PROP B LINKED TO PAY HIKE; SOUTHEAST REGENTS SUPPORT 13% RAISES

Southeast Missouri State University employees could receive 13 percent pay raises next year if voters approve Proposition B, members of the Board of Regents said Friday.

If voters approve Proposition B, the education tax measure on the November ballot, Southeast could receive $5.7 million for "mission enhancement."

The university administration and the regents want to use much of that money, about $3.9 million, to give 13 percent pay raises to university employees.

Both the regents and university administrators made it clear that raising salaries of faculty and staff is a priority for the 1993 fiscal year.

The regents said they also support granting merit pay to eligible faculty members, but only after general pay raises have been given, a view strongly advocated by the university's Faculty Senate.

"I think our board is in sync that we are all very much for salary raises for our faculty," said Carl Ben Bidewell of Poplar Bluff, board president. "We're also 100 percent in favor of merit pay."

Regent Mark Pelts of Kennett said he doesn't like to have to "apologize all the time" for the lack of higher salaries for university faculty and staff.

Regent Lynn Dempster of Sikeston said, "Certainly our faculty are underpaid."

Robert Foster, Southeast's executive vice president, said the administration views higher salaries as important to maintaining the quality of the campus. "Salaries is number one," he said.

Foster conducted Friday's meeting in the absence of Southeast President Kala Stroup, who became ill shortly before the start of the meeting.

University officials said faculty salaries are currently 5 to 7 percent below the national average. Due to state budget woes, faculty and staff at Southeast received no general salary increases this year.

Officials estimate a 13 percent pay hike is needed to bring faculty salaries to the national average for the next fiscal year.

"We have a feeling that at minimum we ought to be paying the national average," Foster said.

"That is our first priority," agreed Provost Leslie Cochran.

The regents Friday approved a proposed 1993 fiscal year budget request that will be submitted to the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

The budget calls for spending $80.6 million, including a core budget of $49.6 million and 35 items that university officials say are "major program needs."

Heading the new-funding list is $9.8 million to fund the 13 percent pay raise for faculty and staff, library acquisitions, and some equipment costs. Merit pay ranks third, behind development of a nursing master of science program, in terms of the university's priorities, officials said.

"If Proposition B passes, I certainly expect it (the additional funding) to go well beyond Priority No. 1," said Foster.

In all, the university could gain $7 to $9 million in funding from Proposition B for everything from "mission enhancement" to scholarships to equipment purchases.

Cochran said that as part of Proposition B, the legislature would have to approve new mission statements for the state's colleges and universities by December 1992. The mission statements would be a factor in the distribution of Proposition B money.

The university's merit plan would award $1,000 to eligible faculty members annually. The money would be added to the salary base.

"It's not a bonus," said Pelts. "It's a pay increase from now on."

In answer to a question from the regents, Cochran said the national trend in higher education is toward paying employees on the basis of "performance."

Bidewell responded, "I see nothing wrong with that."

The Faculty Senate recently recommended that a general pay raise of at least 3 percent or the increase in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater, be an annual precondition for faculty merit pay.

Allen Gathman, Faculty Senate chairman, told the regents, "What we would like to see is some sort of cost-of-living adjustment and then merit on top of that."

The regents earlier this summer rejected a provision of a Faculty Senate-drafted merit plan that would have awarded faculty members an across-the-board 3 percent pay hike annually for each of the next three fiscal years, beginning in the 1993 fiscal year.

Regents said that they didn't believe a general across-the-board pay hike should be a part of any merit plan. They reiterated Friday that they view a general pay hike and the $1,000 merit pay as two separate matters.

But Gathman indicated Friday that faculty members simply wanted to be assured of at least a cost-of-living adjustment. "Someone who is doing simply an adequate job deserves to have at least no loss in buying power."

Following the meeting, Gathman said the regents appear to be in general agreement with the Faculty Senate on the compensation issue. But he added he doesn't know how other faculty members might perceive the regents' actions.

Said Gathman, "So much of the problem comes from just not having any money."