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Thursday, March 15, 2007

Classic Example of
A Buried Lede


'Relatively low salaries among faculty members at the University of Northern Colorado will likely be the focus of an employee-satisfaction survey planned for this spring.

The survey could also be a referendum on the job performance of UNC president Kay Norton, who has been criticized for her management of Colorado's third-largest university.

Faculty members are demoralized by the fact that their salaries are the lowest among the country's 154 doctoral universities, said Laura Connolly, an associate professor of economics at UNC.

"It's a situation that is steadily deteriorating," Connolly said.

She and other faculty members derided the salary situation last week at a Board of Trustees meeting, saying morale is at an all-time low.

"This is not a rosy situation," said Norman Peercy, chairman of the faculty senate. "The problem is we are looking for leadership, and we don't have that now."

UNC lost at least 22 top faculty members last year to universities that pay better, said faculty leaders. The school cannot attract candidates to fill those posts because the school cannot compete with other institutions, Connolly said.

"We've been failing to attract good people because we just can't keep up," she said.

The average salary for a full professor at UNC in 2004-05 was $68,583, according to a faculty study, which is about 40 percent less than what a full professor makes at CU-Boulder.

Many say the decline in salaries began when Norton took over as president in July 2002. Norton - whose background is in law - led a reorganization of the university based on a business model to cut costs.

The university also opted to move up a step and become a Division I school in athletics. That, critics say, has led to a $604,000 loss in the athletic budget this year.

"I don't think the administration and the Board of Trustees believe that education is the primary focus of the university," Connolly said.'