6% Faculty Raises -- Only A Start...

(Sept. 19, 2006) Politicians love to say we need a highly educated work force to compete in the global economy of the 21st century.

But if we are serious about competing with brilliant minds not only in California and Massachusetts, but in India, Singapore, Malaysia and China, we must recognize that the nucleus of that highly trained work force is a well-paid university faculty that engages students and launches the springboards of their minds.

"This is the key to everything," UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser said in his recent State of the University Address. "It all starts with the faculty, and it quickly expands to staff and students."

University leaders say that UNC-Chapel Hill ranks at the 48th percentile in average faculty salary among its public and private peer institutions.

Though some turnover is inevitable at an institution with a faculty of 3,200 and salary is not the only factor, salary is overwhelmingly the reason faculty members cite when they leave Chapel Hill. The typical departing faculty member is a recently tenured associate or full professor in his or her early 40s. And among faculty who left the College of Arts and Sciences last year, the average salary gain was 51 percent.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s goal is to raise faculty salaries to the 67th percentile among its peers by 2011, and to the 80th percentile in the long term.

Moeser praises the budget state legislators adopted this year for providing a raise of 6 percent for UNC faculty system-wide.

But reaching Chapel Hill’s goal will require more – it will require a sustained effort, he said. Officials estimate that it will require $30 million above current funding levels to raise faculty salaries at Chapel Hill to the 67th percentile.

To reach that goal, Moeser asked for legislators to provide an additional 6 percent raise for faculty in each of the next five years. If the state makes that commitment, tuition increases can be “moderate and predictable,” he said.

Raises of 6 percent a year for six years pose a political challenge. Such raises are more the exception than the norm in the General Assembly, and K-12 teachers and state employees have larger numbers in their ranks statewide with which to pressure legislators. But whatever the precise formula, UNC faculty raises will be paid for through some combination of state appropriations, tuition increases and outside research grants.

UNC-CH officials say it is important to recoup investments the university makes in new faculty and to reap grant revenue that professors generate after several years.

Labs and other start-up costs typically amount to $250,000 to $500,000 for an assistant professor. And on average, each faculty member attracts $185,000 a year in research dollars.

As Moeser said, competitive salaries are critical. “In our quest for greatness, our top priority remains unchanged – to continue to strengthen support for faculty, so we can recruit and retain the very best, and provide the tools faculty need to excel,” he said.

Faculty support is now the primary focus of Citizens for Higher Education.