Keeping Pace
Salary increases will still help recruit, retain top employees
By Erik Christianson

Pay raises of 3.2 percent and 4.2 percent in each of the next two years will still enable the UW System to attract and retain talented faculty and academic staff, says UW System President Katharine Lyall.

Her remarks to the Joint Committee on Employment Relations acknowledged that the pay plan--while falling short of the Board of Regents' proposed 4.2 percent salary increases in both years of the 2001-03 biennium--is a sound one considering current fiscal conditions.

JCOER approved the pay plan recommended by the Department of Employment Relations on Oct. 3.

"We realize that the state economy--indeed the nation's economy--is suffering from an economic slowdown," Lyall told JCOER members during their hearing in Madison. "And we appreciate the fiscal constraints facing the Governor and the legislature.

"I want to renew our pledge today to be part of the state's solution to these economic challenges by committing our resources to better preparing our students for 'new economy jobs,' graduating more students in fields that are in high demand by state employers, doing the cutting edge research that will attract federal resources and start-up companies to the state, and working with our local counties and communities on regional economic development."

UW System faculty and academic staff will receive the 3.2 percent pay raise starting with their Dec. 1 paychecks. Retroactive pay back to July 1 will be paid on Dec. 12. The 4.2 percent pay raise will be phased in, with 2.1 percent paid on July 1, 2002, and 2.1 percent paid on Jan. 1, 2003. Tuition revenue covers the entire salary increase in fiscal 2002 and most of it the following year. State funds will cover 1 percent of the 4.2 percent increase in fiscal 2003.

UW System President Katharine Lyall testifies before the Joint Committee on Employment Relations Oct. 3 at the State Capitol in Madison. Photos by Jay Salvo.

Lyall says the UW System's ability to be the chief economic engine for Wisconsin is directly fueled not only by attracting but also retaining top professors and academic staff members.

"The market pressures on our campuses are unrelenting," she told JCOER members. "Beyond coping with the continued retirements of our faculty and staff, we are in a constant battle to retain employees who are being lured to campuses in other states. And this is not just a Madison campus phenomenon. We are seeing an increasing number of the faculty on our comprehensive campuses being hired away by major research universities. We need your help to resist that brain drain."

Many faculty and academic staff organizations supported the Regents' original pay plan proposal as well as the DER plan. Esther Olson, president of the Academic Staff Public Representation Organization, says that a unified pay plan for faculty and academic staff is vital to the future of the university and the state. ASPRO is a non-profit, professional organization that represents the legislative interests of UW System academic staff.

"Academic staff are the often-unrecognized backbone of the university community," Olson, assistant director of the UW-Madison Synchrotron Radiation Center in Stoughton, told JCOER members.

"You'll find academic staff working in almost every area within the university. They conduct research, they teach classes, they provide student services, they deliver health care, and they provide outreach services to the community. They make sure that your son or daughter graduates, that our internationally respected research laboratories excel, that the latest technology is brought to the classroom and state industry, and that state industry and the economy continues to grow."