Faculty salary reserve fund out of money for FY '95

The Provost's Faculty Salary Reserve fund will contain no money during the next fiscal year, Acting Director for Budget and Resource Planning Benjamin Hoyle said yesterday. The reserve fund usually contains money that supplements the faculty's salary pool, often to help remedy inequities in faculty pay rates. This year, the reserve fund had $500,000 available to support faculty salaries, Hoyle said. That $500,000, along with other sources of funding from the University's schools and centers, allows the University to keep faculty salaries competitive both within departments and with other universities. Faculty Senate Chairperson Gerald Porter said the fund is important because it provides a "cushion" for cases of gross salary injustice. "They can go back to the provost and say that this person needs the money, and it will be there," Porter said. In addition, without a reserve pool to fall back on, Porter said the school will not be able to counter offers that a faculty member receives from other institutions. Hoyle said, however, that the loss of reserve funds will not have a "significant" effect on the total amount of funding made available for faculty salaries. This year's $500,000 total comprised less than one quarter of one percent of the total amount spent on salaries. The Provost's undesignated subvention fund will be particularly strained during the next fiscal year as it contends with a host of financial burdens. These include: uncertain Commonwealth funding for the University, lower short-term investment returns, the increasing cost of undergraduate financial aid, and the renovations of College Hall, Logan Hall and Franklin Field. Plus, the University must continue to finance post-retirement health benefits for faculty and staff, resulting in a 20-year commitment to cover those future costs, straining the subvention funds even more. Porter said administrators should have consulted with the faculty more closely before making their decision. "I think there's a feeling that there has to be greater faculty input into budgetary decisions," Porter said. "It seems the decisions just happen -- are they just laid down by God?" The budget for the next fiscal year has provided for a two to five percent performance-based increase in staff and faculty salaries. The overall salary budget is slated to increase 3.5 percent. "But if you take two professors who do roughly the same quality of research, the professor at the rich school gets rewarded," Porter said. "This doesn't contribute to the notion of fairness."