UF Wins Recertification By Large Margin

Oct. 22, 2024

(CEDAR FALLS, Iowa) The votes are in, and UNI faculty members (again) overwhelmingly supported United Faculty’s recertification: 98.3% who voted supported UF!

This year continues the extraordinarily high levels of support United Faculty receives from UNI faculty. In Fall 2018, 97% of voting faculty supported UF with a YES vote. In Fall 2020, 97.5% of those voting supported UF, and again, in Fall 2022, 97% of faculty voting supported United Faculty.

Thank you for your votes! We appreciate your support, and look forward to continue representing UNI faculty!


UNI’s Faculty Significantly Trailing Peer Universities in Salaries

Faculty seek to improve compensation in 2025-2027 contract

Sept. 3, 2024

(CEDAR FALLS, Iowa) – United Faculty, UNI’s faculty labor union, announced that after years of meager or no salary increases from the Board of Regents, it significantly lags behind its peer universities and has not even kept pace with inflation of the past decade.

“We are asking the Iowa Board of Regents to provide the necessary funding for UNI faculty salaries to remain competitive with our peers, so we can recruit and retain the best faculty and keep up with inflation. It’s an investment in academic excellence at Iowa’s only regional comprehensive university,” said Dr. Christopher Martin, president of United Faculty and a professor of digital media and journalism.

UNI maintains a list of 10 peer institutions, including Central Connecticut State University, Western Washington University, and Indiana State University, which are selected by the university for comparison to evaluate its performance.[1]

Table 1: UNI Faculty salaries compared to peer institutions

As Table 1 illustrates, UNI trails behind its peer institution salaries in every rank (instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and professor) and all ranks combined, according to data from the AAUP (American Association of University Professors). UNI faculty salaries at all ranks combined are only 87.3% of their peer institutions’ average.

“As recently as 2016, UNI faculty salaries kept up with our peer institutions,” said Fernando Calderon, UNI history associate professor and vice president of United Faculty. “Now we have fallen behind, and it is inflicting damage on UNI faculty and the institution overall.”

UNI also trails significantly when comparing UNI faculty salaries to its peers at all 165 public Division IIA (master’s-level) universities in the U.S. (see Table 2). Across all ranks, UNI faculty earn only 89.2% of their national peers. Only at the level of instructor is UNI’s pay just narrowly above the national average for public Division IIA (master’s-level) universities in the U.S. UNI faculty salaries at every other rank trail the national average by about 10 percent or more.

Table 2: UNI Faculty salaries compared to all public Div. IIA universities

Meanwhile (see Table 3), annual salaries for the top three administrative positions at UNI (president, chief academic officer/provost, and chief financial officer) all outpace their peers at the 165 public Division IIA (master’s-level) universities in the U.S. from 6% to 21% more. (This does not include deferred salaries; UNI president Mark Nook has received deferred compensation since 2018, and will receive $100,000 annually in deferred compensation in the upcoming two years.)

Table 3: UNI top administrator salaries compared to all public Div. IIA universities

In 2023, the legislature approved a $500,000 budget increase for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’s office, and she subsequently gave many of her workers big salary boosts, arguing the salary increases were an “important investment” and noting that “offering salaries commensurate with experience and job responsibilities is critical to ensuring optimal performance and continuity of state government.”

“We hear Gov. Reynolds, and believe the same approach applies to faculty at the University of Northern Iowa, who have spent years obtaining advanced degrees and are expert teachers and researchers in their fields,” UF’s Martin said. “Adequate compensation for UNI faculty – making their salaries competitive with peer institutions – is critical to ensuring optimal performance and continuity for the 10,000 students at UNI.”

UNI faculty salaries have not only fallen behind their peers, but also have not even kept pace with inflation. Over the past 10 years, UNI faculty salaries have fallen dramatically behind the cost of living, as Table 4 illustrates, using a sample salary of $50,000 as the base.

Table 4: UNI Faculty Cost-of-Living Shortfall, 2014-2024

UNI’s compounded shortfall from 2014 to 2024 is 9.89% — the rate at which UNI faculty salaries have not kept up with inflation (reflected in historic CPI-U Consumer Price Index for the Midwest Region, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). In other words, to merely align with inflationary trends over the past decade, faculty would need a 9.89% salary increase.

United Faculty will meet with representatives of the Board of Regents, State of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa in January to present its initial bargaining proposal for the 2025-2027 collective bargaining agreement.

After UNI makes it opening proposal, the Board of Regents and UNI make their counterproposal. Then, the parties bargain for a new two-year contract that will become effective on July 1, 2025.

The labor union, which represents about 500 faculty members on UNI’s campus, calls for substantial salary increases for UNI faculty as salaries have not kept pace with inflation, and as UNI faculty compensation has lost ground with its peer institutions.

United Faculty, established in 1976, is the chief negotiating agent for the University of Northern Iowa’s faculty, and is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

###

[1] Salary data is for 2023-2024. UNI’s peer universities are Central Connecticut State University, College of Charleston, Eastern Illinois University, Indiana State University, Minnesota State University, The College of New Jersey, University of Minnesota-Duluth, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, and Western Washington University. AAUP data for Eastern Illinois University and Minnesota State University is not available. Calculations used “lecturer” instead of “instructor” category for TCNJ and UW-Whitewater, because instructor category data is not used for those two institutions. Source: https://www.aaup.org/report/annual-report-economic-status-profession-2023-24.

WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN UF AND SUPPORT OUR WORK

  • Together we are stronger. Your solidarity helps us achieve more for ALL faculty.
  • UF enjoys broad support among faculty. In our Fall 2018 recertification vote, 547 faculty voted yes to support UF and only 17 voted no. In the following recertification vote in Fall 2020, 97.5% of those voting supported UF with a YES vote! And again, in Fall 2022, 97% of faculty voting supported United Faculty.
  • UF collaborates effectively with other faculty leaders and administration to solve problems, create fair policies, and to protect your rights and fair working conditions
  • As UNI confronts budget challenges, as a new faculty evaluation system is rolled out, and as our general education curriculum is revised, the potential for serious threats to faculty abounds. We need a strong union to stand up for faculty, and we need you with us.
  • More than 80% of our dues go to our membership in American Association of University Professors (AAUP) or our legal counsel. Both of these have been powerful assets and critical allies.

RECENT UF WINS:

  • UF helped to create new academic titles for term, renewable term, and adjunct faculty. In 2023, United Faculty moved the process forward by conducting a survey regarding new academic titles at UNI. More than 300 faculty responded to our survey, and about 75% of faculty respondents were in support of the professor of instruction, professor of practice, and clinical professor titles. Our efforts helped to move forward the adoption of the new academic titles.
  • UF did the comparative research on the state of UNI faculty salaries. As recently as 2016, UNI faculty salaries kept up with our peer institutions, but in less than a decade, we have fallen behind. Our 2024 research found that UNI faculty salaries at all ranks combined are only 87.3% of UNI’s peer institutions’ average.
  • UF leaders’ work in collaboration with other faculty and administrators on the Faculty Handbook Committee has resulted in:
    1. A new handbook chapter that preserves due process rights for faculty who are disciplined or terminated. Pressure from a case letter from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) that UF solicited was instrumental in instigating and approving this policy.
    2. A new promotional ladder for temporary, term, and renewable term faculty that went into effect in 2023. (If you are a temporary, term, or renewable term faculty member and would like our advice or assistance on promotion, please contact us.)
    3. New handbook language for more flexible office hours (such as online hours) as a new post-COVID norm.
    4. New timetable language so that annual PAC evaluations of renewable term faculty are not required after six years.
  • UF collaborated with the University Benefits Committee to reduce costs to the plan, resulting in only small increases to health care premiums for two years.
  • Preserved faculty ownership of online curriculum and secured paid summer training for online pedagogy and curriculum development.
  • UF communicated faculty displeasure with the lengthy paperwork for filling out the annual Faculty Activity Report, and worked with the Provost’s office to substantially reduce annual reporting requirements.
  • Each year, UF assists and advocates for 75-100 faculty-related issues ranging from major discipline, discrimination, termination, denial of tenure, evaluation issues, insurance issues, teaching assignments, office assignments, OCEM investigations, travel questions, search issues, and many other smaller issues.

 We never stop working to ensure that UNI supports faculty development, rewards faculty excellence, and safeguards faculty academic freedom. Not a member? Contact President Chris Martin for details on how to join at martinc@uni.edu.

NOW FOCUSING ON:

  • Early tenure and promotion
  • Over-enrolled class compensation
  • Expansion of benefits
  • Academic funding

United Faculty logo