Officials: UNC Must Up Salaries

Despite two years of salary increases funded by a tuition increase that passed in February 2000, UNC-CH remains just as far behind its peers in terms of salaries as it was two years ago.

According to data compiled by the American Association of University Professors, UNC-CH paid full professors on average $104,700 in salary and benefits in 1998-99 and $117,900 in 2000-01.

But between 1998-99 and 2000-01, the gap between salary and benefit packages offered full professors at UNC-CH and the salary and benefits offered full professors at UNC-CH's peer institutions remained relatively unchanged. UNC-CH administrators have often named the University of Virginia, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Los Angeles and University of Michigan as UNC-CH's peer schools.

Professor James Jorgenson, a member of the University's Task Force on Tuition and chairman of the Department of Chemistry, said the two salary increases that resulted from the 1999 tuition increase were critical to faculty members. "Along with the state increase, (the tuition money) provided real relief," he said.

But UNC still does not offer competitive salaries to its faculty, Jorgenson said. "We're in about the bottom when they compare peer institutions," he said.

The task force plans to craft tuition recommendations that will go before the UNC-CH Board of Trustees at its Jan. 24 meeting.

In October 1999, the UNC-CH BOT recommended a five-year plan for tuition increases to fund faculty salaries, a time scale that was later cut to two years by the UNC-system Board of Governors.

Richard Stevens, a trustee who also sits on the tuition task force this year, said an additional tuition increase is necessary because state funding for the University has decreased in recent years.

Another factor intensifying the need for funding for faculty salaries is the projected loss of a third of the University's faculty to retirement in coming years, Stevens said. To fill these vacancies, he said, UNC-CH will have to offer competitive salaries and benefits.

"To stay in that first-class league of universities, the dollars have to come from somewhere," Stevens said.

Stevens said the University has received many federal grants and devoted significant time and effort to raising funds to help alleviate the problem of insufficient faculty salaries. "The only other place for funds is tuition," he said.

But Provost Robert Shelton said the three primary sources of University funding -- state allocations, tuition and gifts -- have not yet been exhausted.

In light of the need for more funding. Jorgenson said he would like to see a more systematic approach to tuition increases.

"What I'd like to see is some way to make tuition a predictable thing for students," he said.

But he said campus administration, the BOT and the N.C. General Assembly have different opinions on funding, making this systematic approach difficult to attain.

Stevens said students must realize that UNC-CH is not trying to correct its financial ills or take advantage of students if tuition is raised for faculty salaries.

"What we're really trying to do is finish what we started 2 1/2 years ago."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.