Testimony of Dr. Charles Hurt, Provost and Chief Academic Officer
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
Joint Committee On Finance
Chippewa Falls
March 27, 2007
Senator Decker, Representative Rhoades, members of the Committee On Joint Finance, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you on the 2007-09 biennial budget.
I am here to ask your support for faculty and academic staff compensation at a level that will help our three campuses, and the University of Wisconsin System institutions, to recruit and keep quality professionals.
This is an issue of which I know quite a lot since it is my responsibility to oversee this process at UW-River Falls. It has not been easy.
During the past several years we have had an increasingly difficult time of attracting and keeping competent teachers and administrators. We routinely have searches that fail at River Falls. Searches where there are only a few candidates. Searches where there are no candidates. We are also regularly put at risk of losing promising individuals who are courted by campuses in other states or by industry.
The simple answer for this is that we are not competitive in our salaries, and we are losing ground.
At our three campuses we compare ourselves to 32 institutions just like us in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan. We would like to be able to provide average salaries that put us at least into the middle of that group.
When we compare ourselves to our peers now, our assistant professors are about $2,600 below average; our associate professors $5,900 below average, and our professors at about $14,000 below average. Overall, we lag behind by about 10 percent. Our Academic Staff are nearly 12 percent below average.
The Board of Regents has submitted a pay plan proposal to the Secretary of the Department of Employment Relations that would allow us to reach the median by the start of the 2011-13 biennium. This would require a 5.23 percent increase during each of the next four years.
That might sound like a lot, and it is. But we have been losing ground, and over the course of the next decade we will see the graying of faculty and staff nationwide, creating an extremely challenging environment if we do not at least reach the average. At UWRF, nearly 63 percent of our faculty, academic staff, classified staff and senior administrators will be eligible for retirement in the coming decade. That mirrors the national trend, and we will need reasonable salaries to compete in that national market.
Additionally, over the next few months you will be considering a proposal currently in the Governor's budget to contribute $10 million for recruiting and retaining those in high demand areas. During the current biennium you approved $3 million for this purpose, providing our campuses a total of $202,700 last year. The additional funding is necessary and appreciated.
Ultimately, our ability to provide high quality teaching, innovative research and to assist business, industry and our local communities will rest on the shoulders of highly effective faculty and professionals.
I ask that you provide us with the resources that we need to attract and keep the very best people.
Thank you.
