CHAPEL HILL – Attracting and keeping the best instructors to teach university students is an ongoing battle, Interim UNC System President William L. Roper says.
“We have a great university system in North Carolina. We have outstanding faculty. And universities, colleges all over America know that. They’re trying to raid our faculty to go elsewhere,” Roper says in the accompanying video.
“So retaining those folks and recruiting new ones to fill the voids when people do leave, or to recruit new people for new programs, is an ongoing activity. We need to focus intently on the amount of money we have to retain people and to recruit people to be sure, to be competitive in the environment.”
The 2019-21 budget approved recently by the state House would increase the UNC System’s Faculty Recruitment and Retention Fund, which the university uses to counter attempts to poach faculty, by $1 million, to $14.5 million in 2019-20, and by $2 million more to $16.5 million in 2020-21.
But after years of meager raises, the House budget provides raises of just 1 percent or $500, whichever is greater, to university faculty and other state employees.1 The N.C. Senate will take up budget deliberations next.
Roper says support for university faculty goes beyond dollars and cents, though.
“There are some other issues that we need to focus on,” he says.
“If we make North Carolina a more livable place, and do things that make it easier for people with young families to live and work in our universities – if we, broadly speaking, make this a more desirable place for people to come to and spend the better part of their career here, we will retain people. We’ll be able to recruit people,” he says.
“Yes, we’re in a competition for talent. On the whole, I think we’re doing quite well. But it’s a continuing effort every day. We’re arguing that faculty salaries, staff salaries are a major issue that we need help from the legislature on.”
1https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2019/Budget/2019/AllCommitteeReport_ForFloor_2019_05_01.pdf, p. B34.
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