UNH professors and administrators are clamoring about salaries again. The administration proposed a 1.5 percent raise, but the UNH chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) turned that down and is instead asking for almost a 4 percent raise. Their avarice is shocking.
At UNH, the dire situation has already been presented. This summer, the administration announced $8.3 million in budget cuts, 31 percent of which will come from not filling 27 faculty and staff positions and reducing 40 positions from full-time to part-time. Non-unionized employees making more than $40,000 per year were even thrown into a salary freeze.
Most professors make more than $40,000; we think they should appreciate their good fortune to avoid the same fate and thank their lucky stars that they were allowed to not only keep their jobs, but also be paid more for doing them.
It's true that many of the country's educators are not paid enough and deserve every cent they earn and more, but college professors hardly fall into that category.
In 2008-2009, the average salaries for UNH faculty was anywhere from $68,500 for female assistant professors to $117,000 for full-time male professors, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. If those numbers aren't ridiculous enough for a job with a summer vacation, these professors have turned down a raise in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression. How is their position even defensible?
The chief negotiator for the faculty members said some of the most recently settled contracts at comparative universities have been significantly higher than the 1.5 percent raise the administration proposed, including a 3 percent raise at the University of Rhode Island, a 4 percent raise at the University of Delaware and a 5 percent raise at the University of Vermont.
The problem with that logic is that all of those schools are dealing with different situations and budgets, regardless of how "comparative" they may be. Sometimes the money just isn't there. And if these schools are so similar to UNH, why were the two most recent contracts signed by comparator schools – at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Connecticut – raises of only 1.5 percent and 0 percent, respectively?
Professors have health care in a time when one in six U.S. adults do not. They have solidified positions at a reputable university when 10.2 percent of the country is unemployed. And they're sitting here whining about not getting enough of a raise for a potential one-year contract? Greedy seems almost too nice an adjective.
An online commenter on the Union Leader's website who claimed to be an employee of UNH said he was disgusted with the faculty's position: "If you are really team players and not money motivated, you would play with the rest of the university and take no raise." He couldn't be more right; almost everyone at the university is hanging on for dear life through an economic tornado, and professors are sticking their nose up at a raise?
Maybe it's really not about the money; these professors could be standing on principle, only trying to stay even with the competition. And there's a time for that. There's a time to stand up to your boss and say, "I deserve better," even when the offer presented is already a good one. But now is not that time. Now, it's time to tuck your tail between your legs, snatch up the 1.5-percent raise and try again next year.
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13 comments
Do You remember why you became a professor? I hope, to pass your knowledge on to the next generation.
Some of you look like greedy individuals who can only think of the God almighty dollar and not the students you teach and mentor. If we keep increasing out tuition to pay for salaries students will look at other schools and then where will you be, on the street.