Faculty frustration continues at meeting by Elizabeth Chuck Assistant Features At Tuesday’s heated faculty meeting, the Administration proposed a six percent raise for associate professors’ salaries to address their lag behind those at peer institutions, according to Vice President for Finance and Administration Marcia Bromberg. Changes to faculty health benefits were also announced Tuesday, sparking concern about the administration’s scant faculty input on these issues. Although salaries of the University’s top three administrators surpass 10 comparison schools, professors’ pay remains below their average. The 2001-2002 average salary for full University professors was $97,300, ranking tenth out of the 16 schools it has been compared to, with Dartmouth, Swarthmore and Wellesley having the top three highest salaries for full professors. Dartmouth currently pays full professors an average of $109,100 dollars. Vice President for Academic Affairs Judith Brown said that over the past three years, salaries for full professors have increased considerably, putting Wesleyan at a fourth place ranking out of sixteen schools in average compound growth rates. The schools with higher average growth rates of pay over the past three years are Vassar, Amherst, and Carleton. “We will be proposing an additional percent increase for associate professors - six percent altogether - when we present the fiscal year 2002-03 budget to the Trustees at the end of the month,” Bromberg said. Bromberg and Brown distributed a letter at the faculty meeting stating, “We are pleased to report that full professor salaries at Wesleyan have increased at a compound rate of 6.6 percent over the last three years, well above the 5.9 percent average increase of peer schools included in our annual report.” The letter also expressed concern about the lagging salary increases that University associate professors have received as compared to other schools. “Aggressive increases will continue until there is a general agreement that Wesleyan faculty salaries compare favorably with peers. We will make every effort to include a 6.5 percent faculty salary increase in the 2003-04 budget to jump start this effort,” concluded Bromberg and Brown’s letter, reacting to prior discussions on the issue of salary. While the faculty appeared generally satisfied that the University will focus on an increase in associate professor pay, discontent remained because professors’ salaries will not be raised universally. “People are seeing greater philosophical changes in faculty compensation than the University stated,” Brown said at the faculty meeting. “We really want faculty who feel good about being at Wesleyan and who will continue to be here. While all of us hoped we could have given you greater salaries this year, we are coming out of a recessionary year. There are many schools having to reduce the size of salary increases.” William Firshein, professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, was the chairman of the salary and compensation committee that reached an agreement with the administration four years ago which compromised on a 6.5 percent increase each year for faculty for the subsequent three years. “That figure was supposed to be approximately 1.5 percent higher than the average raise of our peer institutions each year (5 percent),” Firshein said. “The idea was that this would help us catch up with them because even though we are supposed to be a premier institution, we were woefully behind, especially schools like Amherst, Williams, and even Trinity (6-9 percent lower for each rank),” he said. Firshein added that four years ago similar faculty outrage existed. “The reason for our continuing anger and disappointment this year is that if we didn’t catch up, the increases were to be considered again and adjusted so that we would continue our upward spiral,” Firshein said. Unfortunately, the University did not meet the salaries of other institutions, mainly because the other institutions also raised their salaries again. “Quite frankly, given two faculty petitions with 200 signatures between them, I am disappointed that the administration has not listened to our pleas for fair compensation,” said Don Oliver, professor and chair of the MB&B department. “This egregious policy has gone on for over a decade.” The two petitions state, according to Firshein, that “the University abrogated this commitment and/or implication and instead tried to cover up, I believe, their failure to meet our goals.” Other faculty members shared the disapproval. “For many years the comparison data has shown that Wesleyan’s faculty are underpaid,” Assistant Professor of MB&B Michael McAlear said. According to McAlear, the Administration has not fixed the problems of faculty compensation, but have instead delayed the issue. “The Administration has repeatedly cried poor and delayed. That is not good enough. They recently announced that over $175 million has been raised in the Capitol Campaign. They can and should fix the salary problem now.” Tuedsay’s faculty meeting also raised considerable controversy over the revision in the way the faculty’s health care plan is administered. “We are adopting a ‘self-insured’ plan, which means the University is assuming the risk of paying for excessive health claims - that is, claims that cost more than we collect in premiums,” Bromberg said. “By doing this, we save money for both the University and for employees and help offset an anticipated 20 percent increase in health care premiums next year. We will be using a new, single administrator to manage the plan rather than the three we use now.” Aspects of faculty benefits other than the switch to a single administrator will remain the same, according to Bromberg. “There is also a possibility that not every doctor included in the networks of the three current health care managers will be included in the new administrator’s network. However, the new administrator will be a national company and, therefore, offer a significantly greater number of doctors both locally and nationally,” Bromberg said responding to faculty concerns that there may be a change in health care providers. After extending past its normal time allotment due to lengthy discussions concerning standing rules, the EPC, and the University’s re-accreditation anticipated in October, the meeting’s attendance halved by the time the subject of faculty compensation and medical care arose. “I’m very impressed with what you’ve done,” said Professor of Psychology Karl Scheibe, speaking to Bromberg and Brown 10 minutes after the meeting was supposed to have ended. “But the problem is, there’s been no involvement of the faculty. If this needs delaying, then we should delay,” Scheibe said, to the applause of the remaining faculty. Both the change in health care and the slow progress on increasing faculty salaries are ongoing issues, and some faculty members seemed discouraged as they left the meeting. “In seven years of attending faculty meetings I have never heard so many discouraging reports about faculty-administration relations,” McAlear said. “The overriding message I heard from Professors Shaw, Elphick, Schiff and Stewart’s reports were that in many issues, ranging from educational policy, admissions, salaries, and health plans, there is a serious lack of consultation with, and consideration of the faculty. The collegial atmosphere is being replaced with a top-down corporate one.”

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