the process.
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