The University of Nebraska Board of Regents has identified funding to improve salaries as its top priority this legislative session. Average budget increases from the state of 3.3 percent over the past eight years have made it difficult for the University to keep and pay top-notch faculty. The salary disparity with our peers increases the likelihood that NU's best faculty will be recruited away, a significant threat to the quality of Nebraska's only public university. Already the University of Nebraska has lost outstanding teachers and researchers to colleges and universities that offer higher salaries and better support services for faculty.
Faculty are the foundation upon which any great university is built.
They embody the mission of higher education through teaching students, conducting research, and serving the public. And competition for good faculty members in today's higher education environment is fierce. We also find, not infrequently, that candidates for NU's open positions already earn more than we are able to offer. We are, in short, operating at a considerable disadvantage in this intense national competition. In the competitive national market for faculty, University of Nebraska salaries on average rank lower than those of faculty at universities similar in mission and scope to the four campuses of our university.