Faculty Cashes in on Hard Work: WC full-time faculty and staff receive welcome base salary increase

By Megan McCurdy
Elm staff writer

As of this past June, for the first time in several years, faculty and staff of Washington College received an across-the-board pay increase.
The decision came from the Board of Advisors per a suggestion from College President Mitchell Reiss. The College discovered it had some more revenue than expected, and Reiss thought it a “fair and good idea” to reward the faculty and staff for their hard work.

“In the past there have been some one-time bonuses,” said Reiss, “But there have not been pay increases or adjustments for inflation in the past few years.”

“It’s been a while,” said Professor Pamela Pears of the modern languages department. “Pay increases were pretty consistent for the first couple of years I worked here. But there have not been any adjustments for the past two years. But we love [our students] and kept working anyway,” she said.

The two-part pay adjustments, which took effect in June, first looked at each faculty member’s salary in comparison to the usual pay for their positions at similar institutions. In some cases, the College increased faculty or staff pay to bring those who were being paid outside of the band inside the average pay range. Additionally, all full-time faculty and staff were given a salary increase of 1.3 percent of their previous pay.

Pears said, “President Reiss had told [the faculty] that if extra money came in and enrollment targets were reached, he was committed to raising salaries. With the economy the way it is, we weren’t counting on it, but I was not surprised.”

Over the past few years the College has “increased its student enrollment and seen greater retention,” bringing in extra revenue for the College and prompting Reiss’s suggestion to up the pay of all full-time employees.

Reiss affirmed that the College plans to maintain the new salaries and said that he thinks it is important to reward the College’s faculty and staff. The College is looking at ways to both cut spending and increase revenue in order to continue with the new pay levels as well as improve the College’s finances overall.

In terms of what the pay increase means for the College and in bringing in new and visiting professors, Pears said, “I think it was a good move, a move in the right direction. We’re on the Eastern Shore, we have to be competitive. We want to bring in the best people, and salary makes a difference.”

The pay increases do not affect adjunct professors, as they are “on a different pay system,” said Reiss. Professor Mariah Goodall of the biology department is one of the adjunct faculty members unaffected by the pay increases.

Goodall, who has taught at WC for two years, said, “The salary increases are great for those faculty members and staff who received them. I am excited for them, but at the same time very discouraged and disappointed that this also did not extend to the adjuncts.”

This semester is Goodall’s first teaching a full course load, but she is still considered part-time despite holding a Ph.D. and having valuable research experience.

“I absolutely love Washington College, the faculty, the staff, the students, and teaching, this is why I continue to stay,” she said. “But I also feel that being labeled as an adjunct [and thus not eligible for the same pay rate as other professors] is not fair to all of the hard work I have gone through.”