DAILY LOBO new mexico
April 23, 2012
UNM foundation woes
monday
see page 4
The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Faculty base pay stagnates during past 4 years Comparison of UNM faculty
by Hannah Stangebye hstang@unm.edu
UNM faculty, on average, made about 9 percent less than their colleagues at peer institutions in 2011. In 2011, average salaries of UNM faculty decreased by about $5,300, according to the UNM Office of Institutional Research. Faculty Senate President Timothy Ross said the salary base remained the same the past four years due to budget cuts. Between 2008 and 2010, nearly $32 million was cut from state appropriations for main campus, leaving less money to hire new faculty and give raises. “An assistant professor who has been here for four years makes the same pay as they did four years ago,” he said. Elaine Avila, an associate professor in the theater and dance department, said she works more than 40 hours a week. “My workload is very high,” she said. “I have six independent studies, one class of 50 students, one graduate class and run the largest new play festival in the west,” Avila said. Associate professors made an average of $74,651 this year; Avila only made $57,680, according to the UNM salary book. Ross, who is a full professor, made $102,374 compared to the average of $102,563. But the Board of Regents preliminarily approved $3.79 million in one-time funding in March to be used for faculty and staff pay increases, an average of a 1.75 percent increase in salaries. But Tim Ross said faculty will once again go
Percent average compared to peer institutions
UNM average salary
Rank 2008
2009
2010
2011-2012
2008
2009
2010
$104,000
$103,600
$102,900
$102,563
91%
89.8%
89%
Associate Professor
$74,100
$73,900
$74,800
$74,651
92.8%
92.1%
93.4%
Assistant Professor
$65,800
$65,800
$66,800
$66,905
94.7%
93.7%
94.5%
92.3%
91.3%
91.4%
Distinguished Professors Professor
Instructors
$61,031
Lecturers
$52,070 $83,557
All Ranks
$83,473
$83,932
$78,613
*Blue represents tenured and tenure-track faculty, orange represents non-tenure-track faculty *The Office of Institutional Research only began collecting data on non-tenure-track faculty this year *This information comes from the OIR without an official raise next year. The board also preliminarily approved a $252 million budget and a tuition increase of 3.75 percent for the 2012-2013 school year, a portion of which will go toward hiring 20 new faculty members as part of the provost’s academic plan for next year. The five-year plan would cost $4.3 million and includes language to hire 20 new faculty members, additional advisers, create a degree-granting honors college at UNM and increased
pay for faculty. UNM employed 834 tenured and tenure-track professors and 309 non-tenuretrack on main campus in 2010, the most recent information year. The regents will finalize the budget April 27. Faculty salaries decreased on average by 6 percent between 2008 and 2011, according to the UNM Fact Book and the Office of Instituational Research. Ross said the decrease is unacceptable. “It is really bad for morale, to
see someone young come in the door, with no experience, making more than you,” he said. UNM has also seen a decrease in new hires over the past four years. Ross said this is due to the lack of incentive for older faculty to retire. UNM hired 30 fewer tenured and tenure-track faculty members in 2010 than in 2007. Ross said retirement benefits are based on years served and an average of the final five years of pay. “The last four years have been
the same … so people are more reluctant to retire in that situation,” Ross said. Ross said this trend damages the quality of an education at UNM. “We need a natural evolution,” he said. “When faculty get older, they retire, and leave positions for young faulty to come in, which rejuvenates the research arm of the campus because they have new ideas and lots of energy,” he said.
see Professor PAGE 5
English dept. celebrates New Mexico literary classic by Avicra Luckey aluckey@unm.edu
Although Bless Me, Ultima was banned in Arizona public schools, UNM celebrates the novel’s 40 year anniversary with a reading marathon of the book today. The novel’s award-winning author Rudolfo Anaya said he feels the ban is unfortunate. “I think they did a terrible thing … I feel the same way about all books,” he said. “Books should not be banned; they should be accessible to everyone.” The native New Mexican received the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement from the Los Angeles Times in February, and the book is the most critically acclaimed novel in Chicano literature, according to the paper. The novel focuses on a boy’s coming of age in New Mexico in the 1940s. Anaya has also written several other critically acclaimed novels and epic poems, including Heart of Aztlán, Tortuga and Alburquerque according to Encylopedia Britannica. Anaya, along with 48 staff, students and faculty members, will read Bless Me, Ultima in the Willard Reading Room of Zimmerman Library. Anaya himself will read the final page of the book around 5 p.m., and a reception
will follow in the same room. Anaya said he is excited to meet students and is honored to be featured at his home state’s flagship university. The event is sponsored by the UNM English department and University Libraries, and will feature original papers from the author on display. A film adaptation of the novel directed by Carl Franklin, finished production and will be released this year.
Bless, Me Ultima
BOX: Bless, Me Ultima book reading with author Rudolfo Anaya book reading with author Today 8 a.m. –Rudolfo 5 p.m. Anaya Willard Reading Room, Zimmerman Library
Today
8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Willard Reading Room, Zimmerman Library
Courtesy Photo of Rudolfo Anaya
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 116
issue 143
Corpulent kitty
Pitchers win it
See page 3
See page 12
TODAY
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