Faculty members have expressed a variety of opinions about their salaries after Chancellor Emmert’s recent announcement of the funding for a 3 to 4 percent raise.
Many professors and instructors agreed they never can argue with a raise.
“If I get [the raise], I would be very appreciative,” said Claire Advokat, psychology professor. “I understand that many states are actually cutting back their funding.”
Dominique Homberger, a biological sciences professor, not only was happy with the raise, but also believed it to be a necessary action.
“Regular pay raises for the faculty and all other University employees are necessary,” Homberger said. “The recent pay raise for faculty and staff is part of the program of regular pay raises that was started four years ago.”
Several faculty members said they hope the raise will make the University more appealing to potential employees.
“[The raise] is probably helping with recruitment and also retention, because if you’re here for a long time without a raise, other places tend to look pretty attractive,” said Laurie Anderson, geology and geophysics associate professor. “So I think the retention issue is also important.”
Susan Brown, a mass communication instructor, also believes higher salaries will help recruit new, impressive faculty members and keep the good ones at the University.
“I think the reason [new professors] come is not so much the money, but the people,” Brown said. “But, if we had the money to pay higher salaries in addition to that, it would be great.”
The raise did not dispel many faculty members’ concerns about the chancellor’s disproportionate salary, however.
“I know a lot of people are upset that the chancellor is making a disproportionate amount of money compared to the faculty,” Brown said. “If we bring our chancellor up to the average and can’t bring everyone up to the average, then there’s going to be complaints.”
While Frank Anselmo, French studies associate professor, said he admires the chancellor, he believes Emmert did the University a disservice when he stressed the strong points of the University to avoid taking heat about his own salary. This might have given taxpayers and voters the idea additional funding for higher education is not needed.
Some faculty members said the concerns about the chancellor’s raise had nothing to do with a faculty raise.
“The concerns about the recent disproportionate and stratospheric pay raise to the chancellor were never about faculty pay,” Homberger said. “The concerns that were voiced by the faculty centered on the current inadequate funding for students, graduate assistants and the infrastructure of the University itself.”