It is easy to see why the University of North Carolina’s governing board was nearly evenly divided over last month’s closed-door decision to raise salaries for 12 university chancellors. The move has predictably created a backlash among faculty and staff frustrated by the decision to boost salaries for the chiefs while everyone else’s pay remains stagnant.
The board voted 16-13 to raise the chancellors’ pay by as much as 19 percent based on an assessment showing that annual salaries for North Carolina’s university leaders are under national averages. It is unlikely that faculty and staff will see their salaries adjusted based on national averages, but they are justifiably demanding just that.
Even so, it is the students and families facing rising tuition costs who have the greatest cause to complain about the Board of Governors’ misplaced priority.
East Carolina University’s outgoing Chancellor Steve Ballard is realizing a $63,000 increase from the Board’s market-based decision last month, bringing his pay to $385,000. The ECU Faculty Senate quickly responded by asking that a similar study be conducted to see how their salaries measure up to national averages.
On Wednesday, the ECU Staff Senate passed a resolution asking for a compensation study and raises for non-faculty university employees. The vote came during a standing-room-only meeting at the 250-seat East Carolina Heart Institute auditorium.
Workers complained that despite a $1,000 raise last year — the first in several years — staff salaries remain below market rates, and no merit or cost-of-living raises have been granted for this year.
“Nobody cares,” Ann Taft, an environmental technician for the housekeeping department, said. “As long as everybody else gets their money, y’all leave us out there in the cold, and it’s not right.”
While that conclusion is not entirely correct, it reflects the perspective of many in Wednesday’s meeting who struggle to make ends meet while seeing the Board of Governors raise the already high annual salary of ECU’s chancellor by far more than they will earn in a year.
Faculty and staff on campuses throughout the state are reacting in similar fashion to the decision to boost chancellors’ pay while everyone else’s has remained mostly flat since the recession. There has been criticism from students as well, albeit less vocal.
The 16 board members who voted for the increase must firmly believe it will ultimately benefit faculty, staff and, most importantly, students. Those ECU employees at Wednesday’s meeting are not off base, however, in demanding that, all things being fair, the same market-driven approach should be applied to their salaries also.
The demand is at least as logical as the vote to raise the chancellors’ pay.
