Link faculty pay, performance to improve University

• Published in: The Arizona daily star
• Main Author: Eugene H. Levy, UA Professor
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tucson, Ariz The Arizona Daily Star 16.02.1994
• ISSN: 0888-546X

Once again, the state Legislature is engaged in one of the most mystifying spectacles of the budget process. After too many years with little or no pay increase, lawmakers are contemplating a pay raise for state university employees. Again there is controversy and debate about whether to award uniform, across-the-board pay raises to university faculty, or whether to allow raises to be given on the basis of performance in teaching and scholarship. The question of how to award pay raises cannot be divorced from an understanding of the conditions under which university faculty work. After getting a Ph.D. and spending several years in a junior-level position, a typical professor's career lasts 30 to 40 years. Normally, the first six years are spent in a probationary term, usually as an assistant professor. After that, successful professors advance to tenure - a form of life-long job security, in which one's job is protected against almost anything but serious misdeeds or egregious non-performance.