Baby boomers’ retirements are creeping up while the national economic downturn is slowly getting worse. And Chancellor Michael Martin fears that could lead to salary compressions worsening at public higher education institutions.”Every university is facing salary compression,” Martin said. “Assistant professors are sneaking up on and sometimes even passing up some of the more veteran faculty.”Salary compression is the phenomenon whereby lower-level faculty pay increases. This closes the gap between salaries of veteran professors and salaries of lower-level faculty.If the baby boomers retire en masse, Martin said the demand for junior faculty will “jump so fast” that the compression will worsen and lead to an inversion problem — where assistant professors are earning significantly more than full professors.After returning from a conference for university presidents and chancellors in Chicago, Martin said salary compression was a big topic of conversation.”What are we going to do to preserve the core of the University in light of the fact that there are likely to be a lot more retirees than new entrants into the job market?” Martin asked.He said the retirements are likely to affect high-demand areas – like science, technology, engineering and mathematics – more radically than others.”We’re going to face some fairly serious constraints [from the economic downturn] across higher education in respect to how we spend money,” Martin said.If anything affects the University’s budget, Martin said it will have the profound impact on how faculty are financed and supported.”It’s just in the math,” he said. “If we face a downturn, it’s likely to have some ripple effect, in one way or another, on the compensation to faculty and staff.”The University spends 77.6 percent of its $451 million unrestricted budget on personnel, according to the Office of Budget and Planning.”Hopefully we can avoid anything Draconian,” Martin said. “I’m confident we can, but I’m a realist as well.”Martin said salary compression is “very tricky” to deal with, and he would hate for it to become a demoralizing factor among the faculty.”I wish we had the capacity not to face the compression issue,” Martin said. “Hopefully we will have the means to do better, but I don’t want to make a promise given the current economic situation.”In an Oct. 24 interview, Bob Kuhn, associate vice chancellor of Budget and Planning, said the University does not guarantee faculty members a salary increase.”Just because you’ve been here a long time, does that mean you need to be the highest paid?” he asked. “The answer is ‘no.'”Martin said the University doesn’t make those guarantees because it can’t.”On the other hand, we need to always be cognizant of the fact that the faculty who’ve been here a long time have been here a long time for a reason,” he said.Giving faculty members a reason to retire or move to another University is the last thing Martin said he wants to do.”I don’t want to send the message to our senior faculty that we don’t appreciate them … because we need to keep them around for a while longer,” Martin said.—-Contact J.J. Alcantara at [email protected]