Faculty, staff pay frozen

By Jesse West

As a sign that the American economy is still struggling to get its legs back, Missouri Western State University is unable to give an increase in pay to either faculty or staff during the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

“We just didn’t have the money to work with at any possible rate this year,” said President Robert Vartabedian. “We’re not able to do that and every president I’ve talked to in the state of Missouri was under similar circumstances.”

Last year, the State Department of Higher Education asked all four-year colleges and universities in Missouri for statements that would detail how their operations would be altered by reductions in state funding ranging from 15 percent to 25 percent.

With hints of increases in tuition and reductions in staff/faculty positions in these statements, Gov. Jay Nixon cut a deal in which the state would agree not to cut the budgets but, in return, the colleges and universities would not be allowed to raise tuition during the fiscal year.

Mel Klinkner, the vice president for financial planning and administration, explains that all economic indicators so far point to the situation getting worse before it gets better.

“I think [the government is] really concerned about getting through 2011,” Klinkner said. “There are still some federal stabilization funds that help us through 2011, but if the economy has not improved by fiscal year 2012, it could be devastating in my opinion.”

Western administration is already thinking about future concerns. According to Klinkner, the biggest concern facing the university is the effect the 0 percent pay increase will have on recruiting and retention of faculty and staff.

“After a period of time, [if] there’s not anything done as far as the salary increase, it could [be a problem],” Klinker said. “Fortunately from what I’ve heard and seen, we have some very committed, long term professors who love Western and are committed to it and the students. There could possibly be retention issues down the road.”

Vartabedian is quick to echo Klinker’s concerns. During his time at other institutions, Vartabedian witnessed up to three consecutive years in which faculty and staff were not given a pay raise and he knows just how devastating this turn of events can be for Western faculty and staff.

“If it continues, it will be very demoralizing to faculty and staff,” Vartabedian said. “It’s tough on morale in terms of them being discouraged by and in terms of them possibly looking elsewhere. If it’s at all possible to do something for faculty and staff next year, we’d sure like to do that.”

According to Klinkner, the possibilities are limited. As of May 2007, Senate bill 389 prevents colleges and universities from raising tuition beyond the level of the consumer price index.

“When you don’t have any new source of revenue (state appropriation or tuition), there’s no money to do [increase salaries],” Klinkner said. “It’s just been prudent fiscal management to look at can we or not. Would we love to do that? Absolutely.”

Out of this difficult situation, however, there has been some good. Recently, the board of governors at Missouri Western decided, based on an evaluation of his first year, to offer Vartabedian a pay raise of roughly 3 percent. However, the president had other ideas.

“I talked to [Dirck Clark], the chair of the board, and he asked me about my raise situation,” Vartabedian said. “I said, ‘well in this climate, no raise would be fine but if there’s any raise I’ll be donating it back to the university.’ I just wouldn’t feel right accepting anything like that.”

Unable to dissuade the board, Vartabedian donated his pay raise to the Missouri Western Foundation, a move that took Clark and the board by surprise.

“I thought it was extremely generous,” Clark said. “It was a great gesture on his part and I think it was designed to send a message that he is very concerned about the university over all.”

For Vartabedian, paramount among his concerns are the challenges the faculty and staff are dealing with not only in terms of pay, but also in dealing with the increase in enrollment.

“I think that we’ve probably stretched our faculty [and staff] as far as they can be stretched at this point,” Vartabedian said. “Both our faculty and staff are working very seriously to deal with increased numbers we’ve been experiencing for five consecutive years. We will need to increase the size of our faculty in the near future.”

Debbie Hargis has been a receptionist with the Registrar’s Office for the past five years. Having just learned a few months ago that she would not be receiving a pay raise, Hargis is concerned but remains optimistic.

“I guess we just have to adjust,” Hargis said. “The whole world is having to adjust to a worse economy, and I have hopes it will get better.”

Klinkner is quick to agree, stating that he hopes things will soon improve. However, like everyone else involved, Klinkner is being realistic about the situation and knows that the faculty and staff at Missouri Western are in for a tough year.

“Through August the state’s general revenue is 5.6 percent behind what they budgeted. Not a very good start to the year,” Klinkner said. “All we’re hearing is negative at this point. There are not any positive indicators coming out so far. If those indicators do not change, I would not expect appropriations to increase.”