The UW System may have trouble attracting qualified faculty if the UW System Board of Regents accepts a salary freeze recommendation made by System President Katherine Lyall Friday.
According to the recommendation, regents would freeze salary increases this year and offer only a 1 percent increase next year for UW System faculty, academic staff and senior executives to combat the $250 million state budget cuts.
Such actions would stop the UW System from granting faculty the 4 percent annual pay increases needed to compete with salaries at other institutions unless regents persuade the state government to fund the rest through its compensation reserve, according to UW System Spokesman George Brooks.
\This [plan] would be a setback for our students and our communities as the state is struggling to recover economically and bring more brain-gain jobs to Wisconsin,"" Lyall said in a press release.
According to Brooks, when the system froze salary increases approximately 20 years ago, it was immediately disadvantaged as qualified applicants chose other institutions offering more reliable pay increases.
""For the next few years [after the freeze] it hurt us because we now had a history that there would be some years in which faculty could, in fact, have a salary freeze,"" he said.
In addition, Brooks said many faculty members who were close to retiring had no incentive to continue working for the UW System.
Recovering from the salary freeze was financially difficult as well, according to Brooks.
Despite drawbacks, Regent President Toby Marcovich said he thinks a salary freeze is the best possible way to conserve funds.
However, Marcovich said he is unsure if other regents will agree when they meet to decide on the matter Thursday and Friday.
