There are many sensible places for the university to cut costs.

Buildings. Bureaucracy. Musical performers.

But what’s fundamentally foolish is targeting those most essential to the university: faculty.

The Faculty Association’s contract negotiations, and recent protest, call attention to the university’s failure to adequately compensate faculty, on whom students depend for their education.

Though the particular bargaining terms are private, general concerns for the new contract, a three-year agreement due to be renewed this year, include improved health benefits and a substantial pay increase.

Supporters, now at loggerheads with administrators, attest that the terms of the new contract reaffirm the university’s commitment to education.

Base salary increases, according to the 2005-08 contract, were 3.5 percent for 2007-08, even though the Consumer Price Index indicated a 5.6 percent increase in consumer good prices from June 2007 to June 2008.

Moreover, faculty are bemoaning their relative salaries: CMU ranks 11th of 13 Mid-American Conference schools in assistant professor salary, according to 2007-08 figures from the American Association of University Presidents – a fact especially deterring to young faculty.

Of course, Michigan is in a recession. State allocations this year, a one-percent increase for all Michigan public universities, are slim, and the university raised tuition for freshmen this fall by 6.6 percent – after terminating the CMU Promise, a five-year set tuition guarantee. Money is tight.

However, it is imperative the university provides ample accommodations for its faculty, many of whom are tempted by other universities’ more lucrative offers. Inadequately compensating faculty badly hinders the university’s mission: A quality education depends on quality educators, who now are getting the short end of the stick.

The university should do all it can to meet the Faculty Association’s demands. This may mean cutting back significantly on construction; it may mean providing more money for academic units and less for others.

Numerous campus construction projects, such as the nearly $11-million Bovee University Center renovation and $475,000 in improvements at Bush Theatre, are frivolous. Neither building’s current state is anywhere near dire. A facelift would be nice, but now is not the time.

To the contrary, the current faculty contract, which provides a pittance relative to many other universities, provides a serious disincentive for remaining a CMU professor. This needs to be addressed. Students care more about top-notch professors than about having the UC as a hip hangout.

For an institution that claims a quality education is its top priority, the current situation screams hypocrisy.

Fancy buildings look swell on recruitment brochures, but so long as faculty remain underpaid, they serve only as a fa

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