Faculty Salaries a Concern
Merten Discusses Fundraising
Asst. News Editor Dane Styler

Mason faculty posed some hard questions to University President Alan Merten as he addressed fundraising and salary concerns during last Wednesday’s Faculty Senate meeting.

Previous to the meeting, a list of questions on the subject was sent to Merten.

The concern that prompted the most voices from the Faculty Senate was faculty salaries. One of the issue raised was a salary payment discrepancy; one that Merten said affected about 700 faculty members. Many who have optioned to have their nine-month salaries paid over a 12-month period are receiving less than their full salaries, in part because the payment system does not adjust to annual raises that take place in November. It was stated that those affected are experiencing a salary shortage of one-twelfth each year.

Merten promised that an outside audit of the pay system will happen. Some faculty members voiced concerns as to how long the discrepancy will continue in their paychecks. It was unknown how long the process would take, but Chairwoman Suzanne Slayden later said that there would surely be compensation.

Merten said that further improvements in faculty salaries remain a priority of the university. He pointed to the recent successful negotiation with the State Council to move Mason faculty into a new peer group of universities as one of those improvements. He said he is also lobbying to get the state to properly recognize the higher costs of living for college faculty in Northern Virginia, much like the state already does with public school teachers and emergency response employees.

One faculty member pointed to the high fundraising levels in other universities and contrasted them to Mason’s own endowment. In response, Merten reminded everyone that George Mason University is still a young institution.

“We have done well for our age, but not for our size,” said Merten, explaining why fundraising has not been as high as UVA’s.

He said that though the university has signed over 130 thousand degrees to graduating students since 1972, 70 thousand of those were just in the last 10 years. He used this statistic to illustrate that the majority of Mason’s alumni body is still young compared to other universities like UVA.

Merten said Mason’s endowment has grown from 27 million to 54 million in the last ten years.

In addressing the Senate, Merten spent a great deal of time on the topic of private fundraising. He broke down all private donations to two dimensions of restricted or unrestricted, and endowment or expendable. He explained that often donations come with restrictions from the donators as to where the money can be spent, and also that they want the money spent right away. This was characteristic of Mason’s first and recent comprehensive fundraising campaign.

He continued by saying that, though Mason is currently undergoing more targeted campaigning, citing specifically the expansion and renovations of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, this work will “morph into another comprehensive campaign” that will look to fulfill four or five themes of needs existing “across the university.” Merten stated that this interdisciplinary approach would better benefit the university, as opposed to just looking at every department individually.

“This doesn’t mean that school-specific needs will be neglected,” Merten said.
When Executive Chair Professor James Bennett asked how much fundraising this new campaign will hope for, Merten responded by saying, “If the next campaign is not over 300 million, I’ll be very disappointed.”

Another concern brought up by the faculty senate was the amount of construction taking place on the Fairfax campus. They questioned if the money expended on these buildings is money well spent. Merten’s response was that these new buildings are a needed adjustment to the current student enrollment.

“We’re in the business of building buildings in catching up with the number of students we have,” Merten said. He added that most of current and recent construction is more research intended than academic.

One faculty member raised the question as to the hiring of new Classroom Design Specialist who, when enquired about, had spent no time teaching in a classroom.