Northwestern Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Amanda Distel reported that the University is in “good shape” during the first Faculty Senate meeting of the year Wednesday evening. The meeting presented budget updates to NU while also touting a successful undergraduate admissions cycle, Distel said.
NU reported for fiscal year 2024 an annual operating budget of $3.3 billion, a total endowment of $14.3 billion and liabilities of $3.6 billion –– with $2.4 billion bound for the University’s long-term debt portfolio.
Distel addressed concerns among Faculty Senate members about inadequate salary compensation amid staggering costs of living and high inflation rates, explaining that the University does not want to run a budget deficit in light of financial pressures.
“The financial pressures I don’t think are really all that unique to Northwestern. I think these are pressures that a lot of our peer (institutions) are facing as well,” Distel said.
Distel also said the University makes a significant commitment to undergraduate students through financial aid, but that NU’s overall affordability must be monitored and balanced.
With the current budget model remaining unchanged for at least 20 years, according to Distel, Faculty Senate members were also introduced to a budget reform project — a multi-year initiative seeking to reexamine the overall budget and resource allocation process.
“We really want to increase transparency and understanding in the process. We want to incentivize entrepreneurial activity. Our model doesn’t do that in all areas of the University right now, and that’s important to Northwestern culture,” Distel said.
The meeting then touched upon issues in salary compensation in a Q&A with Faculty Senate members. Several members expressed concern and frustration over the faculty merit pool, apportionments of the operating budget that each school’s deans can dole out at their own discretion.
Feinberg Prof. Sara Solla expressed her consternation at a lack of blanket pay increases to offset inflation and cost of living expenditures.
“I fail to understand why the University is not able to pay an increase that would be 36 million (dollars) for this year when that’s less than a tenth of the 400 million (dollars) that the University found in order to build a new stadium for football games,” Solla said.
Other Faculty Senate members questioned why the University could not provide a blanket 2% increase in salary, or create a pool that awards salary compensation based on cost-of-living pressures rather than merit.
“(You can) close the door on salary increases, you give (the 2% to) the deans, (and) they can give many increases to their favorite creatures,” Solla said.
Feinberg Prof. Ana Maria Acosta claimed that non-appropriated schools –– schools that are independently responsible for generating their own revenue and do not receive allocations from the central budget office –– are especially culpable for not providing salary increases. Feinberg is among the five non-appropriated schools, according to the presentation.
A 3% expenditure increase in Feinberg is financed by Feinberg whereas a 3% increase in Weinberg is financed by the central budget office, Acosta said.
“So to Sara (Solla’s) point, it really is the dean of Feinberg who decided not to give the 2%,” Acosta said.
Distel said that these struggles illustrate the importance of discussing cost pressures that impact the community while sustaining the university budget.
The Faculty Senate members, meanwhile, expect to review an upcoming salary report from the Salary and Benefits Committee.
According to the presentation, deans will also receive questionnaires soliciting input on the procedure and criteria behind granting individual merit raises.
The next Faculty Senate meeting is slated for Feb. 12 at 5:00 p.m. in Scott Hall.
Email: philiplam2028@u.northwestern.edu
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Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that deans receive guidance from the Office of the Provost when allocating the merit pool and that the Salary and Benefits Committee report will include a concise summary of how the faculty merit pool works. Deans do not receive any guidance in allocating the merit pool and querying deans about how they handle merit raises by the Salary and Benefits Committee is a separate endeavor from the salary report. The Daily regrets this error.