Given the choice between giving up a pay hike or saying goodbye to a colleague, an overwhelming majority of Texas A&M professors and teachers participating in a faculty survey picked foregoing the extra money.
About 47 percent of faculty members, or 1,274, responded to a survey that Executive Committee members of the Faculty Senate created to gauge the opinions of faculty members when it comes to reallocating money for merit purposes.
University administrators are proposing to reallocate $21 million over a two-year period starting in September 2011 to build a merit raise pool. That doesn't include the proposed $39 million in state reductions President R. Bowen Loftin has recommended after hearing from college deans and unit leaders about where the possible reductions could be made. State leaders have asked public universities to prepare for 10 percent cuts, saying that's the worst-case scenario.
The three-page survey, released Monday, had five questions, including one asking which college the faculty member belonged to. The largest responses came from Liberal Arts and Science, with 200 each. Agriculture had 195 responses, the College of Engineering reported 177 and business had 123.
Eighty-one percent of the survey's respondents, or 986 faculty members, disagreed with the administration's proposal to make more budget cuts beyond those required by the state. That means the vast majority are against A&M administration trying to reallocate the funds to support strategic initiatives that have yet to be outlined by A&M leaders.
Just over 1,000 faculty who responded favored giving raises up for one year to retain instructors and staff up for termination, according to the results.
"What I got from the results is that faculty members are very concerned that some of their colleagues are going to lose their jobs," said Faculty Senate Speaker Bob Strawser. "That's why they're willing to forego their raises."
Loftin has said merit raises are needed to retain high quality faculty.
But Bob Bednarz, former speaker of the Faculty Senate, said the idea that faculty would leave solely based on financial reasons isn't reflected in survey results.
"The faculty went without a raise last year, and I think to some extent people have a perception of the faculty as this elite, pampered group," he said. "But most of them really are committed to doing the best job the can and having Texas A&M prosper."
The fact that almost 65 percent, or 788, of participating faculty indicated they'd be willing to do without merit raises for two years emphasizes how far professors will go to ensure positions are kept, Bednarz said.
Almost 925 faculty members said they'd support giving the merit raise money available to the lowest-paid employees to offset the $60 to $70 monthly increase in health premiums, according to the survey.
A&M faculty weighs in
* 82 percent of 1,274 that responded would rather forego a merit raise for a year than allow their peers and staff members to be let go under proposed budget cuts.
* 64 percent said they'd be willing to do so for two years.
* 80 percent said they don't support the administration's proposal to make additional budget reductions beyond those required by the state to create funds for reallocation to support strategic initiatives.
* 75 percent said they'd support making merit raises available to the lowest-paid employees to offset the $60-70 monthly increase in health insurance premiums.
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