Regent discusses pay raise proposal

By Amy Geiszler-Jones

Board of Regents member Harry Craig Jr. was frustrated when a legislative committee told him and the other regents that they didn’t have a strong enough case to justify significant pay raises for faculty.

“I thought we had made a case for that, and they candidly told us no,” Craig told WSU’s Faculty Senate during its March 8 meeting.

The Board of Regents had put together information that included statistics and examples of how Kansas institutions are losing ground nationally when it comes to recruiting and retaining faculty. Their plan called for a 7.6 percent pay raise annually for three years to bring Kansas salaries in line with those of their peers and to keep up with peer salary growth. As a whole, salaries at the six regents’ institutions average 12 percent lower than those at peer institutions.

Gov. Graves, meanwhile, is recommending a 3.5 percent increase, and $2.5 million for additional increases for distinguished full-time faculty.

One member of the House ways and means committee told the regents, “You’re only losing 3.6 percent overall (of the faculty). We think that’s acceptable,” Craig said. “That’s absolutely unacceptable from the regents’ point of view and a faculty’s point of view.”

Craig, who is chair and CEO of a Caterpillar dealership in Topeka, noted that in the past Kansas used to spend about 22 percent of its gross state product on education. That support has slowly eroded to about half that amount, while spending on prisons and highways has increased, he said.

“We’ve got to figure out a different approach ... or at least figure out how we can be as attractive as prisons,” he said.

“Maybe we should wear orange jumpsuits,” quipped Faculty Senate President Elmer Hoyer, referring to prison garb.

In other business, the senate discussed the proposed intellectual property  policy for WSU, which can be found online www.twsu.edu/~senate/proposed.html. Hoyer expressed concern that he’s only gotten two responses from general faculty since it was first brought up at the Feb. 22 senate meeting.

The senate will consider acting on the policy at its next meeting, 3:30 p.m. April 12.