Though the Board of Trustees made the right move in raising the president's salary, it still needs to work on faculty pay, the chairman of the Department of Political Science said.
Joe Losco, political science chairman, said it is usual for a new president to get a higher salary than the previous president, and he didn't think most faculty were against the raise.
The Board increased the president's salary from $203,528 when Blaine Brownell was president to $260,000 for newly appointed president Jo Ann Gora. The raise would put Gora in the middle of other Mid-American Conference schools for presidential salaries.
Kimberly Hood Jacobs said she thinks what Gora will bring with her, including help for faculty, is worth the pay raise.
"In my view, I saw in her a great track record in fund raising and a great track record in going to bat for faculty salaries," Hood Jacobs said. "If you weigh that salary increase and what she will do for our university, it's a fair price."
Hood Jacobs also said she thought the advantage the state would get from Gora would make the salary worth it.
"Graduation rates are dismal, and our state economy is tied to those rates," she said. "It is absolutely imperative that we raise those levels.
"If you bring 1,000 jobs to Indiana because of what you did at Ball State, I think that's worth $60,000."
Frank Bracken, Board member, said the Board tried to be competitive and did consider other MAC school salaries.
Bracken would not comment on faculty salary.
Ione Deollos, University Senate secretary, said the Board needs to work on making faculty salaries competitive.
"I would like to see them put as much effort into getting salary up to the average of the MAC, and I would like to see the Board work with faculty. A 2 percent raise is not going to do it."
The Board gave all university employees a 2.5 percent raise for this year. However, because money from that is taken out for certain funds that deal with salary inequities and because each department has a different pay system, it's a 2 percent raise on average, Losco said.
Losco said increased insurance and parking rates canceled out the raise, though.
"For years and years, faculty have been trying to get our numbers to mid-MAC levels, and we're nowhere close," Losco said.
According to a report by the Ball State chapter of the American Association of University Professors, Ball State faculty ranked 13 out of the 14 MAC schools in faculty pay for the 2002-03 academic school year, with full professors making $31,700 less than the top MAC school. Marshall University, ranked at the bottom of MAC salaries, will leave the conference in 2005, possibly leaving Ball State at the bottom.
Losco said the Board has yet to show an interest in raising faculty salary.
"Part of the reason may be a misperception on a part of the Board," Losco said. "Some members seem to have a misimpression that we are doing better than in the past. Many members on this Board are not faculty-friendly."
However, Hood Jacobs said the Board gave employees a raise when other state employees didn't receive one.
A new governance system, which must be approved by the Board before it can go into effect, might also help the situation by giving the faculty more input on their salaries, Losco said.
"That will give faculty another forum," Losco said. "We're ready to tighten our belts like everyone else, but we'd at least like to be involved in long term planning, which we haven't."
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