The UI is losing faculty members to other universities because its compensation packages – including salaries and discretionary funds – aren’t competitive, and the university plans to ask the state for the funding it needs to recruit, retain and develop faculty members, UI President B. Joseph White and staff members told the board of trustees at its Nov. 9 meeting in Springfield.
In fiscal years 2005 and 2006, UI tenured faculty members received 126 and 124 outside offers respectively, and more than 50 percent of those who received outside offers resigned. Fifty-two percent of outside offers were not matched with counter offers, said David Chicoine, interim vice president for academic affairs and vice president of technology and economic development.
During 2006, five faculty members at Urbana and two at UIC left for Ivy League universities, as did eight faculty members at Urbana during 2005. In their peer groups, which comprise different mixes of public and private schools for each UI campus, Urbana ranks 17th, UIC 14th and UIS ninth in salaries for full-time faculty members. The top-paying universities in Urbana’s peer group are Pennsylvania State University ($124,200), Yale University ($122,000) and the University of Chicago ($120,600), with Urbana’s average at $92,900.
Staff members presented a five-year plan for bringing faculty members’ salaries up to the 67th percentile in relation to peer universities. To do that, the university would need about $37.4 million annually, about one third of a $569.6 million “full needs request” in operating funds that the university will seek from the state for fiscal years 2008-2012.
About $62.5 million annually is needed to achieve the university’s strategic initiatives, and $17 million during FY2008 and FY2009 – and $12 million annually thereafter – is needed for inflationary and other cost increases.
Christopher Comer and Sarah Mangelsdorf, deans of the colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIC and Urbana, respectively, spoke about the challenges they face retaining faculty members. “It’s clearly the case that salary matters,” Comer said. “It’s also the case that it’s not simply salary,” and that discretionary funds, the quality of colleagues and certain universities also lure faculty members away.
White said he has seen “too many instances of department heads and chairs trying to fight a winning battle without the requisite resources. … The assumption behind every one of the (university’s) strategic initiatives is that we will have a superb faculty. I think we must seek state support, but at the same time we know the state’s condition.” UIS Student Trustee Sarah Doyle urged the board not to raise tuition; White said: “We’re going to have to work every front.”
Trustee Kenneth Schmidt called the report “alarming” and said: “We must address this … not just acknowledge that it’s an issue.”
Lyle Wachtel, associate vice president for facilities planning and programs, presented a plan for addressing the university’s $617 million backlog of deferred maintenance needs. The repairs will be funded by the sale of certificates of participation, capital renewal funds from the state, and an Academic Facilities Maintenance Fund Assessment paid by students that is being phased in over four years.
The university will need to spend $50 million annually to reach its 10-year goal of reducing deferred maintenance universitywide from the current level of 18 percent to no more than 10 percent of facilities’ replacement value. Master purchase contracts for buying commonly used materials and equipment, such as windows, will be developed to help contain costs. UIC and Urbana will hire architects, engineers and CAD operators, as well as a construction inspector at UIC, for project designs, thereby decreasing professional fees.
A universitywide review team that reports to White and includes the chief facilities officers at each campus and university administration as well as the vice president of administration will oversee the program, but campus officials will identify and prioritize projects.
Trustee Niranjan Shah, chair of the building and grounds committee, asked Stephen Rugg, vice president for administration and comptroller, to come up with a program of incentives for people who help the university save money on the projects.
Other business
- The trustees approved resolutions recognizing Chicoine and Trustee Marjorie Sodemann for their service. Chicoine, who has been named president of South Dakota State University effective in January, began his 35-year career with the UI as a graduate student and advanced to positions as dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and vice president of technology and economic development. Sodemann’s six-year term as a trustee expires in January; a replacement has not been named.
- Approved revisions to the University Statutes allowing multi-year contracts of up to three years for certain non-tenure academic staff, including teaching, research and clinical associates as well as lecturers, instructors and other professionals. The amendments also established dismissal-for-cause procedures and notice of non-renewal procedures for those positions. The three campus senates and the University Senates Conference, which have been working on the issue since 1998, reached consensus in April. Elliot Kaufman, USC chair, thanked the board for the salary program discussion and the statutory revisions, which he said would “help faculty to be their best.”
- The trustees awarded $1.1 million in contracts for the first phase of the Memorial Stadium renovations, which will include constructing a north seating addition with 5,000 bench seats, demolition of the existing stands and installation of restrooms and concession areas. The board also approved increasing the project budget for the Atkins Tennis Center and Eichelberger Field upgrades by $1 million, to $6.4 million, to cover the unforeseen costs of utility design phase work and changes requested by the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. The funds ultimately will come from non-institutional gifts that donors have pledged. In response to questions raised by Shah, White asked the three chancellors to inform their facilities planners that projects need to be completely explored at the outset, and the board’s tolerance for accommodating funding increases “has gone down dramatically.”