Salary and Benefits Maintenance and Expansion
AOF’s top priority is to ensure OUS faculty and professional staff are compensated competitively with their peers at comparator institutions.
As of 2007, each OUS campus was at or near the bottom of the list of comparator institutions regarding salary and benefits combined. This low rank inhibits OUS’ ability to attract and retain faculty who lead research and education efforts in Oregon’s universities. Nearly 30 percent of OUS’ recent faculty searches have failed, and when a program loses a nationally recognized faculty member to another university offering a more competitive package, it takes years to replace that caliber of instructor.
AOF knows faculty serve as the backbone for achievement at all OUS institutions. In 2007 AOF worked with other higher education advocates at the capitol to earmark an extra $10 million solely for improving faculty salaries in Oregon. These dollars are in addition to the $125 million the state set aside for public employee cost-of-living increases.