Nearly 50 MU faculty members met Monday afternoon to discuss how to raise faculty salaries. Provost Brian Foster, Faculty Chair Frank Schmidt and planning specialist Pat Morton led the discussion.
MU is looking at a $7- to $11-million deficit in the general operations budget, which funds faculty salaries, going into fiscal year 2009. And Morton said that’s a best-case scenario, assuming a 4-percent increase in state appropriations (which may or may not happen) and a 3.2-percent increase in tuition (which is based on a current idea of what the Consumer Price Index is expected to be).
To offset that deficit and still increase faculty salaries by 4 percent, which would put MU on a competitive level with other universities, Foster said MU will look for savings that primarily include leaving vacant faculty positions unfilled.
Some faculty members asked whether self-supporting entities, such as athletics or the television station KOMU, could contribute some of their profits to the university. (MU wouldn’t ask them to do that, Foster said.) Others asked more complex questions, such as how private institutions compare with public institutions.
The discussion grew frustrated as many faculty vented about current cuts and reallocations, a perceived lack of instruction from administrators about what faculty can do to help the situation, and the politics driving cuts in state appropriations.
A second session will be Tuesday, Oct. 23, in Reynolds Alumni Center from 3 to 5 p.m.
Thanks!,