UA's top faculty recruits deterred by low salaries

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat "We really do expect to be able to compete or we will begin to fall behind in quality." Paul Sypherd UA Provost

Sypherd, who opted not to fill "between 50 and 100" vacant faculty positions during the same period to reallocate funds, said the loss of quality faculty will continue unless the University of Arizona receives additional salary funding.

"We have just about exhausted the ways to reallocate internally without a major rethinking of the services we offer students," he said. "We really do expect to be able to compete or we will begin to fall behind in quality."

The Arizona Board of Regents at its November meeting in Tempe approved a plan to improve faculty salaries - a proposal that would enhance paychecks at the UA by $47.7 million over the next four years. The proposal for an 18 percent increase over the 1999 UA salary base of $259.6 million has been forwarded to the Arizona Legislature for review in January.

The proposal requests $25.9 million for faculty - 1,300 tenured professors and associate professors on the tenure track - salary adjustments and $21.8 million to adjust the salaries of classified staff and other employees. Sypherd said the need to compete for top faculty would necessitate using most of the requested money for all categories of employees for faculty pay.

"Our biggest problem is faculty because we recruit on an international basis and they provide the basis for our reputation and the quality of the student experience," Sypherd said. "We have in the past used money specified for 'staff' in just that way, and would continue that in the future."

The proposal passed by the regents is designed to bring the average faculty salary up to the 50th national percentile.

The Legislature makes a decision on salaries for all state employees simultaneously, based on a recommendation from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Unless the universities can make a case for additional funding, they will receive the same as other state agencies.

UA President Peter Likins said a standard cost-of-living allowance is more probable than the 18 percent plan.

"That most assuredly will not happen," Likins said. "The probability of reaching the stated goals is very low."

Regent President Judy Gignac also said the requested amount is higher than the board expects to receive.

"We are trying to bring our people to market (level), and if we can get there, that would be stupendous," Gignac said. "There are some (state) departments saying (they would be happy getting) within 15 percent of market."

Sypherd worked with deans and department heads from 1993-1998 to determine why departing faculty members left, and why some top choices for vacant positions chose other institutions.

During that time, 118 faculty members departed and 45 candidates that made the short list for various UA openings opted to go to other universities. Of the total, 104 gave "salary" as a reason for not working at the UA, although 13 of those went to the private sector.

The survey does not completely differentiate those faculty members who left for job promotions from those who strictly made a lateral move for more pay.

Some of the comments made by interviewees include, "was unhappy with salary offer," "salary was major issue," "UA salary scale not considered competitive" and "no raises in approximately two years."

Likins, who considers salary competi-tiveness a high priority, said yesterday that the numbers in Sy-pherd's report show a weakness in UA's ability to compete.

"The real battle ground is not medians or means, but when you are in competition with other institutions, do you win or do you lose," Likins said. "What those numbers show is we have been losing too damn many."

Gignac said the numbers in Sy-pherd's report are significant because they indicate a pattern.

"If you aren't able to get funds together to hire faculty members who are at the top of their game, and you find yourself in that position often enough, the reputation of the institution goes down," Gignac said.

If additional money is received from the Legislature, Sypherd said it would be used to improve the salaries of those faculty members determined to be below market level, to keep or lure world-class senior faculty members or to attract entry-level associate professors in hot new fields. It would not be used for a blanket university pay raise, he said.

"We want to keep people that add value and distinction to the education and discovery at this university," Sypherd said. "New money would definitely not be applied across the board as if it were a COLA (Cost of living allowance), unless that was the mandate of the Legislature."

Likins said he considered private money the most likely way to make UA salaries competitive if Legislative action is not taken and internal reallocation options - which raised an additional $10 million for faculty salaries over the past five years - become slimmer.

"Endowed chairs are a very important part of the long term strategy," Likins said.

A $2 million endowment could raise as much as $100,000 yearly to support faculty.

Anthony C. Braza can be reached via e-mail at Anthony.C.Braza@wildcat.arizona.edu.