Wouldn’t it be great to give yourself a pay raise? With the new enrollment incentives in the 2015-2020 contract, you have that opportunity.
The current contract has across-the-board salary increases that match last year’s inflation rate (1.6%) and the International Monetary Fund’s projected inflation for the subsequent four years (2% annually). We also included a plan for additional salary that could lead to positive effects for the entire university community. Specifically, section 9.1.2.5 of the contract provides for an enrollment incentive of 0.5% of base salary as an annual cash bonus for the first 3% of enrollment increases, and 0.5% of salary added to base salaries for each additional 1% in enrollment. If we can get enrollment up 3%, that translates to an average of over $1000 per faculty member in our pockets each year that this is maintained. Another 3% increase would put the same amount into our base salaries. Total enrollment for fall semester is projected to be 8676 students. So it only takes 87 more students for each 1% increase in enrollment. An additional 522 students (back to where we were just three years ago), and we could average $2000/year more in our paychecks, half of which would be retained permanently as base salary.
Some colleagues have suggested to me that faculty don’t really have much influence on enrollment. I could not disagree more. In the eyes of our students, faculty are what the university is all about. Most students do not even know what administrative positions exist, let alone who fills them or what they do. In contrast, faculty have the greatest impact on why students come here or go somewhere else, why they stay to graduate or drop out, why they succeed academically or do not grow. To suggest that faculty cannot have a huge impact on enrollment minimizes our central role in the mission of the university. And it is important that we are involved in enrollment issues. Whether we like it or not, enrollment drives the budget, and the budget provides what we want and need to do our jobs and develop our careers. Enrollment is not someone else’s job; we are all in this together. So what can we do, and how can we do it?
Part of section 9.1.2.5 suggests that each department form an enrollment committee. The membership and role of these committees is up to the faculty, so you can be as active or passive as you want. But it is in each of our best interests to decide how, for each of our disciplines, we can make NMU the place that students want to be. The Office of Enrollment Management and the Provost’s Office will work with faculty to develop and implement plans. They have promised to make funds available to cover costs of projects that will enhance enrollment. Here are some sample ideas that I have heard from faculty.
– Be the best teachers that we possibly can be. This helps with retention and creates word of mouth that will attract students.
– Streamline curricula. Arbitrary and unnecessary degree requirements inflate majors and reduce flexibility. The absence of real university-wide elective credits in a degree program makes it difficult for students to change majors or transfer to NMU without throwing away lots of credits.
– Participate in the campus visit program. Meeting with a professor in the intended major is usually the highlight of a prospective student’s experience. This is our opportunity to sell our departments and NMU.
– Work with admissions to obtain contact information for students who have expressed interest in your programs.
Send each a personalized email from a faculty member explaining the strengths of your programs. Invite them for a campus visit. Personal attention is extremely powerful in making students want to come to NMU. That attention from faculty is far more meaningful than interactions with a recruiter.
– Make arrangements to visit high school groups that might be interested in your programs. Explain your scholarship/research, career opportunities and the strengths of your program. In the arts, a performance or master class may get students very excited about NMU.
– Visit the high school where you graduated. Work with admissions to offer your time for a commencement address, class visit, etc.
– Always be welcoming and congenial. Think about your own experiences and what makes you want to go to one place or another. Often, personal and friendly interaction is the most important factor.
These are just a few ideas. What works will probably vary significantly between departments, disciplines and personalities. It is in all of our best interests to do what we can to make NMU the place where students want to be. We are not Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams; we cannot assume that because we exist, students will appear. We are in a competitive enterprise and we need to offer things that others do not in order to be the university that we want to be. Plus, it’s money in our pockets.
Brent Graves
Professor of Biology
AAUP Grievance Officer
2015 AAUP Chief Contract Negotiator