(Press Release) – For the last five years the faculty and staff at UNK have not received raises that have kept up with the rising cost of living. UNKEA, the labor union for full-time faculty at UNK, is currently negotiating with the Board of Regents seeking a contract that will come as close as possible to the inflationary context that we currently live in. Our next session with the Board of Regents takes place on Nov.1st at 10:00 am and faculty across the campus will be wearing UNK blue in solidarity with our efforts at the table (see attached flyer).
In the past five years the vast majority of UNK’s full time faculty have received average raises of 1.1%, while last year and this year the BOR only approved faculty raises of .65%. for the vast majority of full-time faculty while members of our staff have seen raises below the increasing cost of living during those same 5 years. In fact, the staff had one year in the past 5 where they received no raise.
Now, in the context of more than 8% inflation, the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska seems prepared to again ignore our increasing cost of living and propose a raise that falls substantially and woefully short of inflation. This is despite ensuring that the chancellors across the system and the president have received raises during these past five years that have regularly surpassed the cost of living.
For example, the Chancellor of UNK has received an average raise of over 5% during this time, the Chancellor of UNO an average raise of 8.4% since 2016-2017 (an overall 59% increase in the salary offered to this chancellor) and the Chancellor of UNL an average raise of 2.2% during the last 5 years with a recent 9% increase from last year. While the
salary approved by the BOR for the President of the NU system has increased 73% since 2018-19 with an average raise of 14.6%. If one includes the recent $105,000 bonus that President Carter received this would amount to an average increase of 18.4% and overall increase of 92% since 2018-19.
The continuation of this approach to raises for employees at UNK is damaging the ability of UNK to retain its faculty and staff and harms our ability to compete for new talent. For example, 74 full time faculty members have voluntarily left UNK in the past 5 years while some of those who have remained have had to supplement their income by taking on other jobs. Not only have we lost faculty to other institutions of higher learning, but our faculty with the educational certificates to teach at the K-12 level can often earn more money working for Lincoln or Kearney public schools than they can here at UNK.
Staff members, such as office associates, are given immense responsibilities in helping to manage thousands of dollars in departmental budgets yet could easily find work that pays equal if not better at Target or Hyvee. There is no doubt that faculty and staff morale is affected by this reality and of course this all damages the education that our students receive.
UNKEA urges Regent Paul Kenney and the rest of the BOR to establish a new trend, one where the faculty and staff at UNK receive raises that are in line with inflation, raises that demonstrate the board’s support in helping UNK continue the high level of excellence that we have maintained for so long.
