Where’s the University’s motto?

Something’s bothered me for a while, and I figure that the Technician would be the best option to solve it. I’ve searched and searched and cannot find an official motto for NC State University. Is there one? If not, why? Shouldn’t we have one? If we do have one, shouldn’t it be more prominent?

Tom Andersonsophomore, political science

Please get your facts right

You completely misquoted information that I provided to you regarding faculty salaries. The base salary posted is the salary for whatever the faculty members responsibilities are. For most of us at NCSU, that includes a combination of research, teaching, extension and service responsibilities. If you have research responsibilities, that is absolutely included in the salary figure.

The only “additional” salary that researchers can obtain is if they are nine month employees (of which many of us are). Then it is possible to use research grant funds to pay summer salary. You should also note that we nine month employees get no paid vacation or sick-leave. Faculty teaching summer school similarly can cover summer salary. Many of us, however, forgo paying ourselves summer salary and instead use the grant salary funds to support students. We work 12 months and are paid for only nine. And if a faculty member is on a 12 month contract and they receive salary funds on a research grant, those “salary release” funds are re-appropriated to other research and education functions.

Thus, the numbers (large or small) you see on the public listings are our salaries, either nine or 12 month. Not some starter value to which perk after perk is added.

Jim Martinchair, Faculty Senate

University underpays faculty

I read your [column] in the Technician about faculty salaries (“Check professors’ salaries,” pg. 4). I don’t know if you’ve received any comments from the University administration, but some of your interpretations of University salaries could use clarification, if not rebuttal.

First, your comment, “…it’s still shocking how much University employees make.” Please be careful to separate “employees” from “faculty.” I think if you look at the salaries of our custodial and grounds staff, our secretaries and bookkeepers, and other employees, you may find their salaries still shocking – but shockingly low. As to the faculty salaries being “shocking” – one must ask, “as compared to whom – doctors, lawyers, dentists, or corporate executives?” Most of our faculty spend as many or more years to qualify for their entry assistant professorship position as it takes to become a brain surgeon. But the salaries certainly don’t compare, and, amongst similar land grant universities, faculty salaries at N.C. State are not considered high.

Yes, faculty have varying responsibilities. We have some faculty who don’t teach at all, some who teach only graduate courses, some who teach a mix of courses, some who primarily teach undergraduates and do little or no research and even some who primarily do outreach/extension work.

Our top researchers could all go to industry and just about double their salaries and never have to teach, but they don’t. Most of our faculty have mixed appointments — with their job descriptions spelled out in some detail in their Statement of Mutual Expectations (SME), worked out between they and their department heads. In addition to teaching and research, most have considerableoutreach or service responsibilities — such as being editors of scientific journals, advising industry, reviewing research proposals for federal agencies and serving on state and national advisory boards and task forces. They are not paid extra for these duties. You should also note that the NCSU Faculty Well-Being Survey showed that the average NCSU faculty member works 55 hours a week, and they don’t get paid for overtime.

Faculty are allowed to consult with private industry if approved in advance, and mostly on their own time, and can receive additional income from it. Faculty who write books or invent and patent things may receive income from that too, though part is usually shared with the university. Faculty with administrative appointments have salary supplements for those duties, but they lose that supplement if they step down from administration.

Non-tenure track faculty, part-time faculty and those on “soft money” (non-state funds) are generally paid less per month than full-time or tenure track faculty. That is because there are usually different expectations for those positions.

My overall point is that the University salary structure for faculty is complex, and in my experience, just about all of our faculty are underpaid for what they do. I’m sorry if you’ve run into “mean” professors, or those who get no joy from teaching.

Experienced administrators do look at teaching effectiveness when allocating merit raises, as they do for approving tenure and promotions. But they also look at the other responsibilities outlined in the person’s SME. Finally, University faculty are state employees – public servants. Having their salary structure available for the public to see is a good thing, I think. It is unfortunate that the high qualification needed and the complexities and expectations of their jobs are not also available.

Robert D. BrownDean, College of Natural Resources