During this week the faculty of UNK will be sending messages to all members of the Board of Regents asking for raises that reflect the almost unprecedented levels of inflation in the United States. 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.
Since 2018 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 0.65%. for the vast majority of full-time faculty. Now, in the context of more than 9.1% inflation (Bureau of Labor Statistics), the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska seems prepared to again ignore our increasing cost of living and continue a pattern of offering stagnant raises. This is despite ensuring that the chancellors across the system, and NU’s 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 the past 5 years, 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. Shockingly, the salary approved by the BOR for the President of the NU system has increased 73% since 2018-19
In a spirit of equity and fairness the faculty of UNK will be sending messages to all members of the Board of Regents asking that they seriously reconsider their approach to our compensation. In addition, the President of UNKEA will speak during the public comment part of the BOR’s December 2nd meeting to call upon the BOR once again 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 in teaching Nebraskans that we have maintained for so long.
