Allocating a portion of tuition increases to raising faculty salaries is a tough sell. As the administration seeks the required approval of the Board of Governors and the General Assembly, students should try to understand the University’s need.
Not the least of many valid reasons is, as Vice Chancellor and Provost Bruce Carney pointed out, showing faculty that the University is attuned to the impacts of the freeze placed on all state employees’ salaries in early 2009.
With imminent tuition increases, students may reject any proposed increase out of hand, especially one that comes directly from their tuition.
But students should realize that the quality of their education is directly related to the quality of their professors.
By extension, faculty salaries, too, inform the quality of students’ classroom experience. This is not an area in which it is in anyone’s best interest to start cutting corners.
It is crucial that faculty not feel as though they have been forgotten, and, moreover, that incentives remain for them to teach and research to the best of their ability. Merit-based raises provide reassurance that their efforts do not go unnoticed — or without reward.
Furthermore, in order to continue to attract academia’s best, UNC’s salaries must be competitive. The University needs to demonstrate that it is doing its utmost to ensure this, despite the statewide salary freeze.
The proposed $2.5 million increase would be distributed among departments and awarded to deserving faculty members at each department’s discretion. This would reassure faculty that there is in fact a connection between the quality of their teaching and whether or not they get a raise.
Students should see the need for this increase and understand how, in the long run, it will work in their favor. With students, faculty, and administration behind the proposal — and with the collective interest of these parties in mind — the BOG and the legislature will have an easier time understanding the need for the proposed increase.
