BANGOR, Maine — The University of Maine System has given its employees more than $7 million in raises since 2006, during a period of repeated budget cuts and fiscal uncertainty, according to data the system released Tuesday. But the system’s leaders say that same period was a time of great change and shifting roles, with many employees taking on additional work.
Most of the pay increases were awarded under the Salaried Employee Compensation and Classification Program, which allows nonfaculty salaried employees in the system to have their positions reviewed to see if their workload warrants a higher pay rate.
Other increases were a result of promotions or transfers to a different position or university, which aren’t covered under the program but were included in the list because they involved pay increases.
The University of Maine in Orono, the system’s flagship campus, gave $2.74 million in raises over the past seven years, followed by USM with $2.35 million in increases. The University of Maine at Augusta saw $424,161 in raises; University of Maine at Farmington, $375,569; University of Maine at Presque Isle, $147,291; University of Maine at Fort Kent, $140,787; University of Maine at Machias, $66,290; and $757,041 in the system office.
There are about 325 fewer full-time positions in the system than there were in October 2005, according to Tracey Bigney, the system’s chief human resources officer. That means other employees have had to fill some of those gaps by moving to different positions or taking on more duties in their current jobs.
Some numbers on the list could be misleading if taken out of context, Bigney said. Many of the more drastic pay increases came after employees switched jobs or positions were combined during the past seven years.
For example, at the University of Maine at Farmington, Kathleen Falco was promoted from an hourly personnel assistant paid $27,560 a year to the campus’s coordinator of compensation and benefits — a professional position — making $34,000. She received a series of promotions and became director of human resources and finance, with an annual salary of $67,000.
Other employees saw increases based on salary adjustments paired with promotions.
Longtime UMaine administrator Robert Dana saw his salary go from $93,569 to $145,000 through two equity adjustments and a promotion from dean of students to vice president for student affairs. And Kenda Scheele saw her salary increase from $66,711 to $110,000 through a promotion from associate dean of students to senior associate dean of students, a salary adjustment and another promotion to assistant vice president and senior associate dean.
About 1,800 system employees are eligible to apply for the system’s salary adjustment program.
“These positions span from entry level up to [vice presidents]. There are many people on this list who are not high-paid administrators,” Bigney said. “I think some people are thinking these are just affecting upper-level administrators, and that’s just not the case.”
The University of Southern Maine faced questions last month after it was reported that university employees had received $242,000 in raises during the difficult 2012 fiscal year. But the campus actually handed out many more raises — both in terms of people and dollars — in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011.
The system’s total payroll as of June 30, 2011, was $275.4 million for about 5,750 employees, according to Bigney. In that same fiscal year, the system and its universities distributed just over $1 million in raises.
Two USM employees volunteered to have their raises revoked last week.
Ronald A. Mosley, president of the Associated Faculties of the Universities of Maine, said it has been frustrating to hear of raises given to nonfaculty salaried employees under the system’s compensation program during a time when faculty members have struggled to reach a contract deal with the system.
“Some of the administrative increases … were somewhat unusual and it was just very poor timing,” Mosley said Monday afternoon.
“Faculty productivity has been going up despite increased workload,” Mosley said. “They haven’t seen fit to make adjustments for us.”
The faculty union’s members have yet to strike a new deal despite the fact that its members’ previous contract expired June 30, 2011, according to Mosley.
Across most of the universities in the system, raises typically were given out at a higher rate in 2006 and 2007, but slowed once the recession of 2008 hit, Bigney said. On some campuses, salaries began to rise again by 2010 and 2011. But the University of Maine saw $461,645 in raises in 2009, a number that since has fallen to $262,073 in the 2012 fiscal year.
Chancellor James Page suspended all discretionary pay increases for system employees on March 22 and said the system would be reviewing its raise policies.
“It’s a large, complex issue,” Page said Monday afternoon, adding that the moratorium on discretionary pay increases would stay in place during the system’s review of compensation policies and procedures.
Page said he expects the majority of pay increases will be “unexceptional” but that legitimate questions about the policies have been raised.
After the compensation program is examined, Page said he would bring recommendations before the system’s board of trustees. He didn’t indicate how long the review would take but called it a “high priority.”
“The actions we’ve taken speak for themselves,” Page said.
Mosley said he was pleased with the steps Page has taken in his first few weeks in office. Page replaced former Chancellor Richard Pattenaude just two days before controversial news related to the compensation program broke.
“Chancellor Page kind of stepped into the middle of all this and I think he did the right thing,” Mosley said.
Bigney said the policy was a valuable way of assuring that employees are appropriately compensated for their work and makes it easier for the universities to retain them.
“I think it is an important tool to help us set fair salaries,” Bigney said. “Of course it’s not perfect, and this is an opportunity for us to take a look at it and see if there are areas where it needs to be reviewed.”
Well of course they handed out seven million in discretionary wage increases. We are talking about an organization with no incentive, zero, none to save money.
You got that right . Seems like they get to much tax payer money. Tuition Keeps going up and the spend much money on things not needed for an education. Look at the sports budget. If A kid get a job out of high school who pay for his sports no one but he has to pay for college kids to play sports . That does not in any way seem fair.
a millon a year in colas for maybe 4000 employees, nobody is getting rich here…
Sabbatical’s for years to write books at full pay is a little strange through…
I am not saying they are getting rich . but I am saying they are making more than private sector jobs. Tuition has been going up at a rate higher than inflation for a while now. Anyone who knows math knows that can not happen forever. Look at the housing bubble I saw that comming back in 2000. I just did not think it would be as bad as it is. If anything rises at a rate higher than inflation for long enough it will be bigger than the GDP of the world at some point in time. Cosgrove makes like $160k ,$240K with benefits . Funny how sports programs never seem to make back what they spend.
Maintance personel don’t make what they do in the private sector, they are there for the benies only.. And they are always the only ones cut…
Lets see Jack Cosgrove get a job in the private sector making as much as he dose. Not thinking to many major football teams want him for a coach . I could be wrong.
Cosgrove made back his salary by scheduling an FBS game a year. $400K just to play Pittsburgh, Syracuse, etc.
Don’t pick on the sports…it draws crowds, encourages team spirit/school spirit and keeps some, not all, from making bad decisions. I know the first thing you are going to jump on how many UMaine kids have been caught doing things that have to do with drugs or alcohol…so you can just cool that one…but there are a lot of good role models/examples up there of kids trying to do the right thing. Athletics tends to be a positive light…so leave them alone. Athletes work long and hard to perfect what they do, they have to budget their time appropriately to get their work completed and maintain a certain average to be able to participate.
Oh……and you forgot………OTHER PEOPLE’S money.
how much of this went to coaches?? how much to adjunct instructors?
In fairness to the two USM employees mentioned, BDN should correct its reporting. The two did not ” have [sic] their raises rolled back” as reported above, they volunteered. The wording used above implies the action was imposed on the two.
Respectfully, those employees had been collecting those salary increases since July 2011. They “volunteered” after the amounts were exposed in the media. So while technically no action was imposed upon them, there certainly was a significant public spotlight shining on them.
And just look where these raises went…definately not to the common worker on campus. certain dept’s in facilities have only seen a nickle raise in five years. My opinion, very sad.
$100,000 for a 4 year degree! I wonder why! Duh!!
I’m sure the comments and discussion around this sensational headline will be measured, consider the context of each raise, and ultimately productive.
Nick – we can expect some actual reporting around this, correct?
The article has been updated from the early Web version you saw.
Best,
Nick McCrea
Nick?
Ten years ago the BDN courtesan press treated all of us to a “Weapons of Mass Destruction” fantasy.
I believe that your critics here are trying to prevent you from paddling down the same road (sic).
Or they are simply squawking about it.
As they should.
There is a clear distinction between being a journalist, and a news writer.
What is the “Mission” of the University of Maine?
What is the Mission of the System Office?
There you have it. You can be a news writer, or a journalist/reporter.
It is your call.
The article has been updated from the early Web version you saw. Please take another look now that I’ve incorporated the other reporting I’ve done over the course of the day.
Best,Nick McCrea
that’s it. shut down the entire university system.
Yes and put a sign up closed for business!
So do you want “collective bargaining” or do you want “discretionary wage increases” based on merit?
I want you to go back to school and learn how to use quotes.
Funny – big oil , rich people, small business owners – all villians. Yet University costs and tuition go up yearly and no one says a word. The poor students borrow more and more and for what? Endowments are at a record high, but the “poor” have the University’s budget balanced on their back. Universities – try living within your means, like we do in the private sector.
Chantelle, you have all been played like a fiddle by them
wonderful faculty folk (think MEA/NEA on steroids). You come on here
railing against teachers, teacher workloads, teacher vacations, teacher
benefits, etc. then one article comes out and whammy you jump in bed
with their wicked stepsister. These faculty members operate just like
snarky middle school girls…backstabbing, gossip, and rhetoric are
their weapons. Ahh, the good old days when we beat up their type on the
playgrounds…now they command you all!
this has nothing to do with faculty. Administration got the raises. You must be an administrator because this is a typical confuse the issue admin trick. nice try
This is one poorly edited article, what we have come to expect from the “new” BDN. What are they thinking? You cannot comment on the amount of the increases over a period of time for a whole group of people without putting it into perspective, either for the number of people covered, the % change it represents or the system used. Sounds horrific to headline the article with the amount and it is irresponsible not to place some method of guaging it along with the article. Meaningless garbled mess.
With all the decreases in spending, budget cuts, position cuts, and overall rehauling to make ends meet for the City of Bangor and all its departments, if the employees were still receiving max raises across the board for the last 2 years and you found out about it….welll, I’m just saying…
Will James Page also be rolling back the huge pay increase the position of Chancellor received when he was hired?
If you read this and the spreadsheet you see a lot of promotions and reclassifications of positions. In addition, why in gods name are we naming someone who started out in the 20s and citing them because the got all the way into the 30s? They get less and less state funding, and the total raises come to about 3.6% a year. While I haven’t gotten a raise every year, I think this issue is way overblown! If you were promoted, wouldn’t you expect a raise?
You are right Steve, I believe I saw a couple that got a bump from like 13K to 18K…HOW DARE THEY!
You fail to mention that they are part time help.
The article has been updated from the early Web version you saw. Please take another look now that I’ve incorporated the other reporting I’ve done over the course of the day.
Best,Nick McCrea
Nick, your editor needs to plant a size 13 in your backside. And then the publisher needs to fire your editor.
There is no context whatsoever given to indicate exactly what the $7 million actually means. There in another link to a lengthy list of employees who got raises, and many were making only what a truck driver makes.
Yes, some deans and vice presidents make a good salary. Isn’t that terrible? We could try paying them $40K and see what would happen. I think most of us can figure it out.
The headline doesn’t inform – it just inflames.
When the ship is sinking neither the captain nor the stewards should be receiving raises, no matter how much they think they deserve !
We’re talking about $1 million per year for a boatload of employees. You don’t even know if some employees have been eliminated.
In other words, we don’t even know from this (shoddy) article whether or not the actual payroll has gone up or down, do we? I don’t operate a crystal ball………
But it sure is fun reacting anonymously, isn’t it, Mr. what’s_his_fish?
Maybe that was Nick’s only point.
One thing we know is enrollment has been flat for since 2006. The last 2 years it has gone down.
As usual, the Maine Maritime Academy was left out of this article for obvious reasons. Leonard Tyler’s 17%’ter to boost his retirement pension and the 11% raise to staff in 2008 goes completely unacknowledged. $9,000,000 in an annual state subsidy for a campus of which nearly 1/2 of the student body of 900 are from out of state is an outrage. Do the math. The MMA is not part of the UMS nor the commuity college system.. but you can find its stealth budget with some degree of work. It’s time to privatize the MMA.
Truck drivers… whom shoulder enormous responsibility, and when mistakes happen, people can die… like countless others, have had their pay and benefits significantly reduced in recent years, many by as much as 30%, due to current economic effects.
No one faults people receiving raises, but in the grand scheme of things, wouldn’t it seem rahter difficult to justify many of these salary increases? Don’t the children of truck drivers deserve the ability to obtain a college education as well? Pay raises like this (and the subsequent tuition hikes that undoubtedly follow) certainly make it less likely… which is sad.
It’s no wonder why many college graduates now entering the workforce have unsustainable debt payments… well, unless they’re fortunate enough to obtain a job at one of Maine’s universities of course?
They have to be looked at in context. The point is that just throwing the number $7 million out there with no context whatsover, can be more misleading than informational.
There is a market out there, and talent follows salaries. Just because truck driving pay or other occupational pay has been stagnant or even declined, does not necessarily mean that the $7 million represents exorbitant increases.
As an example, if the state budget had increased by a mere $7 million, that would be wonderful news, wouldn’t it?
I didn’t pick on truck drivers – I drive myself. And no raise since 2006, except on one run. And I am the oldest of six children, son of a …….truck driver. Just the second in my extended family to get a degree (I have 32 first cousins, only four of which are younger), back in ’81.
It seems as though there are a lot of raises as the result of promotions. This makes me question whether the positions vacated were accounted for in the $7 million figure. It doesn’t seem as though it should count as a “raise” if a person is promoted into a completely different position, especially since the pay rate would be similar (probably the same) if filled by an external candidate.
Many were the result of promotions. I’d love to be promoted from say, a clerical position, to a director responsible for a bunch of other folks, a budget, yada yada, and not get a raise……not.
The only way one gets a raise in the UMS is to be “reclassed” to a different position. I have staff who do it every 3 years or so, and I believe the university’s HR system is the most screwed up thing I ever seen. It encourages favoritism and abuse. It needs to be completely re-hauled.
Hey, BDN got you to click through with the Sensationalism headline. That is all they cared about. Clicks = $$$
Sad
The article has been updated from the early Web version you saw. Please take another look now that I’ve incorporated the other reporting I’ve done over the course of the day.
Best,
Nick McCrea
Thanks, Nick. I’ll take a look.
You should have waited, in my opinion. The posters took that $7 million figure with no context whatsoever and went anonymously viral, as is wont to happen.
The other link showed that many, maybe even a majority, of the raises went to people making very modest salaries. I saw a lot of salaries in the $30-35K range.
Well your opinion doesn’t matter and you’re not his editor. I wish the great citizens who live on the BDN website, waiting to comment 24/7, ran the country.
No, my opinion doesn’t count that much.
I offer it under my name, though. When you do the same, then I’ll listen to ya. Till then, later, dude.
Trolls will be trolls.
Nick,
Let us do some elementary school math. UMaine alone has about 5,000 employees. According to your article, UMaine (Orono) gave $2.75 Million in total raises over 7 years. That’s $2.75M/7years/5,000 employees. That’s an average of $79 raise per person per year. Maybe your article title should have been: “$79 raise per employee per year at UMaine!” Not worth the BDN headline this morning? Let us find a real issue to report on. There are plenty out there …
Education is a lot like health care, we will never know why costs need to increase 15 to 35 percent a year. Nothing but rhetoric from the schools and politicians that give them the money that they want. Disgusting.
I think the ones that would work for $40k Would have a real idea what it is like to struggle. Ya think the superintendent of Bangor schools Who Makes around $140k a year with a mom that was a principal and a dad that was a college professor really understands the plight of the lower class when Bangor high school Has one of the higher drop out rates in the state.
It sounds like you read through the article carefully, however; looks like you missed the line that stated “watch bangordailynews.com for updates.” Maybe next time you should take a chill pill.
See last response to bosox. When you can post under your own name, I’ll listen to you. Until then, forget it.
It is irresponsible to publish a news story that will just inflame passions without waiting until enough facts are available to truly inform.
Put that in your hash pipe while you chill.
As someone with all three credit scores over 800, a homeowner and working man I am appalled at how much debt students are allowed to take on in order to ”get rich”. These schools wave high salaries and fancy degrees around like a carrot on a stick in order to get 18 year olds to keep chasing the education dragon. All while salaries increase and graduates settle back in at their parents houses in defeat 100k in debt. Most of that tuition is going to huge sports programs which have zero educational value or purpose except for the few who might make it to the professional leagues
A college graduate is a dime a dozen, restaurants hire hundreds of these geniuses to waitress and cook every spring. Most make more bussing then they would in their chosen career.
The schools take on zero risk as little Johnny/Jane go to the Financial Aid Office of the school and take out student loan DEBT. In fact I’d argue, they encourage it and not add a disclaimer to the student or uneducated parent that they are about to become a debt slave.
Why a debt slave? In four to six years, for the average college graduate, what are the job prospects upon graduation? A graduate with a History or Psychology degree? Get real. Then as the debt slaves grow older and decides they want a home/family of their own, they find they are out of luck. They realize the noose they have around their neck from tens-of-thousands of debt they can’t discharge in Bankruptcy. The government can chase them forever.
The school? Well look at the headline. They don’t care, as the uneducated and ignorant continue the “supply & demand” dynamic of free money backed by the government. Raises for all!
Until Americans wake up that the “American Dream” and going to college (where everyone gets in now) may end up being a nightmare, and college is NOT for everyone in a completely saturated and competitive job market, this larceny will continue. Don’t mind the over $1 Trillion in student loan debt, a debt index The Federal Reserve has now taken out (Sallie Mae Series) for added transparency.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Id add though that they are being pushed into college from day 1, by parents who still think a college education represents being in the top tier of society and guaranteed upper class lifestyle, and by liberal teachers spreading the elitist attitude that if one does not go to college they are ignorant sandwich makers and toilet scrubbers. No I’m just a moronic redneck with a house full of guns and fixed income. But guess who is a homeowner and on the path to retirement.
I pushed my daughter to do well in school from the first grade and into 8 years of college. I busted my but for years to pay for it. She loves her job that pays her 3k a week. Don’t assume every kid ends up the way you call it.
Thats great, she sounds like someone who was goal oriented and focused on her schoolwork since day 1 with your help. And she should be extremely grateful that you payed for her education. Unfortunately most kids parents don’t have the foresight or resources you did and end up pushing a c average kid into a bachelors degree program and expecting them to pay for it when they graduate. I’ve got waitresses working at my families place making 2-400 a night and still working a second job to pay for student loans.
Quite frankly there are some really great kids out there who shouild not even be in High School. They’d be better off out working somewhere learning at the school of hard knocks. Every young person is different. I know some pretty successsful people that don’t read very well, but could build you the best house you ever stepped into. one should not take off for college without a very detailed flight plan.
They should teach basic finances in high school, like the implications of debt. 100 grand is a house in this state and it has monetary value if things don’t work out. I’m just against people with zero income and zero savings or parental support of payments taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt when they showed no signs of being academically inclined or interested before. It floods the job market with substandard degree holders and makes finding a job harder.
The amount in the article for the system office appears woefully understated when compared with the accompanying list. Hmmm. Wonder why the request went back so far. There has to be more in the background to put this in perspective.
Aren’t some of these positions at the campuses funded by external, ie grant, sources? Keep in mind many positions have been eliminated at the campuses. And according to the list salaries were reported for people who applied for a vacant position. Yes, the person’s salary increased, but they actually applied and were hired for a different position. Unfortunately, the need for services and support to students, the public, support to the academic and research missions, etc. have not declined. And in many cases, other responsibilities, priorities have been added.
Now that money and jobs are tight, it’s time for us to really look at the way that University system is funded. There are teachers out here who teach only one or two courses and spend the rest of their time reading, hanging out and serving on committees. Its time for that to end.
This has nothing to do with the administrator raises. Why don’t you address that and get off the bashing of the teachers for a while.
Bangorian! Stop That! You know how I hate when you are right!
The amount in the article for the system office appears woefully
understated when compared with the accompanying list. Hmmm. Wonder why
the request went back so far. There has to be more in the background
to put this in perspective.
Aren’t some of these positions at the campuses funded by external, ie
grant, sources? Keep in mind many positions have been eliminated at
the campuses. And according to the list salaries were reported for
people who applied for a vacant position. Yes, the person’s salary
increased, but they actually applied and were hired for a different
position. Unfortunately, the need for services and support to students,
the public, support to the academic and research missions, etc. have
not declined. And in many cases, other responsibilities, priorities
have been added.
Next time we hear they are raising tuition, now we see where the money actually goes.
A lot of this has to do with USM. Personally, I think a overhaul is necessary. Let Maine and Southern Maine remain part of the University system and consolidate the other schools with the community colleges and make a new Maine State College system.
So USM is the problem and you will reward them by closing top campuses like University of Maine-Farmington? As usual Dunbar you are a little “highschoolish” in your research.
No. Keep UMF (and other satellite schools) open but restructure them into a Maine State College System along with the Community Colleges. Farmington State College.
Unbelievable…..kids getting saddled with immense debt and their teachers taking a cash bath every night when they get home.
It’s interesting that not many University of Maine System grads have chimed in here. Perhaps they are too busy working at better than average jobs. Our university is a bargain if one picks out a field of study where jobs exist. A 4 year degree in mechanical engineering is a little more likely to produce a well paying position than one in art history or anthropology.
The reporting on this is inaccurate– as others have pointed out, many of the people listed in the accompanying data dump as receiving “pay increases” did NOT receive them through the “Salaried Employee Compensation and Classification Program”. Rather they received them by applying for NEW positions doing DIFFERENT work. Many of these position changes involved competitive application procedures.
I think it’s sad that the BDN is misreporting this and opening some of these individuals up to criticism when they did what you are supposed to do: get a job, do a good job and gain experience, use that experience to apply for and land a better job.
No, the reporting was actually not that bad. In any newspaper. This first broke in the Portland Press Herald and if it were just a matter of changes in positions, they would not have been termed “discretionary” raises and the new UMS chief would not have frozen all discretionary raises immediately. Sad to say, there has been some impropriety with some positions. Not all, but some.
I’m not sure which version of this article you saw– my comment was related to the initially published stub article that was full of omissions and truly inaccurate statements which could easily have misled an unwary reader. The newer, complete article is decidedly better. The data similarly are full of entries that can easily mislead about the scope of the problem, if not viewed critically.
I agree that there is some impropriety involved in some of the raises, but to paint everyone in the dataset with the same stain of impropriety is intellectually lazy at best.
I’m glad to see that the expanded version of this article includes the caveat that a portion of the increases were not “discretionary” but the result of position changes. I think it would have been better had they held off posting on the site until the full article with the needed context was available, rather than just an inaccurate stub article. I also would suggest that, rather than taking a data dump and posting it, it would have made sense to remove names from the list when they increases were from position changes, rather than from discretionary raises. This would have made the extent of the problem clearer, rather than inflating it with unrelated data points.
Nick– In the future I think it would make it much clearer if stub/placeholder articles were either not posted, or at the least posted with a large warning that the article is incomplete.
In the past couple of years the upper administration at UMO has publicly and repeatedly stated that there is no money and because of of this fact, academic programs been cut. We had several majors discontinued and some programs completely closed. It seems that the money saved from program closures has found its way into the pockets of administrators. Kennedy may be gone, but the rest of the culprits are still there in their top positions.
President Ferguson, you must fire all VP’s, Deans, and any other administrator that was part of this scam. Start with the Provost and then to the VP finance and continue on down to the Deans and Associate Deans.
I have no confidence in the upper administration of UMO and beg faculty senate to hold a vote of “no confidence.”
I also beg Gov. LePage to open an investigation into the university administration to find out why, at the time of significant cuts to programs, these raises were given.
N why don’t you provide your name and I’ll hop on over to “Ratemyprofessor” I’m sure you won’t be highly rated. But thanks for the whine…I’ll go have some cheese in your honor.
where is your name and I’ll hop right over to “rate my administrator” give you a nice rating that probably will go well with your 54% raise. Taken on the backs of students no doubt
sorry not a prof I’m a student that had a program cut. But they are holding a non-confidence vote down at usm and it should happen at umo
UMO doesn’t exist.
So the Name change If they do not exist they should not be taking tax dollars to pay a sports budget. (EMVTI, EMCC) whatever they call it we know what he is talking about.
Doesn’t matter. Maine has decided to use some of their money to invest in Division I athletics. They also decided to invest that money in music. They do this to let students use their talents in a University setting. It’s called rewarding success and UM does just that.
Ya they Might think it is the right thing to do because it they do not have to pay for it. Some of us that pay taxes or have to pay for school should have some say. I guess I am going to have to tell my congress man to stop giving them so much money. No one ever paid for any of my education except high school. I gave up On EMVTI or EMCC as they call it now when I found out about the stats for people passing state lic exam on the first try. Glad I did not give them any more money and chose self study. I probably would have never passed my state lic exam in my field. Paying all kinds of money for a piece of paper seems pointless when a lot do not learn much and you could learn more by studding on your own.
English, please?
Don’t be jealous that these kids have talent and you don’t.
Yes they have talent . Why do 70% fail the state lic exam in my field on the first try? I passed mine first try.
panic panic! shut down the university system! nobody can be trusted! looks like it’s time to outsource our education overseas, so much cheaper.
UMO doesn’t exist (and hasn’t since 1986).
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/04/02/news/portland/faculty-to-hold-no-confidence-vote-in-usm-president/
There is already a petition circulating to hold a Faculty no-confidence vote on Botman.
UMS salaries are public information. However, most of the people on this list are in entry or mid level jobs. I can’t imagine that they ever expected to have this information publicly posted. That level of attention and notoriety was not asked for and cannot be pleasant and is probably quite intimidating. That these people were either recently hired into new jobs or were promoted based on their work performance should say something about the quality of the work performed and their work ethic.
Most readers may not care that the salaries earned by UM employees is low when compared to colleagues at other similar institutions doing similar work. But, for an institution of this size, receiving student and public funds, should the standards be such that unqualified people be hired or jobs left undone? This appears for some, including the BDN, to be an opportunity for rock throwing.
One does not require a degree to do clerical work. Any paper pusher’s salary should be scrutinized. If it’s a specific skill set, pay em more, if not, well.
Woodward deserves a raise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interesting, Wanda Madden-Carr is the Provost’s secretary and she make more than 85% of the faculty. Someone in the government please launch an investigation.
N – so much for your “factual” commenting…..read job descriptions; look again at the chart; go to google; go to umaine.edu; look at the hours some individuals who work 40+ hours a week 52 weeks per year who are salaried employees – get your facts straight and THEN post.
I have read all your posts and you obviously have an ax to grind. This post in particular irks me. Either you have a personal vendetta against Wanda or you have no clue what is required of her. She puts in un-godly hours and handles multiple responsibilities including many that used to be jobs of separately paid employees and planning the entire commencement every year. IMO, I would want double what she is paid to do that job. At her current salary, the U is saving the need to pay 2 to 3 more employees plus benefits, health insurance, retirement, etc. If you knew the whole story, you would know a lot of the people on this list are in the same boat as far as taking on job responsibilities of former positions that were combined with their own. Giving someone a raise is cheaper for the U than hiring someone new, training them and paying them wages and benefits. As far as comparing her wages to faculty, its apples to oranges. Faculty typically works just 9 months a year compared to these 12 month positions.
Why is anyone surprised by this story?
The real story is the new cover page for the BDN. Too busy, gives me a headache.
How nice for the university system to give raises while students can’t afford college.
What percentage increase is that? Lets see more of the facts here.
edited to add: looking at the related story, a lot of these increases were due to promotions rather than merit raises. The key question is how do these salaries compare to private sector positions, particularly in the HR field.
Context? Accuracy? Many of the most significant bumps in pay here are individuals who became candidates and were selected for entirely different jobs. That is fundamentally different than the raises occurring under the Salaried Employee Compensation and Classification Program. These are individuals who went from being professors within a single department responsible for teaching their classes to handling economic and administrative affairs for an entire college or in the case of Provost Hunter, the entire university.
Does a managing editor make more than a journalist or freelance contributor? Does a CEO make more than a store manager? But the BDN simply dumps out a massive swath of data and provides no explanation or context for any of these figures. That’s not journalism–it’s simply spewing out data. And to inflame opinion about the university at a time when many mistakenly believe that academia is some land of milk and honey insulated from economic hard times, (when it is in fact anything but) is the height of journalistic irresponsibility.
The article has been updated from the early Web version you saw. Please take another look at the full version of the story, which includes all the reporting done over the course of the day and gives more context.
Best,
Nick McCrea
Nick – it would be really helpful if the part-time staffers were identified on the accompanying salary/raise list. Thanks.
You must be new here.
Robbing the public again….
Listen to them squeal!!!. I guess it does make a difference when it is a “protected class” from Emily Cain’s district instead of some poor clam-digger who made good and is now a respectable business owner making his own way and earning every cent of his income off his own hard work and novel ideas. (Those evil capitalists and business owners always find ways to cheat the system.) YEAH, RIGHT.
Every time a story comes up they cut the bottom tier..
academia meets the real world , these sorry people should be expelled
Look at me, look at me, I don’t have a HS education, but I have an opinion about higher education based on my being too lazy to try and get one for myself !
Wow educated 1% people like them are so mean! How can they hate the poor? That money would have feed all the poor in Maine!
I’d like to apply for the Assistant, Associate, Executive, Vice-Director of student Affairs.
There must be a better way to spend the money than paying a professor $70,000/year to teach “The Nature of Story Telling”.
So this article is useless. How about avg raise per year for the salaried people( who usually get screwed in private sector) and compare to the guaranteed raises the Union people in the system get.
Rising tuition is driven by increasing administrative costs across the country. It is one of the great ripoffs of our time, especially when graduates have amassed enormous amounts of debt for their college educations. That the debt was incurred to pay for administration gives voters the right to demand a 20%, or whatever number, cut in administration costs, and feel no guilt.
Educators in public education are making sacrifices and agreeing to pay freezes. The university system is eliminating positions that have a direct impact on student instruction and giving raises to a significant amount of people in administrative positions. This is an irresponsible way of spending tax dollars and cheating students of tuition costs that keep on increasing while the quality of education is decreasing. I’ve been in education for 28 years. I’ve never had a pay increase that comes close to what some of these folks are receiving. I’m not sure who is ultimately responsible for approving these pay hikes but someone needs to be held accountable for this blatant irresponsible behavior.
And I can only afford to take one class at a time.
In 2009, I recieved an 11 cent per hour raise. In 2010, I recieved another 11 cent per hour raise. For 40hrs, thats $4.40, 52 weeks, thats $228.80. For 2 years, thats a total of $557.60. The classified unionized employees in the UM system have reaped very little of the raises this article points out. I think thats a distinction that should be made. The new President of the Orono campus was brought in with an increase of pay close to 20% more than the previous President, close to $40,000 per year. Why? By my math thats equal to close to 2000 people like me. Why?
my husband works for the State, in a different capacity, and hasn’t had any type of a raise in nearly 5 years, but they have cut 2 positions in the shop he works in….
Imagine what you would have gotten without ACSUM bargaining on your behalf!
It should be noted that employees have not received an across the board cost of living raise in at least 3-4 years now. If anything, net pay is lower due to increases in benefit deductions over last few years.
Also there are no raises for merit or longevity. You can be in a position for many years and
and see new coworkers come in with no experience on the job, make as much as you. The only way to receive a real raise is to bid on higher level positions or your position has changed enough over the years that it warrants a desk audit. Otherwise your net pay and quality of living is quite stale and may even slowly slip the longer you stay. Good health insurance.
I don’t think……..nope….I can’t remember …a year since I went to college starting in 1981……that tuition ever was leveled, let alone decreased. And you want us to believe that you provide a better educational curriculum ……because you say so?
Want some governmental wasteful spending? here’s your target Governor. Either help the kids out.. or don’t…… We can’t absorb pay raises, tuition increases and funding formulas when you can’t balance a DHHS budget……
I think its pretty sad when you read comment after comment, story after story about the idea of trying to keep Maine kids IN maine….How are they supposed to pay the tuition that rises every year when they look at this article and see that the education isnt getting better…but the Professors and employess at the school sure seem to be smiling. I would love to see some actual UMaine students post on here and give us their views.
As in most organizations it isnt the people who work the hardest (instructors, maint. ect.) who get the big bucks.
If you take Orono’s number divide it by seven and then 200 emps, I beleive there are that many there, it is about 2,000 per person, about a buck an hour. Of course, the lower end was getting twenty five cents or less per year, so management has been getting too big of raises.
I just talked to a guy at the local parts store who hasn’t had a raise in 6 years. No one in his store has. They also instituted a new policy a couple of years back that limits everyone to 35 hours a week. I wonder where they got that strategy from, Arkansas?
Meanwhile tax payers are subsidizing the universities to make up for their losses due to lack of enrollment capacity. I say cut all their wages until they become self sufficient.
PUBLIC institutions of education are not designed like businesses. If the public demands they become self sufficient and make a profit, then Maine residents would have to be charged even higher tuition. They are called public institutions and public schools because public monies (taxes) were used to create them and support them, so Maine citizens could receive a college education at a cost they could afford. Unlike the rich who can afford to send their children to private colleges, the only option in Maine and many other states, has been to send our children to PUBLIC universities, created, by the Land Grant act of 1865. Since the 1980s, public support (meaning the proportion of the cost of running a university…salaries of faculty who have spent YEARS of education and training to become experts in their fields, infrastructure, maintenance, lab equipment, new technology) has been chipped away at year after year by reducing the amount of public money provided to our institutions of higher education AND our public schools. This is the reason college tuition in the public sector of higher education has become almost out of reach by middle and low income families.
When the entire country is in trouble, States are crying poverty and people are struggling to keep their homes and feed their families there is no excuse for them to pass out seven million in raises! This is a Government practice or tradition if you will and anyone who disputes this is someone who got a raise and is feeling guilt!!
It’s truly a shame that our state university system is as broken as it is. I can tell you from personal experience that cronyism is alive and well. Promotions are based upon friendship and mutual back-scratching, programs come and go according to the whim of any particular individual in charge, and students are continually left in the dust as in many cases they are forced to extend their educations (and payment schedules) because required classes aren’t offered regularly enough to complete a degree in four years. Other states have systems of which they are proud. Not here. I’m sending my kids out of state where they can receive a meaningful education.
Since they don’t work year round as most people do, this is horrible! No wonder people can’t afford college, or have to pay for it for the rest of their lives. Ridiculous! Get a reality check, professors and deans, you aren’t worth all the money you are getting paid!
Please try to be informed. Classes are in demand and are offered throughout the summer. Research, public service (think Cooperative Extension) activities are not limited to the academic year. UM campuses host and admit prospective students throughout the year. Conferences, meetings, youth summer camps, and other events are scheduled on the campus regardless of the class schedule. The majority of UMS staff work 12 months a year–although some have had their work years shortened because of budget cuts–but that doesn’t mean the work load has diminished.
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Ms. Bigney is hardly the person to be representing UMS in this discussion as she received an 18% increase for what looks to be not much more than having to staple a few more pages together
Half of these so called “raises” are job changes. If I am working to pay off debt as a janitor and I apply for and receive a position as a researcher, I did not receive a raise, I changed jobs and entered a higher paying profession. While there is some questionable spending at the University (which certainly needs to be addressed), this article seems like a hit job on an institution that does an enormous amount of good for the state of Maine.
Simple Math that YOU CAN DO! $7,000,000 / 325 fewer persons = $21,500 a year per person no longer working. Lets assume every one of those people was an Administrative Aid, level 1 at UMaine, who make about $26,500 a year. That’s crappy wages, but we’ll work with it. That works out to a savings for the UMaine System of $5,000 a year per person no longer working. The system is now $1,625,000 LEANER than it was 2005 (because 5,000 x 325 = 1625000).
What if THAT was the headline? “UMS trims $1.6 million from payroll since 2005 and still pays competitive wages?”
A first year professor at UMF gets around $80,000.
Sure! Your numbers then. $80,000- $21,500 = $58,500 saved per no longer employed person. New Headline! “UMS cuts 19 Million from payroll, still pays decent.”
This article reads as if were written by the Maine Heritage Policy Center’s webrag “themainewire.com’
What a silly, misleading article. You’ve taken seven years of promotions for people who are moving from one classification to a higher one or are taking on more responsibilty within a job classification and have given a lot of folks the impression that hundreds of people are getting great raises for doing the same thing they used to do. Lets say you have a job ladder which people can move up. You haven’t subtracted the salary of the person who vacated the top rung or looked to see if there is much of a net difference as someone goes out at a high salary, someone comes in at a low salary and the rest move up. Likewise you haven’t seen if the increases for people staying in a category resulted from distributing the extra work of a person who wasn’t replaced, and there has been a lot of that. Really irresponsible.
Please post the faculty salaries while you are at it.
Next in line all Maine State employees…
Let us do some simple math. The Orono campus has about 2,100 employees. The article states that the University of Maine in Orono gave “$2.74 million in raises over the past seven years”. If this were true, the average raise per employee per year would be $2.74Million/2,100 employees/7 years = $186. Is a $186 average annual employee pay raise outrageous? Is it worth the headlines? Time to focus on some real issues, our state has plenty of them.