Faculty Salaries And Other Critical Needs
Barbara Altmann, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of French
June 7, 2013
United Academics put a salary counterproposal on the bargaining table this week showing the faculty union hasn’t altered its position that the University of Oregon should spend more on salaries for bargaining unit members, regardless of other critical campus needs.
The University has offered bargaining unit members across-the-board and merit pay raises averaging 10.3% percent for tenure-track and tenured faculty and 11.37% for NTTFs. The NTTF figure includes $486,000 ($640,000 with benefits calculated) that would be set aside to address non-tenure-track faculty salary floors.
In total, the University is willing to invest an additional $13.3 million a year for faculty compensation over FY 14 and FY 15.
The union, however, wants more.
The latest United Academics’ proposal calls for approximately a 15.2% increase in pay for tenure-track and tenured faculty and approximately 19.2% for NTTFs. That represents between $20.7 and $22.1 million by FY 15, or between $ 7.3 and $8.7 million more per year than the University’s compensation proposal.
Both sides at the bargaining table readily acknowledge that the University has limited resources and many needs – including hiring new faculty, maintaining the UO library collection and services, upgrading the technology infrastructure, building and equipping classrooms, and adding advisors and counselors for students. There’s no disagreement that faculty excellence must be recognized and rewarded, and that improving faculty salaries is a major priority for the University’s limited funds.
The University is committed to achieving the goal of bringing faculty salaries in line with our peer institutions and to accomplishing that goal in a manner that preserves and protects our financial integrity and viability
Since the beginning of negotiations about six months ago, the University has articulated three basic goals for the outcome of that process:
- Enhance the university’s attractiveness to current and future students, faculty and staff.
- Encourage and reward the highest quality teaching, research and community service.
- Maintain a solid and sustainable financial structure.
Faculty compensation is critically important, but we cannot meet all those goals if we ignore other critical needs.
