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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1987)
Low salaries, poor morale besiege other universities By Dorothy Pritchard Senior Reporter The University of Nebraska Lincoln is not alone in its problems with faculty salaries. Several land-grant universities are experiencing similar problems with low salaries or benefits, low morale, high turnover, and a loss of the best faculty members to the private sector. Gerald Brouder, vice provost of the University of Missouri-Co lumbia, said low salaries there make faculty feel “undervalued” and lead to high turnover. “In many cases we’re losing our best and our brightest to industry and other universities,” Brouder said. The university is becoming a training ground, he said. “After tenure, they’re incredibly market able.” In many cases, assistant profes sors arc hired at a salary higher or only slightly lower than those at the higher rank of associate profes sor, Brouder said. That can cause dissatisfaction among faculty members. But it is necessary, he said, to keep salaries competitive. Although faculty members arc “not solely after the buck,” Brouder said, the feeling of being undervalued has led to increased faculty turnover. To provide more money for faculty members who do research, Brouder said, Missouri gives some of the grant money for a specific research project back to the re searcher. That way, instead of re turning the entire grant to the general operating budget, the re searcher can buy new lab equip ment or hire a teaching assistant. Robert Furgason, UNL vice chancellor for academic affairs, said UNL docs the same thing. It’s just one of several techniques used to attract and keep facullv. UNL Salaries arc the lowest among the American Association of Universities’ land-grant institu tions. Walter Touscy, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Illinois-Cham paign, said that although salaries there arc the highest of the 11 universities in the group — about $54,000 for a full professor— the benefit package is lower than at the other institutions. In addition, the university received no increase from the Illinois Legislature this year. Touscy said that although the University of Illinois had “three or four" really good years of appro priations, no increase this year has hurt morale. “The morale is not particularly good," he said. “It’s always a matter of ‘What have you done for me lately?’" Faculty turnover has not been a problem at the University of Illi nois, Touscy said. Since 1969, the university has lost about 3 or 4 percent of the faculty to other uni versities. “We don’t (have a problem with turnover) now, but give us one more year of level salaries and we will," he said. Touscy also said the high sala ries at the University of Illinois often mask its poor benefit pack age. Benefits at the university arc only 12 percent of faculty mem bers’ total salary, the lowest per coinage in the 1 i schools in the AAIJ group. UNL’s benefit pack age is 18 percent of the salary. The highest benefit packages are at the University of Mary land-Col lege Park and the University of Minne sota — 25 percent of the salary. “High cash masks the low bene fits,” Touscy said. “Once you throw in benefits, some schools will pass over us.” Margaret Pickett, budget offi cer at Iowa State University and assistant to ISU’s vice president for business and finance, said offi cials there face problems similar to those at UNL. T think our turnover is not necessarily any higher... but more senior faculty arc going,” Pickett said While some faculty members leave for jobs in private industry, she said, it is more “disturbing to lose them to other universities.” This year’s ISU faculty pay increase of 12 percent will help combat part of the problem, Pick ett said. Non-resident student tuition at Iowa Stale increased 20 percent this year, she said, and resident tuition went up 12 percent. The tuition increase will help raise faculty salaries this year, Pickett said, but the problem will take some time to correct. "There is a problem, but we're taking steps to reverse that," Pick ett said. Pickett said that although Ne braska considers Iowa as part of its peer group, Iowa does not compare its salaries and programs to those at Nebraska and some of the other AAU land-grant universities. Iowa ranks last in salaries in what it considers its peer group, which includes the University of Califor nia-Davis, Texas A&M and North Carolina Slate. “Yes, I would say there is a morale problem,” she said. “But there is no mass exodus.” A spokesman for the University of Wisconsin-Madison said fac ulty morale is “reasonable,” but other problems — like the intru sion of the state legislature into university programs — have low ered faculty morale. Hove said Wisconsin received S8 million from the Legislature a couple of years ago in a “catch-up exercise” for faculty salaries. It .. rmnrAnnntiAn W4i:> « V UIUUOIV uppiv/pi .m.w.., Hove said, but a 2 percent increase from the Legislature this year and another 2 percent next year will not keep Wisconsin’s salaries abreast of other universities’. UNL’s Furgason said one of his biggest concerns is the increasing number of faculty members who will retire in the next five to 10 years. Graduate schools across the country arc turning out too few students to satisfy the demand for faculty, he said. “1 consider the salary issue to be a very serious thing confronting the University of Ncbraska-Lin coln and die suite of Nebraska,” Furgason said. “That trend just must be reversed. It must be.” Although some schools in UNL’s peer group have increased tuition and earmarked the extra revenue for salaries, Furgason said, UNL students already have done their share. For the seven years between the 1978-79 and 1983-86 school years, the increase in suite tax dollars to the university was 48 percent. In the same time period, tuition increased 92.9 per cent. “How much more should you ask from the students?” Furgason said. “It’s the stale that has been lagging. You can increase tuition, but you won’t solve the problem. Union's Burger King manager anticipates no harm to business from student center BUSINESS from Page 1 students or faculty members may have for services they want in the building. The Interfraternity Council has sug gcstcd meeting rooms, he saia. “I’ve always wanted to do a project on or near campus,” Hunter said. The private see tor always has made many services available to the univer ' — c/ Students injured by snowballs SNOWBALL from Page 1 The exact number of students treated at the University Health Center was unavailable Monday night. Lt. Lyle Roberts of the Lincoln police department said no students were arrested as of 11 p.m. Monday, but arrest would be made if necessary. No one was arrested Sunday night, according to Lt. Ken Cauble of the UNL police department. Windows proved to be a tempting target for students Sunday night. A window on the west side of the south entrance to the Walter Scott Engineering Center was broken, caus ing $300 in damage, Cauble said. Seven windows were broken in the Delta Upsilon house on 1548 Vine St. S600 in damage resulted from the broken windows, Baird said. Some broken car windows were also re ported, he said. A window was also broken in Room 244 in the southwest corner of the second floor of Abel Hall. Jay McCormick, one of the resi dents of the room, said he expected something to happen since “we trashed a bunch of frat houses last year.” McCormick said the window was broken at about 11 p.m. Sunday. Monday night several windows of Greek houses also were broken. UNL police estimated that Sunday’s fight started around 9 p.m. Sunday and ended about 2 a m. Mon day. Caublc said the police tried to break up Sunday’s fight at about 10 p.m. I hey told some students that it “wasn’t a good idea,” and thought the disturbance had ended, but “then it started up again,” Caublc said. UNL police warned some students that they could be cited for creating a disturbance, he said. About midnight Sunday Lincoln police closed off 16th and 17th streets between R and Vine streets and Vine street between 14th and 17th sircets, according to Capt. Jim Baird of the Lincoln police department. Baird said he did not know if clos ing off the streets posed a problem to students returning from vacation. The worst snowball fight occurred in 1981 when 10 people were arrested according to police reports. Last year, more than S2,0()0 in damage was reported. UNL Is On A Roll 1 .J. ( innanion s will bring your And Jo help prepare you for finals, get » « favorite cinnamon rolls every a FREE cinnamon roll t his Wednesda\ Wednesday and Thursday to ltith and Thursday, and Vine St. from 8:00 a.in. to * v 11:00 a.m. Come Hear What All The Talk Is About! SIDEKICK is back at Chesterfield s! Dance to great 60’s and 7()’s music as SIDEKICK rocks you this Thursday and Friday! NO COVER CHARGE "One of the best bands I've ever heard,"sez Brady Chesterfield’s.. .13th & Que HCMHOIHO! 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