Universities must pay faculty competitive wages to keep them. If not, students will suffer.
Editor’s note: In July, one of four unions working without a contract for the UMaine System reached a tentative agreement. The remaining unions, including clerical staff and faculty, have not agreed to a deal, and negotiations between the unions and the university system have ended.

The value of a university degree is determined in great measure by reputation. Every time faculty publish scholarship or creative work, receive awards for teaching, scholarship or service, or their name and affiliation appear in public in a favorable context, the reputation of the school is enhanced and the value of the degree increases. Alumni find it easier to get admitted to graduate school or find a job.

Recently, the University of Southern Maine trustees set a goal of “raising faculty pay to 90 percent of the national average,” as reported in the Portland Press Herald (July 21).

Will this help recruit quality teachers/scholars to replace departing faculty? Is 90 percent of average equivalent to 90 percent of mediocrity? Will applicants find the University of Maine System more attractive than other schools if we tell them they will earn below- average salaries here? What will the pool of applicants look like then?

Hiring replacements for departing UMaine faculty has been difficult in recent years, with many vacancies left unfilled. On our campus, an unfilled vacancy means fewer sections of classes may be offered per year and that we don’t have anybody with appropriate expertise in some academic areas related to those courses.

That means UMaine students get a narrower education. They find fewer courses to choose from each semester, some courses are offered much more infrequently, and graduation may be delayed because desired courses are not available with sufficient frequency.

Valuable teachers departing and the failure to fill resulting vacancies mean the quality of UMaine education declines. Students get less.

Numerous searches to fill UMaine faculty vacancies have failed recently due to our inability to offer competitive salaries. The best candidates for the job accept better offers elsewhere. There is no way to know how many talented candidates never apply for UMaine faculty positions.

At the University of Southern Maine, recent failed searches include such critical areas as chemistry and physics, fundamental to a university education in a technological society. During 2005-06 alone, 14 searches were authorized at USM with four unsuccessful due to failure to attract acceptable tenure-track candidates with terminal degrees (two in education, one each business and physics); four more failed due to inadequate salaries (psychology, law, history, chemistry) ; and one education search was changed from tenure-track to two-year fixed length so someone without a Ph.D. could be hired. Thus, nine of 14 searches failed at USM in one year.

The University of Maine-Fort Kent had several failed searches in mathematics education and nursing. Faculty at the University of Maine-Augusta estimate perhaps a 50 percent failure rate in attempts to hire new faculty, meaning half their searches may be repeated the following year at additional expense, which is not a very efficient way to spend taxpayer dollars.

Quality universities can drive state economic development. Businesses thinking of locating in a community seek local educational opportunities for continuing employee development. They want assurances the local labor pool is trainable and has a basic education. Access to accredited, affordable universities helps attract new businesses to a community. Declining universities contribute nothing to economic development.

Far from being a leader in local economic development, UMaine is going in the wrong direction.

To maintain a quality educational system, we must hire and keep good faculty. UMaine faculty deserve salaries that keep pace with the cost of living, so inflation does not force increasing sacrifice on their families while they lift up the children of Maine. AFUM, the faculty union, is asking only that faculty not be forced to work for less next year than we earned last year.

Dr. W. Bumper White is an associate professor of education at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College campus.