Salary increases approved

by Lee Yang

After remaining frozen for the first two months of the semester, salary increases for Lewis & Clark faculty and staff were approved at a Board of Trustees meeting on October 16. LC College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School faculty, exempt staff and Common Services exempt staff will see a three percent salary increase beginning November 1.

According to Associate Vice President for Finance George Battistel, LC faculty and staff are normally given a salary increase every year to adjust for inflation, but a decision was made this year to delay the increase until enrollment was in place and financial aid was allotted for all three schools.

This hold came during the nation’s worst economic recession since the Great Depression. The decline of the stock market has hurt LC’s endowment, which provides financial aid to the undergraduates. “I think it’s fair to say that they didn’t want to overspend,” said Susan Glosser, associate professor of history and chair of the CAS Budget Advisory Committee. “You don’t always know what the enrollment is going to be.”

The board was then presented with three choices: to offer no increase, to enact a retroactive 3% increase, or to delay the increase. The option of implementing no increase proved unpopular. According to Glosser, the LC faculty is among the lowest paid in Oregon, and annual salary increases are a way for the College to correct that. Instead, the Executive Council and the Finance Committee were overwhelmingly in favor of delaying the increase to November 1st in their recommendations, which were subsequently adopted. This act, Battistel said, has saved the school a significant amount.

Battistel said that the administration has the students’ best interests at heart. “For the CAS in particular, we are very aware of the net increase in the tuition (minus financial aid), and how difficult it is to keep up with the increases,” he said. “The actual [salary] increases are small,” said Glosser, “so I don’t think students have anything to worry about. The College is interested in keeping the tuition low, and aside from the usual increase to keep up with inflation, there won’t be any additional financial changes in terms of tuition and fees.”

At the moment, projections for next year’s tuition and fees are unavailable. Battistel said that the Board is currently in the early stages of budgeting, and figures will likely be available sometime in late December or early January.