ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 21, 1996 TAG: 9612230055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
Virginia's faculty members won't find bigger pay boosts in Gov. George Allen's amendment package unveiled Friday, as they'd hoped amid an effort to make professors' pay more competitive.
Boosting faculty salaries to a higher overall level has grown as an issue as colleges and universities increasingly have become concerned that their salaries aren't holding top professors.
"I would say we're very disappointed that the governor chose not to deal with faculty salaries," said Ralph Byers, Tech's governmental liaison.
Secretary of Education Beverly Sgro said the administration still supports boosting faculty pay, but "we felt addressing the issue of lag pay was a more important priority."
Allen said last month that he'll introduce emergency legislation to ease potential shortfalls for employees under the so-called "lag pay" plan, wherein state workers' paychecks were to be eased back by two weeks. The original idea behind lag pay was to shift paychecks so workers are paid after work is completed, rather than before, to save $75 million this year. Allen's legislation would come up with a three-day transition payment for every worker.
But in a meeting this week with Virginia Tech's Faculty Senate, Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, said he expected legislators to make the case for boosting faculty salaries above the 2 percent increase for this year to 5 percent.
The lower pay contributes to "brain drain," in which top professors go to better-paying universities. It's also a morale problem, Byers said.
During the 1980s, the state's colleges and universities set their sights on a pay scale in the 60th percentile of a given school's peer institutions, a term used to compare similar schools. Since budget cuts began in the early '90s, Virginia's faculty salaries have slipped into the lower third of all states. Bringing pay back up has been a priority, and the state last year decided to raise salaries during a four-year period.
Sgro said the administration still supports boosting faculty pay; "there just wasn't money this year," she said.
Elsewhere among Allen's amendments, Virginia Tech will find $350,000 to remove asbestos from a underground steam tunnel network that's part of the campus heating system.
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB