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Faculty members to get additional raise along with cost-of-living increase

By Amy Gage
August 1, 2005

Every faculty member at St. Olaf College will get a raise in September beyond the annual cost-of-living increase, as the college attempts to pay its professors on a level comparable with peer institutions.

Provost and Dean of the College Jim May made the announcement to the campus community in mid-July, after the Board of Regents approved a plan in June presented by President Christopher Thomforde and members of his cabinet.

"One of the major initiatives of our current strategic plan is to provide for a sustainable economic future that includes, in terms of faculty salary goals, reaching the 80th percentile of the AAUP rankings," wrote May, a classics professor himself, to his faculty colleagues.

"Unfortunately," he added, "the most recent AAUP report indicated that we were moving in the wrong direction, with the greatest slippage occurring at the assistant professor rank."

The amount of each faculty member's additional raise will vary according to rank, May explained, "with the lion's share of the increment going to the assistant professors, who are currently lagging farthest behind in the AAUP rankings."

The faculty salary subcommittee of the Review and Planning Committee (RPC) also approved the change in compensation.

More than $500,000 in savings realized this past fiscal year helped make the additional raises possible, May said. He credited "the good stewardship of budget managers," as well as the work of Professor of Economics Kathy Chadwick, who served as a special assistant to the administration this past year looking for efficiencies throughout the college.

The board-approved plan also utilizes proceeds from the endowment secured by the sale of WCAL, while allowing the college to continue progress on building a new organ for Boe Memorial Chapel -- a project for which the WCAL proceeds originally were slated.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.