by Melinda Sanchez
Staff Writer
The University of La Verne Board of Trustees decided at their April 29 meeting to implement a salary increase for ULV faculty and staff.
According to Rita Thakur, a ULV professor and president of the faculty senate, ULV has fallen behind in salaries in comparison to other institutions with similar administrative and professional employee groups.
By dividing the classifications into two categories, regular employees and part-time faculty, the Compensation Task Force was able to compare ULV’s salaries with those from a list of other schools and businesses similar to ULV.
Among a list of 21 schools, there are six from the original list, which included Azusa Pacific University, California Lutheran University, Chapman University, University of Redlands, San Diego University and Whittier College.
According to a Principles of Compensation document submitted to and accepted by President Stephen Morgan on Jan. 30, 1997, “There will be one pool of money to be used for compensation increases for all regular employee groups.”
Using the three main employee groups-faculty, classified and administrative and professional-the salary increase is determined according to how far behind ULV is in its compensative funding.
In previous years an assistant professor received a larger raise because it was believed that, that position had more priority. Therefore the position is not as far behind in the target salary in comparison to the full-time professor position.
The new range system being used to determine salary increases allows for all positions to receive a raise and slowly move them all up to the same level simultaneously.
The faculty salary schedule includes a $1,399 increase for instructors and assistant professors, a $2,822 increase for associate professors, and a $4,496 increase for full-time professors.
For classified employees, there will be a 5 percent increase across the board.
Administrative professionals will receive as follows, grade 7-8: 6.93 percent; 9-11: 5 percent; 12-16: 4.83 percent and 17-21: 3.09 percent. The figures are based on a salary earned per year.
The salary increases will be active for academic faculty as of Sept. 1, 2000, and implemented for 12-month contracted faculty/staff as of July 1, 2000.
The salary increase for faculty with a 12-month contract will be 20 percent more because of the two extra months that are not included in the academic year.
Thakur said, “I think the University has done the best it can. This is the highest amount ever spent in salaries.”
From an overall pool of approximately $68 million, approximately $1.2 million was set aside for the salary increases alone.
Thakur said that ULV has fallen so far behind in the salaries that a 10-month employed associate professor who earns approximately $38,500 is at the same wage as an average kindergarten teacher.
As far as the question of whether ULV will ever be up to par in salaries, Thakur said, “It’s really hard to determine that now, but we hope that through increased funding and donations that ULV will be able to get where it should be.”
ULV students should rest assure that the salary increases will not affect tuition or any student costs.
As written in the Principles of Compensation document, “Requests for other purposes will be weighed against providing a fair and equitable compensation for all employees of the University and providing a quality education for the students.”
The University has only taken a minute amount of its funding to help better the quality of education offered to the students by compensating employees with a salary that is more compatible with today’s cost of living.
“Raises are the first thing we wanted to consider to bring the faculty up to par,” Thakur said.
