Board prioritizes faculty retention

UNC Board of Trustees Chairman Wade Hargrove said faculty retention needs to be a priority for the board going forward.

At last week’s board meeting, Hargrove asked Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bruce Carney to conduct an annual study on faculty retention rates — which have decreased since a statewide freeze on public employee salaries was instated in 2009.

Former Student Body Vice President Zealan Hoover presented findings from his own study on faculty retention rates to the board.

Hoover worked with other student leaders last year to develop cost-efficient ways to keep faculty at UNC. His recommendations to the board include working to improve interaction between students and faculty.

The board discussed the possibility of tuition breaks for faculty members’ family, which UNC does not currently offer.

“It hurts us in recruitment compared to private universities, but politically I think it’s very unlikely to change,” Chancellor Holden Thorp said.

Thorp said the pay freeze on UNC faculty’s salaries has given other universities an opportunity to take advantage of state universities with budget cuts.

“It’s not surprising that external offers have gone up,” Thorp said.

The report asked faculty whether factors, such as a competitive counter-offer, would convince them to stay at UNC.

Hoover said faculty members are concerned that increased administrative responsibilities are keeping them from seeking research funding and opportunities.

“This issue is not going away,” Hoover said.

The board also indicated approval for the planning of a fundraising campaign proposed by Matt Kupec, vice chancellor for University advancement. The board asked Kupec to present a formal presentation at its next meeting in July.

“This is what the board is all about,” said John Townsend, vice-chair for the budget, finance and audit committee. “If we’re going to do this, let’s do it really well.”

The most recent fundraising campaign, Carolina First, ended the year before Thorp was hired as chancellor. The Bicentennial Campaign was the fundraising campaign before Carolina First.

Kupec proposed forming a team of 15 to 20 people to plan the campaign, and said the University is on pace for its second-best fundraising year, with more than $271 million raised so far in the 2012 fiscal year.

“We have a serious bounce in our step,” Kupec said.

The best year, 2007, was the final year of the Carolina First campaign.

Thorp said UNC was one of the first public universities to take on a private fundraising campaign on the scale of Carolina First and views Kupec’s proposal as a chance for the University to establish a standard for fundraising.

In his development report, Kupec announced a 9 percent increase in new commitments compared to last year, but a 3 percent decrease in gifts received and number of donors.

Karol Kain Gray, vice chancellor for finance and administration, made a presentation to the committee about the University’s major sources of revenue.

Gray said the University’s revenue doubles about every decade.
In her presentation, Gray said that state appropriations have decreased from 46 percent to 20 percent of the University’s revenue since 1985.

Hargrove said tuition increases have been necessary to compensate for this decline in relative state appropriations.

At the board meeting, Lee May, associate dean and director for academic advising, said UNC has set new records for the percentage of students who become seniors within four years and the percentage of incoming freshmen who return for their sophomore year at the academic affairs/student affairs joint committee meeting.

May said the University has the highest graduation rate of UNC-system schools.

Bobbi Owen, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, then proposed that UNC hire an additional 10 academic advisors.

“We don’t tell them what to do but we rather provide them with options,” Owen said.

UNC currently has 26 academic advisors assigned to an average of almost 600 students. The national median for public universities is less than 300.

“At Duke University, they assign no more than 75 students to one academic advisor,” Owen said.

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