Western faculty union members said the administration has ignored President Karen Morse’s goal to increase faculty salaries.
After the Washington State Legislature provided Western with money for the 2007-09 budget, $9.7 million was left over for the Western board of trustees to allocate. Portions of the money were spent on new administrative positions, equipment funds and increased campus security.
Faculty union members Bill Lyne and Kyle Crowder wrote an article about the money called “The 9.7 Million Dollar Question,” which appeared in the faculty union newsletter. According to the article, the administration didn’t spend any of the board-allocated money on increasing faculty salary raises.
More than $7 million of the board-allocated funds were spent on administrative departments, according to the article.
“The president and trustees say they want to get faculty salaries up,” said Larry Estrada, faculty bargaining team member and American cultural studies director at Fairhaven College. “There is a disconnect on this campus between what the president and trustees say they're concerned about and what gets implemented.”
The money that went toward administrative departments is used to increase student support services, said Paula Gilman, university planning and budgeting executive director. Out of the $9.7 million, $441,824 was allocated for faculty promotion and tenure increases for fall 2007, Gilman said.
According to the 2007-09 budget, the administration allocated faculty a 3.2-percent raise.
Faculty want a 6.5-percent raise included in the new faculty contract. The administration’s current proposal is a 4.5-percent salary increase once the contract is settled. Faculty will not receive raises for 2008 until the administration and faculty have agreed on a new faculty contract, Gilman said.
“In order to reach [Morse's] goal of increasing faculty salaries, Western will need more money from the state legislature,” said Eileen Coughlin, vice president for student affairs and academic support services.
To get more money from the legislature, Western’s planning and budgeting committee puts together a budget plan and the office of external affairs takes the request for more money to the state legislature.
Members of the faculty bargaining team said Western can afford to raise faculty salaries. In “The 9.7 Million Dollar Question,” Lyne wrote that he wondered why the board didn’t allocate more money toward raising faculty salaries.
The raises the faculty union has requested require one-fourth to one-third of the $9.7 million, Estrada said. After using the amount of money requested for faculty raises, the administration would have $6.5 million to $7.3 million left to spend on the university.
“I understand that there's going to be different opinions about how far we can take those dollars and stretch it,” Coughlin said. “[The administration is] bargaining an agreement with [the faculty union] within the constraints of what the state provided.”
Estrada said he fears the administration is working with its own interests in mind rather than with the students' interests in mind. Quality faculty are the key to a quality education for Western students, he said.
“The job of the administration is to give the faculty the resources to help them do their job, which is to educate students,” Lyne said. “Instead, they're working against us.”
The administration advocates strongly for faculty raises, but it can't afford to raise salaries as high as it would like to, Coughlin said
“We need state help to really achieve where we need to get,” Coughlin said. “We have small support [in the 2007-09 budget].”
Professors who are interested in working at Western change their minds after they see how low the salaries are, Lyne said.
“[Professors] are attracted to Western, even though the salary offers are [$10,000-$15,000] below their other offers,” he said. “They look at the housing market, and then reject Western's [offer].”
According to a report from the Higher Education Coordinating Board, the average Western faculty salary is $60,673, putting their salaries $4,658 below average in comparison to other public universities in Washington state.
A petition signed by 373 Western faculty members supporting the United Faculty Western Washington bargaining team was delivered Thursday to President Morse and the board of trustees. A copy was also sent to incoming President Bruce Shepard.
Only registered users can post comments.
Please login or register.
Be first to comment on this article
