o Balance budgets to make sure that all faculty are being paid competitively. Salaries are a joke across the board. If the university is trying to get new faculty, they have to offer salaries that the new hire wouldn't scoff at. Unfortunately, anyone newly minted PhD with six figure debt would laugh at every salary at this school except the salaries of white professors who became chairs of their departments. Since the university hasn't raised salaries in years, it's inevitable that new hires would be offered more than current faculty.

o Move existing faculty up to competitive salaries if they have shown adequate merit.

o None. It should depend on qualification rather than seniority.

o Base pay raises to stay competitive, but it is not possible as starting salary often moves faster than raises.

o Have annual cost of living increases also applied to the rank/discipline ranges. Then long term faculty who fall out the bottom of the range would have to be raised more.

o If the new hire is hired in at a competitive salary, then every professor in the department should be (1) brought up immediately to a matching amount, and then (2) increased beyond that to reflect their years of service.

o Should be left between the Department and candidate. KSU does not need to regulate this, other than to possibly raise salaries for long serving faculty who have demonstrated merit.

Survey comparative salaries, and pay per merit

o More discretion given to the department Chair or Dean rather than it being mostly an HR call.

o Hire an ethical and competent HR director and keep an ethical and competent admin in place for more than 18 months. Stop the friends with benefits financial practices that continue to plague this university.

• Apart from the readily evident views about the need for substantial equity increases, regular cost of living increases, and support for merit-based salary increases, several themes arise from these comments:
• There is a strong sense among faculty that salary advantages have been provided to some individuals for reasons other than rank, merit, or cost of living. Several comments directly mention issues such as “cronyism,” “friends with benefits,” and “cliques.” These issues are perceived as ongoing problems and should be addressed.
• Other comments call for clear and consistent policies for all, which are actually followed by administrators who are in the position to grant salary increases.
• Merit increases should be based on empirically documented achievement, at levels that are consistent across campus.
• Policies and procedures in place for hiring faculty and administrators with rank and tenure should be followed by administration. Per the KSU Faculty Handbook, no administrative candidate below the level of Vice President of Academic Affairs should be hired with rank or tenure in an academic unit without following policies related to the vetting of that candidate by unit faculty. Faculty should have more input into administrative hiring proceedings, and administration should be guided by faculty opinion in the interests of shared governance.