PAY HIKES: UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES SUBMIT PLANS TO PANEL

After suffering through a year with no general pay hikes, Southeast Missouri State University employee groups are pushing for increased salaries and other compensation.

The three major employee groups presented their compensation proposals to the university's budget review subcommittee Thursday and Friday.

Allen Gathman, chairman of the Faculty Senate and a member of the subcommittee, said Friday that funding continues to be a concern in times of tight state appropriations.

"We're not the only body on campus that is cut to the bone and needs more money," he said. "Everybody is in that position."

The Faculty Senate is calling for a compensation package for faculty that would involve a 3 percent across-the-board salary hike, the university paying for any increase in the family medical benefit, merit salary adjustments and added salary adjustments for the academic ranks of professor, associate professor, assistant professor and instructor.

The added salary adjustments would bring faculty salaries nearer to the national average for public, comprehensive universities, faculty leaders say.

Gathman said such salary adjustments are important. "It certainly affects the quality of people we are able to bring in and I think it affects faculty morale here."

It's estimated the faculty compensation package would cost the university an additional $1.75 million. The Faculty Compensation Committee has suggested such a package could be funded by reducing the subsidy for athletics and fund raising; increasing student fees, including the textbook rental fee; and eliminating eight faculty positions.

The bulk of the funding could come from higher student fees, the compensation committee has suggested. Another $368,000 could be generated by eliminating eight faculty positions. Reducing the university's subsidy of intercollegiate athletics would save $250,000, and another $250,000 would come from reducing the university's subsidy of fund-raising operations.

In 1989-90, Southeast had to subsidize athletics by more than $1.2 million, said the compensation committee.

Gathman said faculty members believe the university should look to private funding to pay for more of the cost of athletics.

Budget figures show that in 1989-90, the university spent $393,952 on fund-raising efforts. The compensation committee said it believes that fund-raising expenses should be covered by the money raised and not taken from the university's budget.

The Clerical-Technical-Service (CTS) Staff Council is proposing a 5 percent across-the-board salary increase for the 212 employees in that category. The employee group also wants pay ranges to be raised.

Minimum salaries for current CTS employees range from $4.98 an hour or $10,354 a year to $7.09 an hour or $14,741, budget figures show.

No cost estimate has been made regarding the CTS compensation package.

The Professional Staff Council is proposing a 13.6 percent pay hike for professional-staff employees. That would consist of a 3.6 percent base salary hike, an additional 6 percent hike to make up for lost buying power due to inflation since fiscal year 1988, and a 4 percent raise to bring salaries in line with the median salary for such employees as calculated on the basis of national and regional comparisons.

It's estimated the Professional Staff Council proposal would cost the university an additional $476,000 in labor expenses. Projected costs are based on 113 full-time-equivalent staff positions. Each 1 percent salary increase for the professional staff would cost the university $35,000, according to the staff council.

Representatives of the employee groups said they believe their compensation proposals are reasonable.

Sue Balsamo, chairman of the CTS Staff Council, said a CTS employee making $5.30 an hour would realize a 26-cent-an-hour pay hike if salaries were raised by 5 percent.

"Our budget is really tight so we asked for what we thought was possible," she said. "Obviously, we would love to have more."

Charlie Nenninger, a representative of the Professional Staff Council, said he believes the administration realizes the importance of increasing employee salaries throughout the university.

"I think they realize the situation they are in, but I don't know if there are monies out there to really work on it.

"It's a matter of priorities," he said. "At least we hope that priority is to get our pay levels up."

Gathman maintained that the faculty compensation proposal is reasonable. But with 400 faculty members at Southeast, any increase in faculty salaries amounts to a major expense, he said.

It's estimated that a 3 percent across-the-board pay hike would cost the university $600,000. It would cost the university an estimated $250,000 to cover increased family medical costs and a like amount to provide merit pay for about 250 faculty members, faculty leaders maintain.

The university, under the proposal, would have to spend another $645,000 to raise salaries of professors by an additional $2,500; associate professors by $1,375; assistant professors by $925; and instructors by $450.

Faculty leaders said that from 1978 to 1991, professors saw their real purchasing power, as adjusted for inflation, decline by 2.8 percent.

The purchasing power for instructors rose by 2.1 percent, assistant professors by 5.6 percent, associate professors by 2.6 percent and deans by 4.5 percent.

According to the Faculty Compensation Committee, the real purchasing power of the university's top three administrators increased by nearly 30 percent.

The salary for the position of university president has increased from $48,000 in 1980-81 to the current $105,000. However, Gathman said that until the 1990-91 year, salary figures for the president did not take into account other benefits. As a result, he said, the increase is not quite as great as it first appears. For example, the $48,000 would be more in the range of $55,000 when benefits are included.