In an effort to retain its faculty, UNM extends financial counteroffers to some professors who receive offers to join other universities.
Officials disagree, however, about whether the counteroffers lead to significant pay inequities and hostilities among the University's faculty.
Beverly Burris, president of UNM's Faculty Senate, said the University has become increasingly willing over the years to offer productive, well-liked professors counteroffers to remain at the University, with often detrimental effects.
The University tries to outdo another university that has made an offer to the professor by extending a pre-emptive increase in money and supplementary benefits, she said.
"Not everyone is able to consider leaving Albuquerque for whatever reason," Burris said. "There are also those faculty members who don't feel it is necessary to make themselves available to such offers."
She said the situation takes a turn for the worse when faculty members who may not be as deserving as others receive the increase in salary and benefits.
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"The people who receive the counteroffers are, in my opinion, no more meritorious than the people who are content doing their job here," Burrris said.
The pre-emptive offers often include pay increases of more than $6,000 a year and additional incentives for the faculty members, including reductions in course loads, according to the University Provost's office.
UNM has made more than 50 counteroffers over the past three years, according to University records.
Burris said the system is not an effective way of rewarding those who perform well. Instead, it only lowers morale and makes faculty members question the need to perform to the best of their abilities.
However, many UNM officials say the counteroffers are simply a means of staying competitive with other Universities to hold onto the best professors.
"In the market today, if you don't take proactive steps to hold on to your best faculty members, you are going to lose them," said Reed Dasenbrock, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "We have to do what we can to build the strongest University possible."
Dasenbrock, who said he saw 31 percent of the College of Arts and Sciences leave the University for better pay between 2000-01, said salary inequities exist amongst faculty members even without the counteroffers, which are worth the costs associated with them.
As a member of the recently implemented Chairs Council, a collective group of University administrators from various departments, Dasenbrock said it voted just last week to unanimously approve the counteroffer system.
According to a survey conducted by the American Association of University Professors, the average salary of a UNM professor is nearly $80,000 a year, by far the highest at any New Mexico institution.
Some officials say the system is a good thing, but warn that it must be used on a case-by-case basis.
Scott Sanders, chairman of the English department, said just because a faculty member has received an outside offer, UNM shouldn't automatically respond.
"If we can't realistically match the offer, or if the person is leaving the University for a specific reason, a counteroffer isn't justified," he said.
While he cautioned against their overuse, Sanders said the counteroffers are a necessary means of holding on to talented professors.
"The bottom line is that we have to try to retain our successful faculty members," he said. "When we can compete with an outside offer, and it is in our best interest to do so, then we will."
