by Christopher Sanchez
Daily Lobo
UNM professor John Geissman expressed his concerns about faculty salaries during a Board of Regents meeting Tuesday.
"I'm not asking for the moon, and none of the faculty are," he said. "But we are certainly fed up with ranking at the bottom of the barrel."
UNM's average faculty salary for 2004-05 was $71,755, according to a study of faculty compensation conducted by the American Association of University Professors. The average salary of UNM's peer institutions was $77,202.
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Geissman and two other UNM faculty members spoke about a variety of issues during a public comment session at the meeting.
Tuesday the New Mexico House of Representatives approved a 4.5 percent increase in faculty compensation for higher education institutions.
Geissman said at the least, UNM faculty and staff would need a 6 percent salary increase to avoid losing money to inflation.
Christopher Smith, Faculty Senate president, said some faculty members of the Health Sciences Center have not received pay increases in more than three years.
"Faculty are getting paid less, and it is costing us more to live," he said.
Last year, UNM faculty and staff received a 4 percent compensation increase. But faculty and staff can receive more or less than that depending on individual departmental budgets.
David Harris, acting president of UNM, said the Health Sciences Center has been battling a deficit, and that is why its faculty and staff have not received increases in the past three years.
"All the faculty over in Health Sciences has been very supportive to avoid running a deficit," he said.
Harris said faculty compensation was a top priority for the Legislature. The Legislature determines the increase based on funds available, he said.
"You always like to stress pay, and we've done that for the last three years," he said. "There have been years before where there is minimal or no increase."
Harris said he did not see any faculty at the Legislature presenting requests for an increase in salary.
"If you talk to yourself and gripe about it, what good does that do?" he said.
Geissman said UNM has done well in improving the infrastructure of the University in the past couple years by educating students and building new facilities, but more attention needs to be on faculty.
Beverly Burris, a professor in the sociology department, read a statement at the meeting she said was endorsed by about 50 faculty members.
Burris said faculty members should be able to participate in the formation of search committees, which are organized to find replacements in high-ranking staff positions.
As it stands, the UNM Board of Regents is in charge of organizing search committees.
Burris, also president of the UNM chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said faculty members are concerned about the high rate of turnover in the central administration.
She said faculty needs to be involved in decisions.
"Faculty has recently been sort of out of the loop," she said. "We don't feel as involved as we should be in some of these decisions."
The University will only benefit if faculty get more involved, she said.
"Some faculty feel like they have not been as included as in the past, and there is a more managerial decision making style than a collaborative one," she said.
A faculty and staff compensation increase will be determined by the regents after the Budget Summit in April.
