If students are the lifeblood of the University of Idaho, then faculty and staff are the muscles that do the heavy lifting.
While faculty and staff play an integral role in helping students transition into college and complete their higher education, they are often underappreciated and undercompensated.
An article published in The Argonaut Tuesday cited that during the 2015-2016 fiscal year, salaries given to regular UI faculty members ranged from $20,000 to $100,000. Faculty members at other universities, such as Washington State University and the University of Nebraska Lincoln, receive annual salaries within the $100,000 range and above.
Such low salaries compared to peer institutions is one of the reasons turnover rates among faculty and staff are twice the national average, at 14.5 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
A lack of compensation, among other things, significantly contributes to low faculty morale – something that UI faculty and staff have experienced over the past few years.
While students might not have the power to change their professors” salaries, they can take the time to express appreciation for the faculty and staff members they interact with. Events like the Day of Thanks, where students are encouraged to write thank you messages to their professors, are one way for students to help bolster faculty and staff morale.
Students can send emails expressing appreciation to their favorite professor or take the time to write course evaluations at the end of each semester. A gesture as small as thanking the custodian who just finished cleaning a bathroom in the Idaho Commons or the IT employee who fixes the communications systems in classrooms with remote learning technology can make a big difference.
Students aren”t the only ones who can help faculty and staff feel appreciated either. Administrators can do little things, too, such as brainstorming ways to provide more low-cost recognition of exceling employees.
While the administration might not always be in a position to provide appropriate salary increases to faculty and staff or enact large policy changes, they can work to interact with faculty and staff in more positive ways.
The low faculty and staff morale isn”t unwarranted and it isn”t something that developed overnight. Rather, low faculty morale is the result of small policy changes and little to no salary increases compounded over time.
An article published in The Argonaut cites that while faculty morale remains low, the situation for UI faculty and staff is beginning to improve. This is largely due in part to the transparency and openness to work with faculty and staff members that has been exhibited by administrators like UI Provost and Executive Vice President John Wiencek, Vice President for Finance Brian Foisy and President Chuck Staben.
Other administrators should follow their lead and strive to practice greater transparency and be more open to ideas proposed by faculty and staff. In the same way that low faculty morale doesn”t appear overnight, it can”t be fixed in one day.
Becoming a university that openly values its faculty and staff is a process, but it”s a goal that can be achieved in the near future.
– CB