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Faculty Salaries Resolution
From the Benefits and Work Environment Committee
Presented March 17, 2000; Passed as amended April 14, 2000
The Faculty Senate is greatly concerned that USM has fallen substantially behind its two comprehensive sister institutions in average faculty salaries. Based on corrected figures supplied by USM's Planning, Evaluation, and Institutional Effectiveness department and the IHL report to the legislature, in the fiscal year 1999 USM's average faculty salary was only $1,365 behind Mississippi State, and $1,265 behind the University of Mississippi. In fiscal year 2000, however, those gaps have risen to $4,063 and $2,917 respectively, with State at $57,006, University of Mississippi at $55,860, and USM at $52,943.
The Senate also notes that USM's actual dollar amount increase of $2,108 from FY 1999 to FY 2000 was the smallest amount of any of the state's eight public universities. Significant salary disparities such as these have the potential to negatively impact the recruiting, hiring, and retention of highly qualified faculty members, especially in fields where vacancies exceed qualified applicants.
Therefore, the Faculty Senate urges the administration to treat faculty salary as the first fiscal priority and and to seek salary parity with the other two comprehensive state institutions to meet SREB averages.