In an effort to prevent MSU falling to last place in faculty compensation rates among Big Ten schools, the Faculty Senate approved a relatively high faculty merit and market pool increases for the 2015-2016 school year on Tuesday afternoon.
MSU is currently ranked 13 out of 14 in the Big Ten in faculty compensation, and the University Committee on Faculty Affairs presented its recommendations to the Faculty Senate on Tuesday, suggesting a four percent general merit pool increase, between one and two percent higher than the rest of the Big Ten.
The merit pool exists to reward faculty members for good performance.
The four percent increase will at least maintain MSU’s position and prevent the university from sliding lower, according to a memo sent to The Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs June Youatt from UCFA chair Dr. Phylis Floyd.
Floyd said at the meeting financial difficulties had been the reason for MSU’s slip, as it had ranked two positions higher for the 2003-2004 school year, and has gotten as high as eighth since then. Based off a more stable financial situation, UCFA recommends this as a good time for an increase in the merit pool.
“There is also a concern about the long-term impact on faculty compensation with the ongoing erosion of university-funded health benefits,” the memo read, including a number of changes to faculty healthcare and the implications of the Affordable Care Act.
UCFA also recommended a raise of the Provost’s Market Adjustment Pool of 1.25 percent. This pool is a separate pool managed by the provost’s office for things like a supplemental raise to exceptional faculty, or adjusting the salary of an employee possibly hired with too low a salary, Floyd said.
MSU also ranks at the bottom salaries for assistant professors, according to an attachment to the agenda, something a Faculty Senate member brought up as a concern, since if an assistant professor merits a raise for three consecutive raises, they would be ineligible for a fourth year.
Youatt, commenting on what she thought President Lou Anna K Simon might say, said that chairs are hiring them at unacceptably low rates.
“Particularly for assistant professors, we should be hiring them at a higher rate than we see here,” she said.
