UA lobbies for increased faculty pay

By Joseph Barrios

Arizona Daily Wildcat

UA administration is taking measures to prevent faculty from leaving to teach at other universities.

The University of Arizona asked the Arizona Board of Regents for $4,588,100 in its 1995-96 budget to increase salaries for faculty and graduate teaching assistants.

Provost Paul Sypherd said deans, department heads and faculty are pursued regularly by other universities and it has been difficult for the UA to make a counter-offer to retain them. Sypherd said three college deans, whose names he would not release, have been invited to take positions at other universities this year.

"That makes a provost very nervous," Sypherd said.

The UA ranks 18th of 19 peer public institutions in take-home pay for teaching assistants, according to an Association of American Universities 1992-1993 survey. During Friday's Regents' meeting, UA President Manuel T. Pacheco said the university is in danger of losing qualified faculty and should try to bring the UA's rank up.

"If we don't, we're going to have a mediocre institution. I don't think any Arizonan wants to see (that)," Pacheco said during the meeting.

The 1994-95 budget calls for all university employees to receive a 3 percent raise as of July 1, 1994 and an additional 2 percent as of April 1, 1995.

The Legislature also appropriated $1,972,500 for "faculty salary equity" for the UA Main Campus. The Arizona Health Sciences Center received $323,500.

UA administrators received about $144,000 in raises from last year's budget. University savings and grant money were used to pay for the raises, Sypherd said.

Ken Smith, vice provost and College of Business and Public Administration dean, received a 23 percent raise from $108,043 to $133,900 a year. Pacheco's salary increased from $152,003 to $156,563 while Sypherd's salary increased from $137,000 to $141,110.

Under a policy adopted by the UA as of July 1, new faculty hired by the UA must be paid by a "true minimum," or salary that is comparable to peer institutions around the country. Sypherd said this can be a problem because newer faculty are paid more than faculty who have been at the UA for several years.

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