MONEY MATTERS: SEMO HAS PUSHED PAY RAISES

Southeast Missouri State University has few blacks in full-time jobs and those who are employed make less, on average, than white employees.

Women also lag behind men in average pay at the Cape Girardeau school, salary records show.

University officials said the differences aren't the result of race and gender bias, but rather of years of service and job experience.

Fewer women and blacks were in the higher education job market years ago, they said.

Southeast has more than 900 full-time employees. Only 57 are black. The university has 859 white employees.

The average salary for black employees at Southeast is $29,932 this fiscal year, almost $6,000 less than the average salary of white employees.

Southeast has only nine black faculty members compared to nearly 350 whites. But the $47,485 average salary of the black faculty is slightly higher than that of white faculty, the institution's own records show.

Dr. Ken Dobbins, the school's executive vice president, is well aware of the numbers.

"We want a more diverse faculty just as we want to make sure the student population is diverse," he said.

Women hold almost half of the full-time jobs at Southeast, but they make $11,390 less, on average, than their male co-workers, salary records show.

Of the 417 full-time jobs held by women, 165 of those are clerical positions paying an average salary of $17,804.

Michael Sterling, president of the Cape Girardeau branch of the NAACP, said the university needs to hire more black faculty and staff.

Blacks make up only about 6 percent of the full-time workforce at Southeast. "That is totally unacceptable," said Sterling.

The difference in average salary between white and black employees is largely due to the fact that white employees have worked at the school longer, on average, Sterling said.

"There has never been a black person in the faculty who has retired from SEMO," he said.

Black faculty members tend to stay awhile and then move on to jobs elsewhere, he said.

Sterling said black faculty often don't feel at home in the Cape Girardeau community. He said many minority students feel the same way.

Blacks haven't always been welcome at Southeast, he said.

Like other universities in Missouri, Southeast was a segregated school until 1954.

"My mother was denied access to a college education at the university," Sterling said. She ended up going to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

Sterling said the university wasn't interested in hiring blacks years ago.

But he believes the university has worked to hire more blacks in recent years.

Southeast has eight deans, three of whom are black. "That is more than we've ever had," Sterling said.

Southeast needs to do a better job of recruiting blacks for faculty jobs, he said.

Sterling serves on the university's Commission on Minority Affairs.

Southeast President Dr. Dale Nitzschke established the commission to help the school recruit minority students, faculty and staff.

Associate Provost Dr. Dennis Holt said that in many cases there are few black candidates for various faculty positions, even on a national level.

Sterling believes the university should recruit from the traditionally black colleges in the South.

The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hopes to assist the university in its recruiting efforts by contacting black colleges.

"We feel pretty good we can make some progress," said Sterling.

Southeast has pushed to boost faculty and employee salaries over the past seven years.

Southeast had 163 employees who made over $50,000 last year. This year, the number has grown to 192 or about 21 percent of the university's workforce.

The university has raised faculty salaries to the point that the average salary for instructors, assistant professors and associate professors is at the median level for comparable schools nationwide, said Dobbins, executive vice president.

Southeast lags behind only in the full-professor rank, he said.

The average salary of full professors at Southeast was $1,680 below the national median last year. This fiscal year, the university has closed the gap to $890 below the national median, Dobbins said.

Southeast competes for faculty on a national level. The university had to raise salaries to be competitive in the job market, Dobbins said.

Otherwise, Southeast would become a faculty training ground for other schools, he said.

The pay raises have improved employee morale, said Dr. Rick Althaus, who teaches political science and chairs the Faculty Senate.

For years, faculty received across-the-board pay raises. Today, faculty and other university employees receive merit-based pay raises.

Shelba Branscum, an associate professor of human environmental studies, has been teaching at Southeast since 1974.

When she was hired, few women taught at the school.

Branscum, who serves on the school's budget committee, said Southeast has made strides in the last five years to address gender and other salary inequities.

Southeast also has worked to improve non-teaching salaries, particularly in the clerical area.

"I really feel we have come a long way," said Mary Jo Pfefferkorn, who chairs the Clerical, Technical and Service Employees Council at the university.

Pfefferkorn said clerical salaries of $12,000 weren't uncommon several years ago. Today, the average clerical salary is approaching $18,000.