On Friday, June 18, UA Chancellor G. David Gearhart sent University workers an email stating that he just learned on Thursday, June 17, “that the Governor’s freeze on state raises did, in fact, apply to higher education. This information has caught the entire higher education community by surprise.”
How that could have been a surprise instead of a delayed announcement is puzzling. Last month, the Director of the state Department of Finance and Administration sent a memorandum to all “Presidents/Chancellors of State Supported Institutions of Higher Education” specifically stating, that “annual career service recognition payments and classified and unclassified employee merit increases will be suspended for 2011.”
This is especially burdensome for low wage workers who already struggle. It also means that faculty will get no merit increases for the second consecutive year, because Gearhart recommended and the Board of Trustees voted to give no faculty raises last year. Of course, all employees will still be evaluated annually, even if these reviews are financially meaningless for the workers.
The UA Board of Trustees on May 21st voted to raise Chancellor Gearhart’s salary from $282,000 to $289,000 and voted to throw in an additional $225,000 annual deferred compensation payment from the UA Foundation. We’re not sure how the Board of Trustees can make expenditures of that magnitude from a “private” foundation, but they did.
Will Chancellor Gearhart now decline his $232,000 annual raise for next year, or is this salary freeze just for the workers? We will wait for his next empathetic email before guessing.
2 comments:
I am also anxious to see if he will see the absurdity of this situation.
Would the blogger mind providing verification (link to a posted memo or something like it) that the DFA informed the heads of the state institutions last month? Thank you.
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