Salary proposal inadequate

Finally, the news University of La Verne employees have been waiting for: pay increases are on the way. But this news comes with some unfair sacrifices as well.

Since last summer, University employees have been looking to gain some ground in the battle for increased pay. Currently University employee salaries lag between 5 percent and 15 percent behind the market average.

The newest draft of the plan titled "Principles of Compensation" was released to employees in an open forum earlier this week. The plan proposes bringing employees who have been with the University for less than two years within 81 percent of the pay target, the rate of comparable colleges and universities, otherwise known as parity. Employees with two-to-four years on the job will receive 84 percent of the pay target.

Ultimately, after four-to-six years on the job under this plan, the minimum salary must be within 87 percent of the pay target.

Why is 87 percent the goal? No one should be satisfied with that. Don't ULV faculty and staff deserve to be paid equally or better than their colleagues at comparable schools?

The news of this modest ­ to say the least ­ raise, however, is not the only bad news for faculty who were clearly upset, and rightfully so; the plan revealed by administrators also slashed benefits.

Tuition remission, a benefit that allows employees and their dependents to have ULV tuition fully paid for by the University, will be reduced for employees hired after the start of the new fiscal year beginning July 1, 2003.

The plan proposes that after one year of employment at ULV, employees will receive 50 percent of tuition coverage. After two years at ULV, coverage would go up to 75 percent, with 100 percent coverage coming after three years of employment at ULV.

Tuition remission is one of the main reasons some employees, particularly classified staff, take positions at ULV. In fact, many take a pay cut from their previous job to work here because of the alluring benefit of tuition remission. In taking the position, they are willing to take the below average pay, expecting the benefits to make up for it.

What happens when the main benefit is cut drastically? The result is that there will be fewer applicants wanting to come work at ULV, and students will have to settle for faculty who considered this school a last resort in the first place.

Another crucial benefit on the chopping block for the employee community is the retirement plan. Currently, employees are vested immediately upon hire. Under the new plan, an employee would have to wait five years after being hired to be vested.

Employees who attended the open forum, as one might imagine, were not too thrilled about the suggestions posed by the plan. One faculty member noted that paying some faculty more than others will cause a break down within the employee community.

So what does all this mean to the students of ULV?

Students want the best professors and the friendliest staff. Just because a professor is paid more does not mean he or she is more qualified to teach in a classroom.

Cutting back the benefits that entice professors to come to ULV will leave the University unable to compete for highly-qualified applicants. This tuning down of benefits will risk student learning experience.

There are many professors that put in the extra time it takes to get the job done, but for some reason, they do not receive the compensation they so deserve.

While we are comparing salaries to professors at other schools, we should also look at the cost of living in the area. There are a number of faculty and staff who live nearby, who cannot even afford to buy a home.