Office of the President
Monday Morning Memo
September 29, 2008
Good morning! Even when the news about our Aggie teams does not report the outcomes we wanted to announce today, we must recognize that our teams played valiantly against our competitors and that we are proud of our student athletes. At times like these we remind ourselves that, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." On the other hand, let's celebrate the fact that the Saturday games provided us with a wonderful opportunity to share with friends and family, culminating a week of great events. Please enjoy the photos from some of the functions that kept us busy. I want to thank everyone across campus for their hard work on so many fronts.
Last Saturday we held a joint meeting between the Boards of Regents from NMSU and UNM. The joint meeting, which has taken place for three consecutive years now, provided both institutions with a forum to explore opportunities for collaboration. Among many important topics of discussion, the regents discussed the upcoming legislative session, including requests related to faculty and staff compensation. NMSU was asked to present the preliminary results from our salary equity study, the first one to be conducted in the state.
We are fortunate to live in New Mexico, a state which consistently shows great generosity toward its public institutions of higher education. In the case of NMSU, 38 percent of our total expense budget for all NMSU campuses is derived from state support. This is a tribute to the constituents, legislators, and executive public servants of the Land of Enchantment, who value higher education. However, even with this support, our salaries have been falling behind for a number of decades now.
In an effort to ameliorate this situation, NMSU is in the process of conducting a salary study with the assistance of the Mercer firm. The goal of the study is to identify those salaries that are significantly out of range with identified external market targets, and to allow NMSU to develop a multi-year budgetary plan to address salary needs.
We believe that everyone gains as we work to improve the salaries of our faculty and staff. Importantly, our students will benefit from even more top-notch faculty with competitive compensation and from dedicated staff who are committed to excellence in the institution.
We are excited that NMSU is able to lead the state by conducting a study of this nature. While our current funding is inadequate to address all salary needs at this time, this is a good starting point. Our initial goal is to provide a preliminary equity adjustment to as many positions as possible, effective January 2009. Moreover, we plan to use this information to guide future resource allocation decisions, to seek additional funding to support future equity adjustments, and to make sure that we never find ourselves in this situation again. If anyone has questions or concerns about the compensation study, please address them to comp@nmsu.edu.
Have a great week,
Waded Cruzado
