UNCSA instructors would get big jump in salary under plan approved by trustees

The salaries of instructors at UNC School of the Arts would increase at least 11 percent and as much as 75 percent under a proposal that would change how faculty are ranked to bring their salaries more in line with the school's peer or competitor institutions.

The plan, approved Thursday by the school's trustees, would need approval by the board of governors of the University of North Carolina system. The state legislature would have to approve about $4.6 million to pay for adjusting salaries and benefits. The plan would go into effect in July 2013 if approved.

School leaders say the change would make it easier to recruit faculty and reduce the number of instructors leaving UNCSA for better compensation packages elsewhere.

The more recent ones include David McHugh, who last year ended his stint at UNCSA as head of the master's program in film-music composition in the School of Filmmaking. Laura Henry, an accomplished acting teacher and director, left the School of Drama for similar reasons.

A system for ranking faculty has never existed at UNCSA, which began operating in 1965. UNCSA faculty members all have the same rank of instructor, which keeps their average salary fairly constant at $61,991.

"This is a ceiling beyond which they can't go," said David Nelson, the school's provost.

Under the proposed ranking system, a UNCSA faculty member could move up the ranks and earn more pay with each promotion. The lowest rank would be instructor, and the highest would be professor. The two middle rankings would be assistant professor and associate professor.

School officials envision that half the current faculty would become professors under the new ranking system, a quarter would become associate professors and the rest would become assistant professors.

A professor could make as much as $108,664 and an instructor would start at $68,676.

Jason Romney, an instructor in UNCSA's School of Design & Production, also heads the school's faculty council. He hailed the decision.

"This issue of faculty retention is one area that we are hoping to address by implementing this rank system," he said by email.

Robert Beseda, an assistant drama dean, said, "Nothing is getting any cheaper now. People who were hired here 40 years ago bought houses for nothing. These younger faculty who are coming in are facing a whole different scenario. We've got to be competitive with the rest of the world as we bring in young blood."

Romney emailed that "this rank system will help us recruit new faculty to UNCSA where we can offer them a competitive salary and allow them to retain their rank received at another institution or even offer them a promotion in rank upon arrival at UNCSA. For the current faculty this will be a way for us to recognize and reward faculty excellence in (several) areas."

Those areas are called "Engaged Creative Activity/Research," "Engaged Teaching" and "Engaged Service." They include publishing scholarly work but do not require it. Instead, an instructor could see a promotion in rank because of such accomplishments as making a recording or designing a set for a professional theater production, Romney said. These categories would accommodate instructors who have much practical knowledge and skill but little background in mainstream academic settings.

"We've developed metrics for a broad range of professional activities," Romney said.

The faculty is solidly behind the faculty-rank proposal. More than 96 percent voted on the proposal in December, and more than 96 percent of those voting approved it, school officials said.

However, the proposal does not include a way of achieving tenure. Romney said the implementation of tenure would "allow us the opportunity to get lazy."

The big question now is whether the General Assembly will release funding for the salary increases. The current environment gives pause: All told, UNCSA has seen its state allocations drop by $10 million since 2000.

But Beseda pointed out that UNCSA has integrated itself more fully into the UNC system several ways, including moving to a semester system. It had been the one system school working on a trimester system.

"Why shouldn't we enjoy the same rights and privileges as everyone else?" he said.