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Page 3 April 29, 2015

Faculty will not receive raises

Webster University will not consider pay increase until September
By Emily Van de Reit
Staff Writer

By Jacob Claspille
Staff Writer

Webster Universitys faculty will not get a raise in the

coming school yearunless
the Universitys financial picture improves.
The announcement came
from a report from the Committee on Salary and Fringe
Benefits at the Faculty Assembly meeting on April 21.
Faculty were told the
school faces a $19 million
budget shortfall in the coming
year. That shortfall is up $7
million from what the University had originally projected
during the fall semester.
The 2015 fiscal year overview showed Webster Universitys student enrollment decreased and that the university
would miss its planned revenue mark by 10 percent. The
University blamed declining
enrollment across Websters
metro and military campuses,
particularly in graduate programs.
Jim Brasfield, a professor in Websters management department, has been
at the university for 39 years.
Throughout that time, he said
the university has never lived
off of its endowment. Instead,
it is a 95 to 97 percent tuitiondependent university with a
small endowment.
If theres a drop in enrollment and tuition revenue, that
puts a strain on the budget,
Brasfield said. Almost every
dollar that we spend is from
tuition money. We spend most
of that money, but typically
theres a little bit of a cushion.
But that cushion in next years
budget is pretty low relative to
the size of the budget.
John Barnshaw, the senior
program officer and senior
higher education researcher
at American Association of
University Professors (AAUP),
said a zero-percent increase
in faculty salaries is very uncommon for institutions nationwide. However, since the
recession in 2008, a zero-percent increase is more common
than it had been in the 10 years

prior. According to the AAUP

survey, of 1,100 institutions
and 375,000 faculty, 1.4 percent of faculty did not receive
a raise this year.
A zero-percent increase
shows that the institution is
probably right at the line for
where it can be in terms of its
current economic capacity,
Barrow said. It basically says
that its difficult to continue
business as usual where faculty
members arent receiving increase in salary.

websterjournal.com

WU to increase tuition

problem.
What tends to happen in
those situations is that some
of the best [faculty] leave, especially younger people who
feel that they have some other
career options, Brasfield said.
And thats not good for a university because you often lose
your best young people.
Brasfield said continuous
zero-percent increases affect
younger faculty members differently than those who are
closer to retirement.

If theres a perception that this institution is stagnant and continues to have a

financial problem, its going to be hard to
recruit people.
Jim Brasfield

Webster University Professor

The AAUP survey also

found that the national average salary change for all institutions this year was a 2.2 percent increase in nominal terms
and a 1.4 percent increase in
inflation-adjusted terms. For
continuing faculty, it was a
3.7 percent increase in nominal terms and a 2.9 percent
increase in inflation-adjusted
terms.
Barnshaw said a zeropercent salary increase affects
cost of living.
For example, if you made
$100,000 last year and inflation was at one percent, and
then you make $100,000 again
this year, youve essentially lost
one percent of your income.
Inflation caused you to not
have the same standard of living as you had before, Barnshaw said. So when you have
a zero-percent increase across
the board, thats concerning
for faculty.
Brasfield said it is discouraging to faculty who do not
get a salary increase. He said if
enrollment bounces back over
the course of the next year and
into the following year, and
salary increases are able to be
given, then this is a temporary
blip. But if faculty continued
to receive no increase in salary, it would turn into a larger

You reach a certain age

and it gets harder to switch to
another place. On the other
hand, somebody that is 30 and
at the beginning of their academic career is likely to get a
job elsewhere, Brasfield said.
If theres a perception that
this institution is stagnant and
continues to have a financial
problem, its going to be hard
to recruit people to come.
Brasfield does not believe
that Webster is at risk for this
at this time. But faculty members leaving for other jobs
could be a long-term implication if salaries continue to stay
where they are.
If we cant do that, then
we arent doing the best we can
for students, Brasfield said.
In that sense, current and future students have a stake in
this as well.
Brasfield said Webster
University saw a zero-percent
increase in faculty salaries for
a full year, five years ago. However, this stagnation was followed the next year with salary increases of more money.
The university has also been
relatively consistent with faculty salary increases compared
to inflation over the past five
years. Meaning, when the cost
of living was more expensive,
faculty received higher salaries

Graphic by Dan Carcione

By Jacob Claspille
Staff Writer

Most Webster students will

see a three percent increase in tuition in the fall. Military students
will not have their tuitions raised.
Jim Brasfield, a professor at
Webster University, believes the
tuition increase will not affect student enrollment.
Will that discourage people
from coming, I would think not,
said Brasfield three percent isnt a
huge increase. Its not like a 10 or
15 or 20 percent increase.
This increase is included in
projected revenue of $208.7 million for the 2016 fiscal year, compared to $206.7 million in projected expenses.
Webster has made $8 million
in cuts for the 2016 fiscal year.
The university plans to save
$4.4 million through administraand vice versa.
A few steps must be taken
in order to prevent future zero-percent faculty salary increases in the future, Brasfield
said. To him, the most important thing is to take necessary
actions to ensure that enrollment does not keep slipping.
If that is not possible, then the
university must look at what
costs it can cut back.

tion and staff reduction. It expects

to save $2.2 million by leaving
vacant positions open.
The university cut $1.7 million in travel, entertainment,
equipment and supplies. The university hopes to save $1.2 million
from class scheduling initiatives
by limiting the number of classes
that have enrollment under 10
students.
That number gives the university $2 million in an operating
reserve. This is the difference between revenue and expense.
In previous years, Webster
preferred to hold five percentor
$10 millionin the operating reserve.
Anything less than five percent can affect an organizations
bond rating, as well as the cost of
borrowing money.
Brasfield claims a smaller op-

erating reserve in the projected

budget is due to conservative
budget planning.
The projections were fairly
conservative. They took last years
enrollment and did 98 percent of
that.
Budgeting a 2 percent enrollment decline is pretty conservative, Brasfield said. If they come
up with exactly what it was last
year, then theyll be some million
dollars to the better.
Brasfield believes just because
the operating reserve is lower
than it has been, doesnt mean the
school cant make more than what
they projected.

Webster needs to find

a way going forward that it
can pay salary increases, deal
with various expenses and so
on and still have enough of a
cushion each year so that if
we do have a slight downturn
in enrollment, its not going to
cause a crisis, Brasfield said.
For the future, administration stated that if enrollments
met targets, they would re-

evaluate the potential of a twopercent faculty salary increase.

If enrollment targets are not
met, it is probable faculty will
not receive a raise for the rest
of the school year. This reevaluation will be discussed in
September.

Contact the writer:

websterjournal@gmail.com

Contact the writer:

websterjournal@gmail.com

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