A recently released study done by the American Association of University Professors reports MU salaries for ranked professors second to last out of 34 public institutions studied, ahead of only the University of Oregon.
APPEARED IN PRINT: SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 2009, PAGE G2
In a time of 12.1 percent unemployment, Oregonians may have a hard time mustering much sympathy for University of Oregon faculty members whose pay averages a mere $73,300 a year. But by national, even regional, standards, faculty pay at the UO is scandalously low.
Lariviere made a plan: It varied, but this is pretty close, from the version on the CAS website. My read is that this plan would have required average increases of 5-8% per year, for 3 years, to be implemented on these dates:
Fall 2011: A percentage raise that varied by rank and department but was consistent within, with the goal of moving the average UO salary 1/3 of the distance to the AAU peers department and rank. So if full profs in biology at our peers made $115K, and $100K at UO, every bio full prof would get a 5% raise. These raises were implemented in 2011 and, ranged from 0% to as much as 10% or so. They left us still far below our peers.
Fall 2012: A pool of merit money sufficient to raise average salaries by dept and rank 50% of the remaining distance to the AAU peers. Distributed by the colleges and departments on merit. Deadwood to get nothing, lots for the stars.
This never happened. Bob Berdahl sat on his ass, and so the faculty unionized.
No later than Fall 2013: A pool of merit/equity money sufficient to bring averages al the way to the AAU peers, to be distributed using a mix of merit and equity considerations.
Gottfredson did nothing to implement this, but he did reject the union’s stop-gap 3.5% proposal.
Now new President Mike Gottfredson has his own plan:
Fall 2012: Nothing.
Spring 2013: 1.5% across the board, but only retroactive to Jan 1. Call it 1%.
Fall 2013: 1.5% across the board then 2% merit.
As we learned from Howard Bunsis’s talk yesterday, the money UO had set aside to implement the Lariviere plan is still there in UO’s accounts. But Moffitt is scared that paying it out will mess up her numbers, and Gottfredson doesn’t have the stones to make her do it.
Fall 2012: Nothing. Spring 2013: 1% across the board,
Fall 2013: 1.5% across the board then 2% merit.
Now the faculty is on par with the suffering of the classified staff. These kind of raises are even above the norm in the classified world…and they also have a union bargaining board! hummmmm merits the question of who’s side is the union on, any union. If you think this is bad wait and see what happens to your benefits….bend over, get ready.
No respect…..none at all.
What’s going to happen when Oregon gets kicked out of the AAU? My guess is the Administration (excuse me, I’m sorry, “the University”) will blame it on the unionization and/or claim professors haven’t been producing enough high-quality research.
Dog: Small Correction to the Timeline
Fall 2011 should read Fall 2010: The raises were implemented in May 2011. A second round of raises (another 5% for biology) was supposed to occur on Jan 1, 2012 but clearly that did not happen nor has anything happened since.