Recommendations
The goal of this study was to gain an accurate snapshot of faculty opinions that represent all departments, divisions, and disciplines. This ‘opinion’ based survey report is intended to be a supplement to the comprehensive work of the ad hoc Salary Compensation Committee appointed by President Brown, and therefore is not intended to supplant, or serve its expected official data driven study.
Appropriate Cost of Living (minimum 5%) and salary raise should be provided to all faculty immediately effective July 2018. Consideration should be given to bring salaries of faculty who have been at KSU for many years to current market levels based on rank and years of service to ensure salary equity with salaries of new hires in the same department. Cost of living and merit raises should apply after equity has been achieved.
Create a standard KSU CUPA Faculty Salary chart based on the rank, discipline, and years of service. The recommended average salaries are: $69,445 for Assistant Professors, $79,049 for Associate Professors and $93,636 for Full Professors. Salary for 12-month faculty should be then be calculated accordingly.
Review salaries frequently and give raises as necessary to keep KSU faculty salaries consistent with market levels for rank and years of service. Offer starting salaries that are consistent with market levels, and provide annual cost of living increases to help prevent the current level of salary inversion from occurring in the future.
Develop and publish clear and consistent policies for all. Require administrators who are in positions to approve hiring and salary decisions to follow KSU policy to ensure that all faculty are treated fairly.
Merit increases should be based on demonstrable achievement to help minimize the impact of evaluator subjectivity. Achievement should be empirically documented and consistent across the university. Merit increase evaluations should be vetted by a university-wide Committee similar to the Tenure and Promotion Committee.
Administrators should follow policies and procedures already in place for hiring faculty and administrators with rank and tenure. Faculty should have more input into administrative hiring proceedings in the interests of shared governance.
Faculty should receive a stipend equivalent to the amount awarded for teaching an overload class or a percentage of the Indirect Costs awarded to the university (whichever is greater) for producing grant proposals that are successfully funded.
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