The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, August 24, 1989, Page 5, Image 5

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    I Raises increase competition i
UNL hopes to shrink salary gap I
ny wimam u. uaroma
Staff Reporter
Approved faculty raises should make the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln more com
petitive when hiring professors, helping pre
pare the institution for a predicted faculty
shortage, a UNL official said.
Robert Furgason, vice chancellor for aca
demic affairs, said the raises UNL faculty will
receive this year are intended to close the
salary gap between UNL and its peer institu
tions.
Faculty members at UNL received an aver
age 11.5 percent raise for fiscal year 1989
1990.
Furgason said comparatively low raises
before last year’s 11 percent raise caused UNL
to “slip behind fairly significantly’’ in faculty
I salaries.
UNL faculty received raises of 3 percent
during the 1985-1986 and 1986-1987 fiscal
years, and 4 percent during the 1987-1988
fiscal year. During the same lime, UNL’s peer
institutions gave an average 6 percent raise.
The 11.5 percent merit-based raise is nearly
double the estimated 6.7 percent raise expected
at UNL’s peer institutions. Furgason said the
raise must be at that high level to make up for
the lost ground during past years.
Furgason said UNL already is becoming
more competitive with its peers as a result of
the salary initiative.
Faculty morale in general is very good, he
said, which keeps current faculty members
from looking elsewhere. UNL’s first priority is
to keep faculty, Furgason said.
Other evidence of increased competitive
ness, he said, is in the hiring success this year.
John Peters, dean of the College of Arts &
Sciences, said he has hired 40 new faculty
members. Peters said he was especially im
pressed with the qualifications of these new
faculty members. He said he believed the fac
ulty raises contributed to their hiring.
Furgason said that in past years, UNL often
had to hire its third choice for a position. But
this year the rate of jobs accepted by UNL’s
First choice is close to two-thirds, he said.
This is significant, Furgason said, because a
university’s hiring success determines its fu
ture. The faculty hired now will lessen the
impact of the predicted faculty shortage in the
next decade, he said.
Furgason said a faculty shortage would
cause very intense competition for the best
qualified professors. When the faculty short
age arrives, he said, it will be much more
difficult to catch up with peer institutions and
be competitive for the best.
‘‘I think what is very, very important is
posturing for the future - getting in the posi
tion to be able to stay competitive for the
future,” Furgason said.
All raises received by UNL faculty mem
bers lire merit-based, Furgason said. Merit, he
said, is determined differently in each college
but generally is based on teaching perform
ance, research and service.
Furgason said this year’s raise is the second
step in a three-year plan intended to bring UNL
faculty salaries up to a level near that of peer
institutions.
Gov, Kay Orr and legislative leaders dem
onstrated a commitment to the university,
Furgason said, by approving the three-year
initiative, which includes another 11.5 percent
raise for next year.
This year’s 11.5 percent raise cost $7.3
million, Furgason said, but figures on how
many faculty members received raises still arc
pending.
He said Chancellor Martin Massengale
agreed to use 3 percent of the 11.5 percent to
resolve inequity issues, such as salary com
pression and salary inversion.
Salary compression happens when the sal
ary of an entry-level faculty member is unusu
ally close to that of an established faculty
member.
Salary inversion happens when the starting
salary of an entry-level faculty member is
above the salary of an established faculty
member.
John Benson, director of Institutional Re
search, Planning and Fiscal Analysis, said the
UNL staff members also received a raise. The
staff is divided into two classifications: mana
gerial/profcssional and office service/clerical.
An average 8.22 percent raise was given to
the managerial/professional staff with 2.81
percent allotted for equity adjustments.
The office service/clcrical staff received an
average 10.43 percent raise with 4 percent for
equity adjustments. I
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