In spite of the recent slashes enacted against state support of higher education, Florida Atlantic University, at the end of the 2010 fiscal year, finds itself with a $118 million surplus of unrestricted funds—documented in FAU’s State Financial Audit found on the UFF website. UFF has not only asked the administration to cover a 3% raise for all faculty to partially off-set the 3% state employee contribution to the state retirement system, but has also requested that any Non-Tenure-Track (NTT) full-time faculty currently with salaries currently sunk beneath $40,000 be raised to this minimum. As it stands, almost 1/3 of NTT (around 60 people) make less than $40,000 with around 40 making $35,000 or below. Across-the-board raises and $40,000 minimum salary for NTT faculty would only make a dent of about 3% into the $118 million of unrestricted funds.
It is true that the economy is bad and many workers in other industries are being laid off, yet FAU has managed to grow its unrestricted funds by over 17 times from $7,086,491 in June 2001 to $118 million in 2010. Even during the worst years of the economic recession, FAU has grown its unrestricted funds by a 1/3 from $73,456,329 in June 2008 to $118 million in 2010. The 2011 numbers have not yet been released, but one can safely guess it has grown again. So even with dramatically slashed state allocations to the university, the administration is sitting on an enormous savings that should at least be partially distributed to faculty that had an effective 6% pay cut with newly enforced contributions to the state retire-ment system and consistently trails in salaries with other faculty across the country. UFF suggests that everyone who reads this email write to President Saunders (president(at)fau.edu) and ask that some of the unrestricted funds be used to off-set employee contributions to the retirement system and raise the salaries of vital NTT full-time faculty to a livable wage. The faculty union has made its case. Now it is time for the faculty to let the administration know its feelings directly. A strong union and strong faculty are one in the same. One cannot exist without the other.
This is a difficult time for everyone, but FAU employees have consistently sacrificed for the good of the university. If the university can lighten the economic stress of its employees without jeopardizing its overall mission, UFF feels that it should. It seems a modest request to ask for a small percentage of the $118 million unrestricted funds to be returned to the very faculty who allow the university to operate daily and with excellence.
See related posts:
Bloated Administration Fuels College Costs
Faculty and Staff Salary Data, 2008-09, 2009-10
FAU’s Assets Swell to Almost $1 Billion: 2009 Financial Audit Now Available!