College, university presidents say employees need pay raise

Staff Writer kmcnutt@oklahoman.com

Low pay for faculty and staff was cited by several presidents of the state’s 25 public colleges and universities as they presented their fiscal year 2019 budgets Wednesday to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

Many said increases in tuition and fees included in their budgets will be used to improve the situation.

The regents will vote Thursday on the proposed budgets.

The last time employees of Oklahoma City Community College received a raise was 11 years ago, President Jerry Steward said.

“I have a high level of commitment to providing our employees a raise this year,” Steward said. He is seeking an increase in tuition and mandatory fees of 3.8 percent or $120 per year.

President Cheryl Evans said the base pay at Northern Oklahoma College is $40,000 for faculty with a master’s degree and $23,000 for staff, adding she hopes to make a “small adjustment” in the new academic year.

“They’ve been very patient and I want to pay them more,” said Evans, who has lost faculty to positions with K-12 schools that pay more.

NOC is seeking a 7 percent increase in tuition and fees or about $305 a year.

One-third of the employees at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College make less than $20,000 a year, NEO President Jeff Hale said.

NEO is seeking an increase in tuition and fees totaling $10.50 per credit hour or $315 per year. The tuition increase will pay for a 3 percent employee raise, Hale said.

Regent Andy Lester, of Edmond, said years of cuts in state funding has left him angry.

“We’re losing faculty. We’re losing staff. We’re pauperizing these people. We’re putting them into poverty, for what?

“We need to stop this,” Lester said. “As a state, our Legislature, we need now to start properly funding higher education.”

Oklahoma State University has lagged behind in salaries for years, President Burns Hargis said.

“That’s something we need to start catching up on. We’re about $15,000 below the average of the Big 12. That’s simply not acceptable,” Hargis said.

He is asking to raise tuition and fees on the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses by 3.2 percent “to maintain our faculty.” The OSU budget includes a 2.5 percent raise for faculty and staff effective Jan. 1.

President Randy Beutler has proposed a 4.9 percent increase in tuition and fees at Southwestern Oklahoma State University or about $330 per year for a full-time undergraduate.

Beutler said he plans to give a cost-of-living raise to faculty and staff after the first of the year if the revenue comes in as budgeted.

The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma will not increase tuition for the 2018-19 academic year, but fulltime students will pay an additional $240 in mandatory fees per trimester.

The money will pay for an upgrade to USAO’s IT infrastructure and stipends for employees, President John Feaver said.

All faculty and staff will get a one-time $2,000 stipend this fall, and an additional merit stipend ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 will be given to some later in the academic year, Feaver said.

“Our salaries are near the bottom for four-year universities in the state,” he said.

Other institutions not seeking a tuition increase for 2018-19 are the University of Oklahoma, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Murray State College and Eastern Oklahoma State College.

“We’ve been increasing tuition at the rate of 5.4 percent, and it’s time to stop that,” incoming OU President Jim Gallogly said. “We’re worried about the affordability of our institution for all the people of Oklahoma and all those other wonderful people who decide to make themselves Sooners.”

Gallogly said among OU faculty “some are very well paid and some are very poorly paid.”