University staff is reviewing hundreds of contracts after UNC general administration said N.C. State is not in compliance with system salary policy.

The review stems from Provost Larry Nielsen’s decision to give the state’s first lady, Mary Easley, an 88-percent pay raise or $79,700 increase in pay — taking her from $90,300 to $170,000.

A committee, which Chancellor James Oblinger is heading, will review University procedures that might not be compliant with the UNC system’s salary policy, which states that the Board of Governors must approve any salary increases of 15 percent or more and that are $10,000 or more of an increase from initial pay, with some exceptions.

Human Resources will be reviewing 822 contracts from the last year alone, in addition to contracts written in the past six years, to determine which of those contracts should be sent to the board for approval.

Oblinger refused to comment after several attmepts to reach him. His assistant said he would not comment until the committee is formed.

The University, according to Nielsen, misinterpreted the policy.

“Last year, 07 – 08, we’ve looked back at how many fixed term contracts we wrote, and we wrote 822 contracts at N.C. State. So we have to look at each one of those contracts and determine how many of them meet this,” Nielsen said.

Easley’s position

Nielsen said he did not initially think that Easley’s raise required the Board of Governor’s approval because he was hiring her for what he considered a new position. However, her title remains the same.

“I have the authority to hire so we just announced that we hired her [to the Board of Trustees in 2005] … At the end of May, that contract expired. So, [the University and Easley] discussed and offered her a new contract — a fixed term contract,” Nielsen said.

Board of Trustees Chairman McQueen Campbell was on the board when Easley was hired.

“It was briefly discussed, but I can’t talk about any details [due to personnel matters],” he said. “The board as a whole has been very supportive and very pleased with the work she has done.”

Easley’s previous duties, Nielsen said, included running the Milennium Seminar Series and teaching three classes per year. In the new position, she will only be required to teach two classes but must continue with the seminar series and start as director of the new center for public safety leadership.

The policy does allow exceptions, which do not require board approval, Nielsen said, including “if there was a substantial increase in duty, a change in duty,” he said.

In Easley’s case, Nielsen said, the University hasn’t reviewed her contract relative to the board policy and the board hasn’t made any judgement relative to the policy.

“They’re responding at this point to the dollar value, and I can guarantee you we will submit Mrs. Easley’s to them because it is an issue,” he said.

But Nielsen said this has not changed his mind.

“I believe that it was a great decision to hire Mrs. Easley three years ago … and I am completely convinced that hiring her again for another term is a great asset for the University as well, and I think the salary that we are paying her is appropriate,” he said.

According to Board of Governors spokesperson Joni Worthington, the board doesn’t expect to get 800 contracts to review, rather just “a relatively small subset.”

The policy, Worthington said, will have to be clarified to prevent this from happening again.

“All campuses will have to verify that they are in fact abiding by the policy,” she said.

Campbell said the only way to avoid this situation from occurring again is to be more specific, and that the BOT has not had to make any decisions about the matter yet since the decision to review contracts wasn’t made till after the July 8 meeting.

He said the trustees will deal with whatever comes their way at their September meeting.

“The board is in support of the provost and the chancellor to keep the first lady as a part of our N.C. State faculty,” Campbell said.

Where is the money coming from

The money for Easley’s raise is coming from both tuition and appropriated state money.

“There’s a budget for the University, which is determined by the state, which includes tuition dollars and direct appropriations from tax dollars,” Nielsen said. “That all comes in as one big budget lump to us.”

Nielsen said he looked at the salaries that he thought were most comparable to Easley’s experience, what he expected her to do before and what he expects her to do now, and decided on the 88.26 percent increase.

“That number seemed to be a good number based on my experience — on my sense of things,” he said.

Even with the raise, Nielsen said he doesn’t think Easley is being paid a comparable salary to the University’s peer institutions.

The General Administration’s goal is to get faculty salaries up to the 80th percentile, and Nielsen said NCSU’s salaries range from the 40th – 50th percentiles.

“We’re nowhere near that … but we may be in the 40th to 50th percentile. In general, our faculty are paid less than our goal for them, so no, I don’t think we’re paid as well as we should be,” he said.

The Governor’s Office refused to grant an interview with the first lady, but did release her statement, which included the following: I appreciate the support that I have received from President Bowles, Chancellor Oblinger, the trustees and the entire N.C. State community and I am committed now more than ever to work hard to make this new Center for Public Safety Leadership and Strategic Legal Partnership Initiative the best in the nation.”

One class

Will Quick, a graduate student in business administration, took Easley’s public policy law class as a senior.

Quick was also student body president and Board of Trustees member at the time she was hired.

“I’m sure the University put in a lot of thought to pay and the provost’s office did what they thought they needed to, to keep her on staff,” Quick said.

Her class, Quick said, was one he enjoyed.

“She took our advice on what we wanted to count the most [for our grades],” she said.

According to Quick, she brought in a lot of speakers like former Speaker of the House Dan Blue and a former Supreme Court Judge.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of what you would consider traditional lecture,” he said.