FSU Faculty Protest Salary Stalemate

FSU Faculty Protest Salary Stalemate.

Faculty at Florida State University (FSU) held a demonstration on Feb. 21 outside the Westcott Administration Building to protest the dismal response of FSU officials to the salary crisis at the university.

More than 40 faculty members marched with signs that carried messages like “Not without merit,”and “FSU can too!”The offi cial aspiration of the university to enter the top ranks of research institutions, coupled with the reluctance of administrators to budget any merit salary raises, has made life impossible for faculty who take the pledge of excellence seriously.“What’s been happening in recent years is that we’ve been losing people as fast as we’re hiring them,in part because of salary problems,”
said Jack Fiorito, United Faculty of Florida chapter president at FSU.
“We tend to hire people at the market level or a little above, but not reward them for their future achievements once they’re here.”
At FSU, salaries are about $10,000 below the market rate for faculty at comparable rank and discipline. Salaries are roughly 15 percent below the national average.
Yet, this year, the administration is capping faculty salaries at the level of across-the-board raises for Florida public employees (3.6 percent).
In effect, the administration is telling faculty that the exercise they
went through last spring, determining who should receive merit raises for publications and professional achievements, was meaningless.
FSU is not rewarding merit this year.


Jeb Bush, meanwhile, has recommended there be no university faculty raises in 2006-07. It will be the 2006 Legislature that makes the final decision on faculty wage hikes.