Ohio University President Roderick McDavis and 27 other upper-level administrators have agreed to a salary freeze for the fiscal year beginning July, the details of which were discussed at last night's Faculty Senate meeting.
The university will save about $150,000 by eliminating salary raises for McDavis, his cabinet and deans at all OU campuses in fiscal year 2008, which begins July 1, according to a news release. Upper-level administrators received a 3 percent raise pool for the current fiscal year, said Phyllis Bernt, Faculty Senate chair.
McDavis' offer is a step in the right direction, but the increasing salary gap between faculty and upper-level administrators is not the only concern on the administrative level, said Joseph McLaughlin, chair of senate's Finance and Facilities committee.
It's the proliferation of significant positions over time
McLaughlin said.
For each administrator at OU there are approximately 20 students, said David Ingram, chair for senate's Educational Policy/Student Affairs committee.
There are now as many administrators as there are faculty Ingram said.
At the meeting, McDavis said he will present a proposal of the Faculty Compensation Task Force to the Board of Trustees at its Friday meeting. The task force, headed by Provost Kathy Krendl, has recommended implementing an annual 3 percent faculty raise pool, coupled with a five-year, $6.3 million investment to supplement faculty salaries.
Of the $6.3 million, $1.2 million will be invested next year, amounting to a 4.98 percent faculty raise pool for next year, McDavis said. The majority of raises likely will be merit-based, the distribution of which will be decided within each academic department, he said.
Our highest priority is people McDavis said. We start there.
Journalism professor Bernhard Debatin noted that a 3 percent raise pool should not be referred to as a raise because the rate of inflation is about 3 percent. Faculty members also will shoulder 19 percent of their health care costs next year, compared to 16 percent of costs this year, he said.
What we are actually looking at is an adjustment with the cost of living
Debatin said.
At the meeting, Faculty Senate passed a resolution calling for a 3 percent faculty raise across the board to compensate for the rising cost of living, only the remaining 1.98 percent allotted for merit-based raises.
The task force envisioned a merit-based distribution for all or most of the funds, but the 3 percent across-the-board raise in senate's proposal would keep OU salaries competitive, Bernt said.
We do face a problem with faculty salaries not keeping up
Bernt said. It's hard to recruit or retain faculty if you don't have competitive salaries.
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