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October 12, 2009
A crack in the ice?
When pretty much every college and university in America has some sort of salary and hiring freeze on one threat that doesn't work well is saying to the Board of Trustees, "If you don't raise salaries people will start to go on the job market." There is very little market, except for retiree replacements at places that are doing that kind of thing.
The University of Chicago seems to see this as an opportunity.
The University of Chicago is planning a faculty expansion in coming year -- not just the unfreezing of selected positions that some institutions are hoping for this year, but an effort to increase the total size of the faculty. Robert J. Zimmer, the university's president, recently sent faculty members an e-mail in which he noted the impact of cuts in the last year, and said that he believed additional cuts would not be necessary. Further, he outlined plans for a faculty expansion. While details are not yet available, he said the following: "[W]e will institute a program for the gradual expansion of the faculty. Organized by the deans and provost and led by the faculty, we will seek out special opportunities and address key needs through a selected expansion over the next five years.
It could work. If Chicago starts picking off folks at the top that will open up some movement - and that might help break the salary freezes all sorts of places. Because if Chicago hires one of my middling-senior colleagues, that frees up salary to hire replacements at the bottom of the scale.
I'm on a committee with the highest-paid member of our faculty, who wryly admitted that the best thing he could do for the salary situation is retire. There doesn't seem to be any other reason for him to do so, though (good health, still vigorous teaching, sacrificial community service), so I'm glad he isn't on the list yet.
But still - he's right. We're a campus where some targeted buy-outs could make a big difference, given our salary structure and hour-glass shape to the faculty (if you look at cohort size). Our Provost and Dean of Faculty, an economist in her earlier life, seems always to point out when incentives for retirement come up that even mentioning the administration is considering such a thing actually slows retirements while people wait to hear what they might get.
I figure that a good many senior folks out there (here and elsewhere) are waiting for the resolution of the Obamacare thing so they can make a better decision. Why start using Medicare the year everything about insurance is up in the air?
Posted by CrankyProfessor at October 12, 2009 8:59 AM